Slang is a nonstandard informal vocabulary peculiar to a group. In this digital age, the reproduction and evolution of slang words has become faster due to the digital platforms that they are often...Show moreSlang is a nonstandard informal vocabulary peculiar to a group. In this digital age, the reproduction and evolution of slang words has become faster due to the digital platforms that they are often used in. Research has been done on the lexical aspects of slang and slang in general (Sornig (1981); Metcalf (2002)), and on forms of digital slang (McCulloch (2019)), but none view slang as a mode of translation and applied it to to other types of text besides messages on social media. This thesis will address where digital slang terms come from, and if their origins can help explain how likely they are to be understood by someone who speaks regular English. To do so I will annotate a slang translation of Harry Potter, and research the etymological origins of the slang to try to discover - using Metcalf’s (2002) FUDGE theory - which slang terms are more likely to be understood. I expect to find that the slang terms that more closely resemble regular English words are more likely to be understood.Show less
Labeled Language analyses the use of language in the Mencius with the goal of finding out how gender differences feature in this Confucian text. It uses an innovative (original) methodology that...Show moreLabeled Language analyses the use of language in the Mencius with the goal of finding out how gender differences feature in this Confucian text. It uses an innovative (original) methodology that fuses text (data) mining and traditional close reading analysis, building from a gap in the academic literature on the topic of language and gender in the Mencius.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis examines the depiction of solitude in the novels Caleb Williams, Frankenstein, and A Tale of Two Cities, and the relationship between these depictions and eighteenth- and nineteenth...Show moreThis thesis examines the depiction of solitude in the novels Caleb Williams, Frankenstein, and A Tale of Two Cities, and the relationship between these depictions and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century discourses on solitude. In particular, this thesis shows the tension between philosophies of sociability and sympathy, such as Rousseau’s and Hume’s, and the moral dimension of solitude. While previous research has examined solitude by focusing on either Romantic solitude or on loneliness as an imposed condition by social forces, this thesis aims to investigate the moral value of solitude, and its relation to social criticism. Taking a cultural materialist approach, this thesis examines cultural discourses surrounding solitude and offers close readings of the novels to argue that these novels present sociability as a divisive force in society, and solitude as both necessary to foster a connection to humanity, and a necessary condition for justice and morality. The privileging of solitude over sociability shows how these novels respond to the emphasis of Enlightenment philosophy on sympathy and similarity and suggest an alternative foundation for justice and morality in situations where sociability and similarity are insufficient.Show less
Human beings make sense of the world through the stories that they tell. Contemporary media is still predominately postmodern, but there are signs that there is a shift towards a new ‘post...Show moreHuman beings make sense of the world through the stories that they tell. Contemporary media is still predominately postmodern, but there are signs that there is a shift towards a new ‘post-postmodern’ paradigm. In this thesis I will analyze this shift through the figure of the literary vampire, introducing the concept of the hauntological dominant of post-postmodernism.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
closed access
Why do boys seem to prefer the films rather than the books? In this thesis I try to come up with an answer by comparing the representation of gender within two Young Adult books and their...Show moreWhy do boys seem to prefer the films rather than the books? In this thesis I try to come up with an answer by comparing the representation of gender within two Young Adult books and their adaptations (The Hunger Games and Divergent). And analyse the way in which stereotypes are being represented and if these stereotypes are in any way appealing to the young boy or girl reader.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
closed access
