Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is mainly known for his Victorian novels. However, Dickens pursued a lifelong relationship with the theatrical world. This thesis aims at exploring this relationship,...Show moreCharles Dickens (1812-1870) is mainly known for his Victorian novels. However, Dickens pursued a lifelong relationship with the theatrical world. This thesis aims at exploring this relationship, taking into account two theatrical adaptations of Dickens’ novel "Bleak House" in 1853: James Elphinstone and Frederic Neale’s "‘Bleak House’, a drama in two acts", performed at the City of London Theatre in June 1853, and George Dibdin Pitt’s "The Bleak House, or the Spectre of the Ghost Walk", performed at the Royal Pavilion Theatre, also in June 1853, before the final instalments of the novel had been published. The main focus of this analysis is the investigation of Gothic motifs present in Dickens’ novel, and how they were represented in these two productions. The conclusion is that these Gothic elements were enhanced on stage by means of textual selections, set arrangements and plot focused on the Dedlocks’ Ghost legend, illustrating the sensationalist character of the nineteenth-century melodramatic theatre. Furthermore, the focus on spectacle also resulted in an impoverishment of the social criticism layer present in Dickens’ novel, demonstrating the productions’ focus on entertainment, in accordance with the theatres’ purposes and target audience in the East End area in London in the nineteenth century.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis researches a Sanskrit law code called the Manusmrti or Manava Dharmasastra, translated in English as "The Laws of Manu". Through a critical analysis of the translations and...Show moreThis thesis researches a Sanskrit law code called the Manusmrti or Manava Dharmasastra, translated in English as "The Laws of Manu". Through a critical analysis of the translations and interpretations of Indologists Wendy Doniger and Patrick Olivelle, it will be argued that the current interpretations of the Manusmrti are starkly Western and prove a continuation of a discourse initiated in British colonial India. This discourse entails a framework of Western law and law code. The Manusmrti, however, is concerned with the Sanskrit concept of "dharma". With the help of the translation theories of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida it will be argued that "dharma" is a concept very distinct from the Western "law" and proves untranslatable. Furthermore, this thesis proposes a reading for the Manusmrti different from the current Western framework of law. The proposed new interpretation is based upon the concept of "aphorism" as described by Friedrich Nietzsche. To elucidate the differences in philosophy between the current interpretations and the interpretation proposed in this thesis, the theories of Gilles Deleuze and Benedictus Spinoza will be deployed. Their ideas will help to show that the proposed interpretation will ultimately entail another, more productive world-view for the Manusmrti and the conceptualisation of its key term "dharma".Show less
In the present thesis, I explore the notion of didactic irony, irony’s teaching that enables a critical and responsible reading process. I explain how didactic irony manifests itself in different...Show moreIn the present thesis, I explore the notion of didactic irony, irony’s teaching that enables a critical and responsible reading process. I explain how didactic irony manifests itself in different intensities and orientations but always in relation to the realm of uncertainty. In teaching and simultaneously questioning, didactic irony points to the underlying uncertainty of meaning, knowledge, and truth. I conceptualise literature as asking for and thereby stimulating the active participation of the reader in the process of reading. Didactic irony may be seen as an important means of creating critical distance and responsibility, in literature and life alike. The connection between literature and life here exists in the critical and responsible process of interpretation that precedes all acquisition of knowledge. Especially when reading the legend of Gregorius, this connection may be seen as a stimulating ‘lesson in reading’. I thus investigate three adaptations of the legend of Gregorius by analysing Hartmann’s von Aue medieval verse epic Gregorius (ca. 1190), Thomas Mann’s modernist novel Der Erwählte (1951), and Jörg Udo Lensing’s postmodernist film Gregorius auf dem Stein (2012).Show less
