This thesis analyses the phenomenon of disillusionment in Balzac's 'Illusions Perdues' and Joyce's 'Dubliners', concerning people, the metropolis (Paris/Dublin) and notions of success. Built upon...Show moreThis thesis analyses the phenomenon of disillusionment in Balzac's 'Illusions Perdues' and Joyce's 'Dubliners', concerning people, the metropolis (Paris/Dublin) and notions of success. Built upon close readings of the texts, the thematic approach serves to highlight the continuities and breaks between Romantic-Realism and the beginnings of Modernism, whilst reassessing the traditional Flaubert-Joyce link in favour of Balzac's own influence on Joyce.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
A shared understanding of the world may seem to be absolutely 'true', because empirical experience may confirm its legitimacy. I illustrate and argue that such belief in an 'all encompassing truth'...Show moreA shared understanding of the world may seem to be absolutely 'true', because empirical experience may confirm its legitimacy. I illustrate and argue that such belief in an 'all encompassing truth' requires a deceptive illusion that the collective of individuals together uphold and by which each individual perpetuates her of his own deception and that of the others. This thesis discusses the results of an in depth experience with the construction of what is the 'truth' in the experience of participants in a 'cult'. This argument is then used to reflect on the origins of the life world that may underlie any certainty that academic conceptions of the world conjure up.Show less
