Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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In this thesis, Guido delle Colonne's Historia Destructionis Troiae will be analysed anew. Scholars have often assessed the work and its author very negatively: they claimed the work had no moral...Show moreIn this thesis, Guido delle Colonne's Historia Destructionis Troiae will be analysed anew. Scholars have often assessed the work and its author very negatively: they claimed the work had no moral message, that it was badly written, and that Guido was very misogynistic in his depiction of women. In this thesis, the Historia will be analysed intertextually to show that Guido was not a bad translator of the French Roman de Troie (his main point of focus), but that he played with his pre-text to create an original work of history with its own moral aims and messages. In the second chapter, a case study of the character of the Amazonian queen Penthesilea will show how learned and complexly constructed the work actually is. Penthesilea questions the traditional gender norms, showing that not all women are bad in Guido's work. By transcending these gender norms, she is able to question a social construct that is even more important to reform in Guido's eyes: chivalry and its intricate connection with warfare. Guido wishes to show that chivalry has no place in warfare and that eventually, war brings destruction and misery upon all. While reading this work, the reader is constantly invited to delve further into the material and extract valuable moral lessons from it.Show less
This thesis sets out to discover how Achilles is portrayed in modern literature, more specifically in the way his duality (mortal and divine) is depicted, in comparison to Homer’s epic. This will...Show moreThis thesis sets out to discover how Achilles is portrayed in modern literature, more specifically in the way his duality (mortal and divine) is depicted, in comparison to Homer’s epic. This will be done by close-reading Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles (2011), Elizabeth Cook’s Achilles (2001), and Wolfgang Petersen’s film Troy (2004). In analysing these texts, I will focus on moments which spark an emotional reaction from Achilles. By comparing the moments from the three contemporary texts both to each other and in relation to the Iliad, in the translation made by Robert Fagles in 1990, I wish to explore in what way Achilles’ divinity and humanity is depicted. This will be done by using the methodological frameworks of intertextuality and the notion of adaptation and appropriation.Show less