Het nietsdoen heeft een lange geschiedenis in zowel film als literatuur. In deze scriptie zal ik mij richten op twee onproductieve figuren in het bijzonder: de slacker en de flaneur. Ik zal deze...Show moreHet nietsdoen heeft een lange geschiedenis in zowel film als literatuur. In deze scriptie zal ik mij richten op twee onproductieve figuren in het bijzonder: de slacker en de flaneur. Ik zal deze figuren met elkaar vergelijken en hierbij uitweiden over hoe de flaneur van het einde van de 19e eeuw en het begin van de 20e eeuw zich verhoudt tot de slacker van het einde van de 20e eeuw en het begin van de 21e eeuw in film en literatuur. Is de slacker simpelweg een moderne flaneur of zijn de twee figuren en de werken waartoe zij behoren wezenlijk anders? Bestaan er 19e-eeuwse slackers of 21e-eeuwse flaneurs en zijn er flaneur films of slacker boeken of zijn deze figuren onlosmakelijk verbonden met hun gebruikelijke periode en medium?Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
In this thesis I want to create an intersectional, queer intervention in animal studies taking previous animal, critical race studies and queer theory intersections – ecofeminism, material feminism...Show moreIn this thesis I want to create an intersectional, queer intervention in animal studies taking previous animal, critical race studies and queer theory intersections – ecofeminism, material feminism and queer ecology – into account within the context of literary studies and cultural analysis. Therefore, I want to ask: In what way do intersectional alliances – both theoretical and artistic – formed from an animal and queer studies perspective, affirmatively (re)imagine (material) queer intimacies human-nonhuman relations to contribute to an nonanthropocentric framework? To answer this question, I want to employ the term/concept queer as both a critical and productive tool that enables transgression of disciplines and even the academy itself, into the material reality of non-human animals to examine human-animal relations and intimacies.Show less
A brief analysis of two books written by authors who were children during the independence war and nakba of 1948. The two are compared in the way that they present nationalism to children.
In the last few decades, there has been an emergence of feminist texts that relate themselves to Homer’s renowned myths, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Inspired by these feminist narratives that...Show moreIn the last few decades, there has been an emergence of feminist texts that relate themselves to Homer’s renowned myths, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Inspired by these feminist narratives that revolve around the centring of the female characters within a myth, this thesis poses an analysis of the emergence and importance of mythmaking by women writers. In my research, I have focused on Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls Madeline Miller’s Circe, two of the most recent examples of feminist mythmaking. Both Barker and Miller are able to give a voice to women that have often been silenced in ‘classic’ myths: Briseis and Circe. The texts foreground the complexity of their female protagonists by relating their stories to the patriarchal world surrounding them. Building onto this, both texts reflect on mythmaking and storytelling on an overarching level, thereby offering us a subtle critique on the way myths have been written and read in the past. Strikingly, scholars have recently studied these feminist mythmakings as mere ‘rewritings’ or ‘fictionalisations’ of Homer’s ‘classics’. The effect is a limiting analysis in which the true intertextuality of the stories gets lost in a restricting methodology. In this thesis, I propose a new way to analyze these mythmakings in an appropriate and respectful way, by using the concept of ‘mosaic mythmaking’.Show less
In deze scriptie staat de kwestie centraal of de bewerker(s) van een roman voor het theater erin slagen om de prangende (politiek-maatschappelijke) kwesties, die in romans gethematiseerd worden,...Show moreIn deze scriptie staat de kwestie centraal of de bewerker(s) van een roman voor het theater erin slagen om de prangende (politiek-maatschappelijke) kwesties, die in romans gethematiseerd worden, overtuigend voor het voetlicht te brengen in een bewerking voor toneel? Blijft de complexiteit van de roman ook bewaard in die bewerking, of wordt de roman gereduceerd tot zijn actuele thema? Wat is, kortom,het politieke effect van de toneeladaptatie van romans in het Nederlands theater? Voor het beantwoorden van deze vraag wordt de roman Het Hout van Jeroen Brouwers vergeleken met de gelijknamige bewerking en theateropvoering ervan in de regie van Michiel van Erp geproduceerd door International Theatre Amsterdam/ Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Aan de hand van deze casestudy wordt blootgelegd welke ingrepen in de bewerking van Het hout gedaan zijn en wat de consequenties daarvan zijn voor de betekenis van het, op het toneel gebrachte, kunstwerk, vergeleken met de brontekst. De hypothese van deze scriptie is dat de politieke betekenis van de roman Het Hout in de toneeladaptatie gereduceerd is. De enscenering blijkt ongevoelig voor ambiguïteit en werkt eerder taboebehoudend dan taboedoorbrekend.Show less
