Robert Heinlein is not only one of the most influential science fiction writers of the twentieth century, he is also one of the most controversial science fiction writers of this century. Heinlein...Show moreRobert Heinlein is not only one of the most influential science fiction writers of the twentieth century, he is also one of the most controversial science fiction writers of this century. Heinlein implemented his political convictions into his work, evolving through his career from a socialist viewpoint to a libertarian – arguably even anarchistic – viewpoint. This thesis tracks this development through a critical analysis of three novels from the early, middle, and late stages of his career. In Beyond this Horizon, which is a reaction to the Great Depression in the United States, Heinlein describes a utopian society based on a socialist economy in which all problems of the twentieth century are solved. In Starship Troopers, which is Heinlein’s response to President Eisenhower’s decision regarding the end of nuclear testing, he explores the ideology of a society which promotes individual freedom, arguing that freedom and responsibility ultimately leads to patriotism. The third novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, is Heinlein’s libertarian retelling of the American revolution and is the culmination of his political development from socialist to libertarian ideology.Show less
Corruption is inherently present in Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. The representation of corruption, both in Follett’s work and in the Medieval English church, however, has not yet been...Show moreCorruption is inherently present in Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. The representation of corruption, both in Follett’s work and in the Medieval English church, however, has not yet been studied to its fullest extent. This thesis aims to explore whether Follett has successfully depicted the Medieval church of the twelfth century by further delving in to the several depictions of corruption that are featured in the novel, and to examine whether these can also be attributed to the Medieval church Follett is aiming to describe. Financial corruption is attested in the world of Follett by the uncertainty as to where the money to build the Kingsbridge comes from. In contrast, it is seen in the Catholic church in the appearance of indulgences. The question whether indulgences can be linked to corruption will be answered by looking at the way Follett has decided to include any form of these contracts. Indulgences were, in fact, an inventive means to have a cathedral built. The erection of the New Saint Peter’s Basilica was supported by financial support of indulgences. Historians, predominantly Protestant, in the nineteenth century have castigated the practice of indulgences. 3 This thesis also aims to present an impression as to in what extent our ideas of corruption in Medieval England has been shaped by these ideas. By including corruption of power and the corruption of faith and looking at it in both Follett’s work and the Medieval English church, this thesis will present a satisfactory answer to the question whether the picture Follett presents is a valid example of a Medieval view of the church.Show less
Video games form one of the latest media in which stories are told. However, video games are not just stories - they are interactive experiences in which players have an active role. Therefore...Show moreVideo games form one of the latest media in which stories are told. However, video games are not just stories - they are interactive experiences in which players have an active role. Therefore there has been much debate on how video games should be academically approached: can video games be analysed with methods used in literary studies or should new methods be developed. Yet, little to no research has been done on the relationship between storytelling and interactivity in a video game genre that blends these two features together unlike any other: choice-driven video games. While the genre is not unique in its approach to blend storytelling and interactivity, as role-playing games (RPGs) have done so for several years, it has become increasingly popular with video game developers specialising in these sort of video games, such as Quantic Dream and Telltale Games. This genre of video games is often marketed to highlight the players' freedom and control over the video games in which their decisions dictate the outcome of the story. Nevertheless, these qualities are often overplayed as scripted events serve as boundaries limiting the extent players are actually able to affect the outcome of these video games. Thus I propose that choice-driven video games (and RPGs) offer the illusion that players' choics, decisions, and actions are significant to the outcome of the video game they are playing through clever use of mechanics that provides players to chance to immerse themselves in these video games. Until Dawn (2015), Life Is Strange (2015), and Undertale (2015) are used as case studies for this thesis.Show less
Since its first airing in 1966, the television series Star Trek has become a worldwide phenomenon. Over the last five decades, Star Trek has mirrored and reflected on many socio-political...Show moreSince its first airing in 1966, the television series Star Trek has become a worldwide phenomenon. Over the last five decades, Star Trek has mirrored and reflected on many socio-political developments in American culture. Two critical socio-political aspects of post-war American culture that are explicitly explored within the various incarnations of Star Trek are the changing roles and identities available to women as well as concerns about the increasing complexity of racial identities in an increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic America. This thesis explores the themes of gender and racial identity in three generations of the Star Trek series: The Original Series (1966-69), The Next Generation, (1987-94) and Discovery (2017-18).Show less
This essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s...Show moreThis essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s End (1910). The relationship between houses and female power will be explored through three chapters. The first will focus on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and will examine the relevance of the house as a physical space within women’s lives. The second will look at The Spoils of Poynton in the context of female homelessness, shedding light on the importance of the female home in wielding power, as women without property are left disenfranchised throughout, as well as the precarious nature of female inhabitance of the home. The third and final chapter will examine Howard’s End in light of this. Women, able to take full ownership of the home, are able to exert control over their environment and exercise a relatively high degree of independence. Howard’s End, then, I will examine in terms of legal female ownership of the house and female inheritance. This essay will examine the role of the house in female agency within the novel, and how these novels emerge from, and form part of, the shifting political, social and legal context of the 19th Century.Show less
