This thesis analysed and compared the use of totalitarian language in George Orwell’s novel 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. This thesis highlights the importance of language within...Show moreThis thesis analysed and compared the use of totalitarian language in George Orwell’s novel 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. This thesis highlights the importance of language within totalitarian regimes. Linguistic totalitarian language features were defined and analysed. The linguistic totalitarian features used in this research were compiled based on previously conducted research. The analysed features included loaded language, compound nouns, euphemisms, neologisms, abbreviations, acronyms, and slogans. The novels were read and afterwards analysed through corpus and discourse analysis. The software AntConc was used for the corpus analysis. The instances of totalitarian language use within the novels were highlighted and processed into tables. The novels possessed unique tables and each table reflected one analysed feature. The results were compared and revealed that the novels indeed incorporated totalitarian language features within their texts. The novel 1984 made use of all the seven analysed features. Brave New World made use of six analysed features, leaving out the linguistic feature concerning abbreviations. In addition, the research concluded that the two novels are linguistically comparable as they included frequent instances of the analysed features. However, the novel 1984 included moderately more instances of totalitarian language use.Show less
To understand how an earlier text informs the reader’s understanding of a new one, I analyze the influence of Henry James's Washington Square on Hanya Yanagihara's To Paradise.
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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Ecocentrisme roept vraagstukken op waarbij de waarde van het individu op gespannen voet komt te staan met die van het ecosysteem. Enkele van dit soort vraagstukken zijn: moeten we onszelf offeren...Show moreEcocentrisme roept vraagstukken op waarbij de waarde van het individu op gespannen voet komt te staan met die van het ecosysteem. Enkele van dit soort vraagstukken zijn: moeten we onszelf offeren als dit het belang van een groter ecosysteem dient? Wat als het ecosysteem ons ziek maakt? En, wat gebeurt er met onze individualiteit als we zo diep met alles verweven zijn dat we ‘zelf’ niet meer van ‘ander’ kunnen onderscheiden? Begrippen die een centrale rol spelen bij deze kwesties zijn: inherente waarde, permeabiliteit, zelfopoffering, ziekte en vervreemding. Door theorieën rondom deze begrippen in te zetten om mijn studieobjecten te lezen, zal ik kijken hoe mijn studieobjecten een nieuw licht werpen op deze begrippen en zo een genuanceerdere theorie van ecocentrisme kunnen formuleren.Show less
This thesis compares two novels in their portrayal of Muslimas. The two novels that are discussed are Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers. The thesis argues...Show moreThis thesis compares two novels in their portrayal of Muslimas. The two novels that are discussed are Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers. The thesis argues that Rushdie applies inaccurate representations of Islam and Muslimas in his novel. Moreover, his novel misuses Ayesha's historical figure and feminizes several different aspects of the religion. It concludes that Rushdie often writes about women, but never from the perspective of these women. Aslam's novel, on the other hand, allocates a lot more time to the female characters and their perspectives. However, it must also be noted that Aslam's portrayal of Islam - and along with that, Muslimas - is heavily Pakistani-oriented, in its most conservative form. Lastly, evident similarities and differences between the two novels were discussed. Here, the thesis concludes that both novels brought about a similar societal effect - namely heightening feelings of Islamophobia -, despite their different approaches to the subject.Show less
In this thesis I have argued that Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy forms a sandbox for Young Adults to consider and play around issues of social justice. I have linked the events in the books to...Show moreIn this thesis I have argued that Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy forms a sandbox for Young Adults to consider and play around issues of social justice. I have linked the events in the books to events in historical or contemporary societies and have done so by making use of Foucault's political theory of a control and disciplinary society.Show less
The author Agatha Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels between 1916 and 1973. Christie wrote her detective stories during a time in which English society also experienced the first and...Show moreThe author Agatha Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels between 1916 and 1973. Christie wrote her detective stories during a time in which English society also experienced the first and second wave of feminism. This thesis will investigate to what extent the first and second wave of feminism influenced Christie’s depiction of her well-known female detective Miss Marple and her views on women’s roles and identities in British society. This analysis will focus on the following three Miss Marple novels: The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), A Murder is Announced (1950), and Nemesis (1971). Eventually, this thesis will show that the feminist thought and activism key to the first and second wave of feminism have had a significant influence on Christie’s depiction of Miss Marple. Throughout these years, Christie has gradually increased Miss Marple’s agency, prominence and engagement with feminist thought expressed in her time. Even so, the exploration of feminist thought concerning same-sex relationships presents to be a boundary for Christie.Show less
Innovation of the sonnet and its development has opened up the form from a restrictive to an adaptable form that allows the sonnet to address different themes. The adaptability of the sonnet...Show moreInnovation of the sonnet and its development has opened up the form from a restrictive to an adaptable form that allows the sonnet to address different themes. The adaptability of the sonnet becomes evident in various ways. This degree of innovation allowed for the sonnet to develop from its origin as a love poem towards the religious sonnet, extending the topic of secular love, central to the Petrarchan sonnet, to include divine love and human-divine relationality. Following from that, the religious sonnet developed into the political sonnet. The political sonnet provided the foundation for women to set the stage with their contributions to the sonnet: women used the sonnet as a vehicle for private and political expression and thereby constructed the identity of the woman poet. Moreover, the adaptability of the sonnet becomes clear in the way in which individual poets innovate the sonnet in various ways. This thesis showcases examples in which poets reinvent the sonnet by means of innovative use of structural and formal conventions. Innovation of form and structure within the sonnet is analysed and contextualised by comparing sonnets by poets from the period between 1600 and 1800. The central question is how these poets innovate the use of the sonnet to respond to the events of their time, and how the successive innovation of the sonnet has caused the form to open up to address a wider range of topics.Show less