This thesis investigates the participation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-2011) in a tradition of nominally feminist fantasy literature that challenges patriarchal values...Show moreThis thesis investigates the participation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-2011) in a tradition of nominally feminist fantasy literature that challenges patriarchal values commonly found in the genre. By close-reading the characters of Arya, Sansa, and Brienne, this thesis argues that the novels act as a subversion of common fantasy tropes while at the same time standing in opposition to nominally feminist fantasy literature that centers on female protagonists overcoming the patriarchy through skill at arms. By emphasizing the struggle of everyone living under the patriarchy, Martin's series instead highlights the need for cultural revolution in attitudes towards gender.Show less
This thesis argues that the story about Melibeus must be read as a call for peace, and that each version was written to comment on specific events. The versions of Jan van Boendale and Dirc Potter...Show moreThis thesis argues that the story about Melibeus must be read as a call for peace, and that each version was written to comment on specific events. The versions of Jan van Boendale and Dirc Potter are compared and examined against the political and cultural background of their writers.Show less
When the reversion of Okinawa occurred in 1972, the island already was a complex amalgamation of various identities: heirs of indigenous Ryukyu culture, second-class Japanse citizens subjected to...Show moreWhen the reversion of Okinawa occurred in 1972, the island already was a complex amalgamation of various identities: heirs of indigenous Ryukyu culture, second-class Japanse citizens subjected to discrimination and war victims betrayed by its own government and colonised by a foreign force. Literally rising from the ashes, Okinawa has been reformulating its identity once again in face of challenges resulting from their marginal position amidst two greater powers. These include war trauma, economic rebuilding, continued discrimination by the mainland and persisting US base issues. Similar to a kaleidoscope, one can reposition individual elements to create a new constellation. Depending on the observer, different views and meanings can be constructed and interpreted. This thesis examines how Okinawans as a minority have emphasised and/or rearranged certain cultural symbols or narratives, creating new identities and using them as weapons, in order to negotiate a better standing within Japan following the period after the revision. Some developments that immediately come to mind are the emergence of civil society based on universal values of democracy, peace and ecology and the embedding of Okinawans as historical victims of the Japanese government and the mobilization of historical memory. I will be primarily focussing on contemporary post-reversion literature in my analysis, intending on researching the presence of these new identitities within contemporary novels. My objective is to observe if and/or how the ‘main model’ mentioned above is reflected and if the tendencies of modern literature have shifted accordingly.Show less
This thesis studies the modernity of Nima Yushij's first major poem Afsaneh (1921) through a theoretical framework of semiotic change. The thesis draws from sources such as Nima's private letters,...Show moreThis thesis studies the modernity of Nima Yushij's first major poem Afsaneh (1921) through a theoretical framework of semiotic change. The thesis draws from sources such as Nima's private letters, speeches and personally translated fragments from the poem Afsaneh. It compares Nima's own theory of poetic modernity with literary ideologies such as Socialist Realism and Romanticism. Selected metaphors from the poem are analyzed to explore the modernity of the poem through semiotic analysis.Show less
Bujangga Manik is a fifteenth-century story from Sundanese-speaking West Java about an ascetic who travels around Java and Bali before ascending to heaven. Its central narrative trope, of narrating...Show moreBujangga Manik is a fifteenth-century story from Sundanese-speaking West Java about an ascetic who travels around Java and Bali before ascending to heaven. Its central narrative trope, of narrating the ascetic's journey through a recitation of place names, has no clear parallels in South Asian literature, and I argue that it derives from an ancient Malayo-Polynesian tradition, similar to what the anthropologist J. J. Fox named the 'topogeny'. I attempt to show this through a dissection of Bujangga Manik and detailed comparison with ethnographic data from the Malayo-Polynesian-(Austronesian-)speaking world.Show less
