Since the very first published appearance of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, contained within the adventure-filled pages of The Hobbit (1937), readers have been drawn into the fantastical, wondrous...Show moreSince the very first published appearance of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, contained within the adventure-filled pages of The Hobbit (1937), readers have been drawn into the fantastical, wondrous world so masterfully crafted by this Oxford philologist. Such an extensive collection of stories, unfinished tales, and background information garners much opportunity for study, both casual and academic. Academic interest in particular has come so far as to spawn its own field of ‘Tolkien Studies’, entirely dedicated to the study of Tolkien and his oeuvre. Perhaps the most heated debate within Tolkien Studies considers whether Tolkien’s legendarium is essentially Christian or Pagan in nature. What has not yet been offered is an examination of Arda’s religion that would suit the wishes of its author: a discussion of religion in Tolkien’s works from inside Middle-earth. This thesis will consider the signs and instances of reverence and religion from an ‘in-world’ perspective, in the same fashion that a wanderer of Middle-earth would encounter them, and in doing so, brings a new and valuable approach to the Christian/Pagan debate, namely the approach of the writer and the sub-creator.Show less
This thesis discusses the role of orphans in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and Bleak House. It argues that the role of the orphan is to function as a literary device with which the ideology of the...Show moreThis thesis discusses the role of orphans in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and Bleak House. It argues that the role of the orphan is to function as a literary device with which the ideology of the Victorian family can be challenged as well as consolidated.Show less
This thesis examines the use of a patriarchal system as a default in fantasy literature, and it critically explores the possibility of creating more equal systems – such as a matriarchal one that...Show moreThis thesis examines the use of a patriarchal system as a default in fantasy literature, and it critically explores the possibility of creating more equal systems – such as a matriarchal one that is not merely the mirror image of patriarchy – within the worldbuilding of fantasy novels. It does so by comparing the patriarchal system in Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946), to the matriarchal system in Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019).Show less
This BA thesis analyses female figures in Irish fairy tales and folklore as collected by W.B. Yeats to establish how women were represented in these stories. By analysing Carl Gustav Jung’s...Show moreThis BA thesis analyses female figures in Irish fairy tales and folklore as collected by W.B. Yeats to establish how women were represented in these stories. By analysing Carl Gustav Jung’s archetypal literary criticism, this thesis explores archetypes with the focus on the Mother and the Maiden. This thesis gives close readings of several Irish fairy tales that were selected from Yeats’s anthologies with the purpose of examining figures of the Maiden and the Mother that can be found within fairy tales more closely. Both archetypes can be chiefly be found in the passive figures of the daughter and mother, and it is this passivity that makes them into ‘good’ women. Whereas the figure of the stepmother is far from passive, but her aspirations are always associated with her malevolent nature. The passivity of these female characters is not just unique to Yeats’s fairy tales, but can be generally found in other fairy tales and folklore.Show less
Words have some power to change our reality, but it is limited. We cannot use speech to directly physically affect the world around us. One could order a rock to move, and it would not move. Even...Show moreWords have some power to change our reality, but it is limited. We cannot use speech to directly physically affect the world around us. One could order a rock to move, and it would not move. Even those things we can do through speech are limited. One could tell that same rock “I take you, rock, to be my lawfully wedded rock”, and fail to be part of the first ever rock-human marriage. There are conditions that must be met for the act to be successful. Austen states: “The uttering of the words is, indeed, usually a, or even the, leading incident in the performance of the act ... but it is far from being usually, even if it is ever, the sole thing necessary if the act is to be deemed to have been performed” (8). Neither of these limitations are the case in Arda (the name of the world that contains Middle-earth). In Arda, speech acts can effect entirely physical outcomes. To name one well-known example: Gandalf utters the word “friend” in Elvish, and the Doors of Durin open to him. These days this may seem less magical than it did a decade ago, given the advent of voice-recognition and voice assistants, but there are still not many people who would go up to a stone door that does not contain any electronics and expect it to open at the sound of the correct password. That Gandalf does expect this suggests that the world in which he lives operates differently from ours on a fundamental level.Show less
This thesis offers an explanation of Katherine Mansfield’s sterile depiction of colonial life by employing the postcolonial concept of displacement. It examines four of Mansfield’s New Zealand...Show moreThis thesis offers an explanation of Katherine Mansfield’s sterile depiction of colonial life by employing the postcolonial concept of displacement. It examines four of Mansfield’s New Zealand stories, namely “The Woman at the Store” (1912), “Prelude” (1918), “At the Bay” (1922), and “The Garden Party” (1922), and argues that the characters of the woman at the store, Linda Burnell, Beryl Fairfield and Laura Sheridan are displaced postcolonial subjects in the New Zealand landscape. The thesis also demonstrates that these four stories represent the settler existence as imbued with loneliness, alienation and identity crises, and that the protagonists are unable to lead meaningful lives due to the psychological consequences of displacement.Show less
