Since the twenty-first century, feminist retellings of myths have become increasingly popular. As an epic, Homer’s The Odyssey brims with female characters. However, mythology is often considered...Show moreSince the twenty-first century, feminist retellings of myths have become increasingly popular. As an epic, Homer’s The Odyssey brims with female characters. However, mythology is often considered to consist of archetypal and universally applicable stories about the nature of the universe and human life, which often leads to the notion that myth is stagnant and unchangeable. As a rising genre, feminist revisionist mythmaking aims to focus on the role of women in myth. By using Hélène Cixous’ essay The Laugh of Medusa and Alicia Ostriker’s definition of feminist revisionist mythmaking, this thesis aims to illustrate how Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) and Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018) revise and adapt previously marginalised female characters. This thesis will give an analysis of the women in Atwood’s The Penelopiad, focussing on Penelope’s voice and reputation, female rivalry, and the unjust hanging of the maids, followed by an analysis of Miller’s Circe that focusses on Circe’s voice and personal growth, sisterhood, and female sexuality. Both The Penelopiad and Circe confront issues such as gender and justice that are present in The Odyssey as well as present-day society. By focussing on women’s presence in a literary canon that historically seen has been dominated by the male gaze, Atwood and Miller emphasize that these women have survived despite the male-focused dominance and that it is never too late for them to speak up.Show less
Adaptations of alternate history scenarios allow for an exploration of contemporary issues and concerns in a distanced yet familiar world. Each chapter of this thesis covers a case study of a...Show moreAdaptations of alternate history scenarios allow for an exploration of contemporary issues and concerns in a distanced yet familiar world. Each chapter of this thesis covers a case study of a recent adaptation of such an alternate history narrative: The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019), The Plot Against America (2020) and Watchmen (2019). These case studies explore how the adaptation revises the original text in order to captivate a contemporary audience and expose present-day issues in America. Through these case studies, this thesis proposes that, rather than functioning as warnings, the alternate America settings in these adaptations function as a reflection of actual America in the late 2010s, which allows for an exploration and critique of American society’s response and susceptibility to ideological and populist movements in times of crisis, and an reconsideration of racial inequality as America’s defining issue.Show less
This thesis discusses the concept of cultural identity in relation to three literary works. It argues that Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, highlights the postcolonial structure of its...Show moreThis thesis discusses the concept of cultural identity in relation to three literary works. It argues that Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, highlights the postcolonial structure of its characters’ identities, Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, focuses on the concept of diaspora identities, as defined by Stuart Hall; her short stories collection, Interpreter of Maladies, on the other hand, centres around the interplay between social and personal identities, as put forward by Margarita Azmitia. Instead of portraying cultural identity as a monolithic construct, all three literary works make a case for the fact that cultural identity is ever-changing and dynamic.Show less
The fictional works of English author and Oxford philologist, J.R.R. Tolkien, have been subjected to many literary and comparative analyses ever since they first came within the purview of academia...Show moreThe fictional works of English author and Oxford philologist, J.R.R. Tolkien, have been subjected to many literary and comparative analyses ever since they first came within the purview of academia. Source criticism (i.e. the analysis of how Tolkien drew inspiration from medieval texts, Catholicism, WWI, etc.) and thematic oppositions, such as light vs. dark, have especially attracted scholarly attention. What has not yet been satisfactorily explored within source criticism and light-dark opposition is Tolkien’s use of the ‘shadow’ as a literary motif in 'The Lord of the Rings' and its possible resonances with Old English conceptions of the shadow. This study combines a close reading, philologically-minded analysis of 'The Lord of the Rings' with a comparative approach centred on the occurrence of shadows in Old English poetic contexts. In so doing, the arguments and evidence brought forth in this study make a strong case for shadow as both a viable literary motif throughout the narrative and as a likely area of borrowing from early medieval Old English poetry.Show less
This thesis examines the Gothic representation and symbolic function of the Scottish natural environment in two works by Robert Louis Stevenson: the short story “The Merry Men” (1882), and the...Show moreThis thesis examines the Gothic representation and symbolic function of the Scottish natural environment in two works by Robert Louis Stevenson: the short story “The Merry Men” (1882), and the adventure novel Kidnapped (1886). The Gothic aesthetics in Stevenson’s writings – such as the notion of the sublime, the personification of nature, and the past versus the present – highlight the themes that the author expresses through his description of the Scottish landscape and seascape. By analysing the depiction of the Scottish natural environment in “The Merry Men” and Kidnapped, and by comparing these images with the aesthetics characteristic of the Gothic genre, I will demonstrate that the Scottish natural environment is not only Gothic in description, but also symbolises the themes and motifs of the narratives involved, such as heritage, memory and identity. Moreover, in the two narratives, the idea of Scotland as a nation as well as its specific physical environment becomes dark and mysterious, affecting both the characters’ and the readers’ sense of place. Since one’s sense of place is closely connected to one’s state of mind, this thesis also critically explores the extent to which the Scottish landscape and seascape influence the state of mind of the protagonists.Show less
This thesis analyzes the depiction of Abraham Lincoln in two novels of the previous decade that include elements of the supernatural: Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders, and Abraham...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the depiction of Abraham Lincoln in two novels of the previous decade that include elements of the supernatural: Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders, and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (2011) by Seth Grahame-Smith. With a focus on Lincoln's images as Savior of the Union and as The Great Emancipator, this thesis demonstrates in what ways the novels use the supernatural in their portrayal of the President and how this use contributes to the cultural memory of Lincoln that continues to exist in the United States today.Show less
This thesis explores some of the different ways that scholars and authors have dealt with the Arthurian legends when working within different cultural contexts. The aim of this thesis is to analyze...Show moreThis thesis explores some of the different ways that scholars and authors have dealt with the Arthurian legends when working within different cultural contexts. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the use of Arthurian legends over time and to compare the relevance of those legends in cultures familiar with the story, such as America, and cultures less familiar with the story, such as Japan. The comparison will be aimed at shedding light on how differences in the interpretations of Arthurian legends between America and Japan reflect, or are caused by, differences in each culture’s familiarity with said legends.Show less
This thesis examines the expression of female same-sex relations and desire, or queer in union, in early modern England by considering the poetry of Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn each other. To...Show moreThis thesis examines the expression of female same-sex relations and desire, or queer in union, in early modern England by considering the poetry of Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn each other. To achieve this, this thesis first establishes the cultural categories within which, or outside of which, early modern women could formulate and define their relations with one another and develop a sexual subjectivity by examining various literary and non-literary texts available to early modern women. From these texts, the two contrasting figures of the ‘chaste’ female friend and the ‘monstrous’ tribade emerge. Building on Valerie Traub’s argument, who has shown that these two figures came to be combined during the development of the later perception of ‘lesbian’ identities in the eighteenth century, this thesis illustrates the earlier confluence of these two figures in the poetry of Philips and Behn. While Philips draws on the figure of the ‘chaste’ female friend and Behn on the tribadic or hermaphroditic body, both women writers can be seen to use the same adaptation and reclamation strategies. Going against the early modern perception of female same-sex relation, desire, and sexual acts as impossible, unnatural, and monstrous, Philips and Behn create a preferable, alternative pastoral space in which (sexual) relations can be expressed free from arbitrary, gendered constraints.Show less
