The fox in Japan has an image of either a benevolent or an evil being. This thesis examines this creature and creates awareness to the origin of this image. The image of the Indian Dakini, a...Show moreThe fox in Japan has an image of either a benevolent or an evil being. This thesis examines this creature and creates awareness to the origin of this image. The image of the Indian Dakini, a voluptuous demon, merged with the image of the benevolent kami Inari in Japan. Looking at stories about the fox, the thesis proves that this image of the fox could better be described as one of an 'in-between' animal, neither good nor bad in being. The fox acts according to the situation it is in and is mostly just a mischievous animal.Show less
Since the twenty-first century, feminist retellings of myths have become increasingly popular. As an epic, Homer’s The Odyssey brims with female characters. However, mythology is often considered...Show moreSince the twenty-first century, feminist retellings of myths have become increasingly popular. As an epic, Homer’s The Odyssey brims with female characters. However, mythology is often considered to consist of archetypal and universally applicable stories about the nature of the universe and human life, which often leads to the notion that myth is stagnant and unchangeable. As a rising genre, feminist revisionist mythmaking aims to focus on the role of women in myth. By using Hélène Cixous’ essay The Laugh of Medusa and Alicia Ostriker’s definition of feminist revisionist mythmaking, this thesis aims to illustrate how Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) and Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018) revise and adapt previously marginalised female characters. This thesis will give an analysis of the women in Atwood’s The Penelopiad, focussing on Penelope’s voice and reputation, female rivalry, and the unjust hanging of the maids, followed by an analysis of Miller’s Circe that focusses on Circe’s voice and personal growth, sisterhood, and female sexuality. Both The Penelopiad and Circe confront issues such as gender and justice that are present in The Odyssey as well as present-day society. By focussing on women’s presence in a literary canon that historically seen has been dominated by the male gaze, Atwood and Miller emphasize that these women have survived despite the male-focused dominance and that it is never too late for them to speak up.Show less
In this thesis, I argue that the folklore in Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath is an active part of the landscape in which the protagonists live (Alderley Edge,...Show moreIn this thesis, I argue that the folklore in Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath is an active part of the landscape in which the protagonists live (Alderley Edge, Cheshire). I use Jung and Macfarlane to define the concepts of mythology and ecocriticism. Chapter 1 focuses on locality and the concepts of time and place. Bakhtin’s chronotope links archaeology to the imagination and to literature, which results in an analysis of the development of magic through place and time. This leads to the conclusion that Garner uses maps as time-machines. Chapter 2 applies my research to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and discusses how the book uses landscape descriptions to create an awareness of local folklore and nature. All mythical creatures have their own place in the landscape, and the protagonists are pulled into the magical world through exploring this landscape. In chapter 3 applies these concepts to The Moon of Gomrath, in which not only the mythical creatures live in the landscape, but the landscape itself comes to life as the Old Magic, based on moonlight and natural energy, is woken. Both novels allow readers to be immersed in the landscape of the area without being there, and confirm that nature speaks to the imagination.Show less
An exploration of the adaptation of Norse mythology, as presented in the Eddas, by Marvel Studios in their films Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Thor: The Dark World (2013).
Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red (1998) is a text that traverses the boundaries between postmodernism and mythology. As such, it investigates and builds further upon its own mythological...Show moreAnne Carson’s Autobiography of Red (1998) is a text that traverses the boundaries between postmodernism and mythology. As such, it investigates and builds further upon its own mythological foundations, rooted in the poem Geryoneis by the ancient Greek poet Stesichoros. The aim of this study is to explore, through a close reading of Carson’s text, how we can move from thinking about mythology solely in terms of representation towards thinking of mythology in terms of simulation. This argument will be made by taking a semiotic approach. This approach not only makes a diachronic study of mythological language possible, but also makes it possible for us to think about how signs traverse (spatially) between different sign systems. The study starts by using René Girard’s approach of reading myths as texts of persecution in order to uncover Autobiography of Red’s underlying ideological codes. Linda Hutcheon’s theories concerning historiographic metafiction and parody are then used in order to explore how Carson, in using syllogistics, investigates the origins of the supposed blinding of Stesichoros by Helen of Troy. The study then moves on to a diachronic study of the sign systems in the text using Roland Barthes’ theory concerning myth as well as his metalingual system. The final chapter of this study starts out by conceptualizing a notion of textual space, following Barthes’ distinction between ‘work’ and ‘Text’ and Gilles Deleuze’s and Felix Guattari’s philosophy of smooth and striated space. After having conceptualized textual space, a diagrammatic and simulative function of mythology is theorized.Show less
