This thesis deals with the topical themes of home, homelessness, exile, and migration as explored in James Joyce's novel Ulysses (1922). The aim is to analyze the manner in which Joyce has...Show moreThis thesis deals with the topical themes of home, homelessness, exile, and migration as explored in James Joyce's novel Ulysses (1922). The aim is to analyze the manner in which Joyce has presented the various perspectives on these notions, and to what extent these themes may be connected to the characters in the text, with an emphasis on the two male leading characters, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. The thesis takes an original approach by using as its framework the sociological theories of Georg Simmel (1858-1918), a contemporary of Joyce.Show less
According to Nicholas Tucker, “it is too much of a child to expect him to see life in the raw as it really is” (53). It is this very notion that Philip Pullman has explored thoroughly in his...Show moreAccording to Nicholas Tucker, “it is too much of a child to expect him to see life in the raw as it really is” (53). It is this very notion that Philip Pullman has explored thoroughly in his trilogy His Dark Materials. However, Pullman did present his highly critical message regarding the Church and religion to the reader, while employing conventions of children’s literature. His decision to share his polemical thoughts on the Church via children’s literature thus might be seen as a way of influencing children, but the question remains whether this was his intention.Show less
This thesis discusses Victorian gender roles in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Victorian Era had strict ideas about gender roles, which can...Show moreThis thesis discusses Victorian gender roles in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Victorian Era had strict ideas about gender roles, which can be seen in the literature from that time. Jane Eyre is the earliest novel that is discussed and it presents a complex view of masculinity and femininity. It might seem, at first glance, that the characters are mostly conforming to the gender roles, but it becomes clear that the lines between both genders are blurred. This is also the case in Middlemarch, where meddling wives and insecure husbands destroy their own marriages and happiness. This nuanced view of both male and female characters defies the rigid gender roles of the time. Dracula, on the other hand, is focussed on femininity rather than masculinity. Manliness is still important in the novel, but the main focus is on the transformation women undergo when they are turned into vampires. The perfect woman turns into an evil seductress when she is bitten by Dracula, and her misdeeds are harshly punished. This black and white view of femininity, or gender in general, is absent in the other novels.Show less
Thesis is an analysis of the Civil War in Irish literature by a close reading and historical/ biographical contextualisation of two short stories, a play , and a volume of poetry.
This thesis offers an ethical reading of J.M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus. Taking Derek Attridge’s concept of ‘the singularity of literature’ as its point of departure, it first discusses the...Show moreThis thesis offers an ethical reading of J.M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus. Taking Derek Attridge’s concept of ‘the singularity of literature’ as its point of departure, it first discusses the relation between literature and ethics. According to Attridge, the singularity of a literary work consists of its ‘transformative difference’. As such, the event of reading is a confrontation with the otherness of the text. It is precisely this confrontation that characterises responsible and ethical reading. Then it is argued that allegorical readings of The Childhood of Jesus cannot do justice to its singularity. Instead, the reading of the novel proposed here focuses on the notion of ‘responsibility’, suggesting that a focus on this concept increases the understanding of ethics in the novel. This analysis connects responsibility to four closely related aspects: its ground, the characters' worldview, the 'idea of the family', and the role of learning. By doing so, it demonstrates the possibilities of applying Attridge's theory to a work of literature, but it also shows its limitations.Show less
Seamus Heaney’s Human Chain, published in 2010, is still in the early stages of being placed in relation to the rest of the poet’s work. However, it seems that in the immediate reception by critics...Show moreSeamus Heaney’s Human Chain, published in 2010, is still in the early stages of being placed in relation to the rest of the poet’s work. However, it seems that in the immediate reception by critics, there has already emerged a consensus regarding two aspects of the collection; it is clear that the poems are written in the shadow of death, but, at the same time, that the poet is in a lifeaffirming mood. For instance, in his essay on Heaney’s appropriation of Virgil in Human Chain, Stephen Heiny refers to the “insistent, urgent vitality” of the collection while acknowledging that “death is the central theme” (305) of the central poem, “Route 110” (HC 48-59), and Colm Tóibín observes an “an active urge to capture the living breath of things” that accompanies this “book of shades and memories”. However, we should not equate this positivity with optimism; instead, we should place it in the context of Václav Havel’s definition of hope (quoted in RP 4-5), which Heaney understands – in his words during an interview with Paul Muldoon – as follows; “it isn’t grounded in the notion that everything will turn out well ... hope means that you believe something is worth working for” (New Yorker 40:50-41:10). In this thesis, I will analyse Human Chain through this concept of hope – cautious, realistic but deeper and more profound than optimism – as a way of explaining the curious combination that critics have identified in the collection: death and the vitality of life. By offering close readings of individual poems, I will demonstrate how “hope” underpins as well as produces this collection.Show less