Dysentery was a common disease in medieval England. This thesis entails a comparison of the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of dysentery in Old English and Middle English medical texts, as well...Show moreDysentery was a common disease in medieval England. This thesis entails a comparison of the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of dysentery in Old English and Middle English medical texts, as well as an analysis of the various remedies’ effectiveness against this disease. The methodology consists of a comparative analysis between early and late medieval medical texts, in the light of relevant scholarship on medieval medicine and modern medical research, based on close readings of these texts.Show less
Focusing on second-wave feminism, this thesis explores the representation of gender and the expression of the predominant feminist ideas in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969),...Show moreFocusing on second-wave feminism, this thesis explores the representation of gender and the expression of the predominant feminist ideas in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975) and Pamela Sargent’s The Shore of Women (1986).Show less
A strong argument can be made that both Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Machen were aware of contemporary degeneracy theories as formulated by naturalist and biologist Darwin and criminologist...Show moreA strong argument can be made that both Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Machen were aware of contemporary degeneracy theories as formulated by naturalist and biologist Darwin and criminologist and physician Lombroso and of contemporary dual brain theories as formulated by neuroanatomist and physiologist Franz Joseph Gall and psychologist Arthur Ladbroke Wigan. Stevenson incorporated these theories in his novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Machen incorporated these theories in his novel The Great God Pan (1890). Both authors incorporated scientific theories in their novel as a tool to demonstrate their resent towards the moral dimension of Victorian science, which was used by scientists to attribute mental and physiological aspects of an individual with ideological constructs such as good and evil. Both authors also demonstrated that the scientific discourse of the Victorian age upheld not only the dominant moral framework, but also the dominant gender ideology.Show less
In this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to...Show moreIn this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to Austen’s fictions. I shall argue that, although Austen uses the rather conservative genre of the courtship novel, or according to Marilyn Butler, the conservative partisan novel, she employs this genre to subversively express her radical ideas (Butler 3). I shall explore the idea that Austen rarely made her views explicit in her work, due to the prejudice that was attached to feminist opinions at the time due to the life story of Mary Wollstonecraft; I shall trace the effect of Wollstonecraft’s biography on Austen in the next chapter. By investigating different aspects of the family in Austen’s novels, I shall demonstrate how Austen did express her ‘feminist’ opinions through her works, albeit subversively. In particular, I shall examine the weakness of authority figures in her novels. The weakness of these authority figures allows Austen’s heroines to exert more power and therefore have a greater sense of their own agency. I shall further argue that Austen employs the weakness of authority figures in her novels to inspire more feminist behaviour in her heroines, who are not the ‘perfect’ image of Georgian femininity but are nevertheless, as is clear to the reader, favoured over the other characters by Austen. I attempt to show that Austen’s ‘feminist’ tendencies can be seen in her praising her heroines beyond all other characters while these are the characters that display the most agency and therefore are seen to possess ‘masculine’ properties.Show less
This thesis investigates the role of rural, urban, and industrial landscapes in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times, Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and Mary Barton....Show moreThis thesis investigates the role of rural, urban, and industrial landscapes in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times, Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and Mary Barton. These four novels focus on the social turbulences surrounding industrialisation and are all set in an industrial town in the north of England. In each novel, the descriptions of rural, urban and industrial landscapes support that novel’s view on industrialisation and the subsequent social tensions.Show less
In 2017 Noordhoff Uitgeverij BV published a set of “Blackbird Classics” for the following academic year which included Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), William Shakespeare’s Macbeth...Show moreIn 2017 Noordhoff Uitgeverij BV published a set of “Blackbird Classics” for the following academic year which included Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606), and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850). What is so telling about this set is that all three of these works are associated with the Gothic genre through similar tropes and themes. While finding Shakespeare in this set might raise a few questions, Desmet and Williams explain that to fully understand the Gothic it is important to recognise the genre’s “Shakespearean Origins” (2). Intrigued, I looked further into the publishing history of the Blackbirds and found many instances of Gothic and supernatural novels being published for high-school students. The list included many editions of The Picture of Dorian Gray, several books by Susan Hill, who wrote The Woman in Black (1983), and many other modern Gothics, and a simplified version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adapted to be understandable for a younger reading audience. This discovery led me to ask the question what the appeal is of such works for the high-school classroom. Why does the main publisher of educational material for Dutch high schools persistently turn to Gothic classics and other dark supernatural fictions as teaching texts? What follows is a critical examination of what the genre of the Gothic, and specifically the three texts published for 2017 by Noordhoff, have to offer literary education in Dutch high-schools.Show less
