This thesis analyses the function and meaning of the depiction of landscapes in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho in relation to contemporary paintings, the emergence of the Gothic as a...Show moreThis thesis analyses the function and meaning of the depiction of landscapes in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho in relation to contemporary paintings, the emergence of the Gothic as a genre, and the notions of the picturesque, the beautiful and the sublime.Show less
An analysis of the Cosmic Horror genre and how it shifted in modern times. This is done by analysing Lovecraft's work and analysing the podcast The Magnus Archives. Then comparing them and...Show moreAn analysis of the Cosmic Horror genre and how it shifted in modern times. This is done by analysing Lovecraft's work and analysing the podcast The Magnus Archives. Then comparing them and determining how the genre has shifted over time.Show less
This thesis analyses how the character and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted in season three and four of the BBC’s Sherlock and how the character of the detective develops...Show moreThis thesis analyses how the character and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted in season three and four of the BBC’s Sherlock and how the character of the detective develops throughout these two seasons. This analysis was performed through the lenses of both Adaptation Theory (Hutcheon, Joyce, Kline) and Character Studies (Eder, Jannadis & Schneider, Redmond), in order to achieve a complete picture as to how the character of Sherlock Holmes was adapted from Doyle’s stories and further developed for the television series. This study, first critically explores the stories and the character of Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and how the detective handles the situations in which he finds himself as well as how he interacts with other characters. The second chapter studies the development of the character of Sherlock throughout both seasons of the series, with an emphasis on season three, as well as explore the cases Sherlock gets involved in, since they are starting to bleed into his personal life. The third chapter focuses on season four of BBC Sherlock, in which the character of Sherlock and his relationships completely overshadow the cases, shifting the series towards the genre of melodrama. The series is compared to the content of Doyle's stories throughout all chapter in order to explore how the creators of the television series adapted the Victorian Holmes to a twenty-first century Sherlock.Show less
A strong argument can be made that both Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Machen were aware of contemporary degeneracy theories as formulated by naturalist and biologist Darwin and criminologist...Show moreA strong argument can be made that both Robert Louis Stevenson and Arthur Machen were aware of contemporary degeneracy theories as formulated by naturalist and biologist Darwin and criminologist and physician Lombroso and of contemporary dual brain theories as formulated by neuroanatomist and physiologist Franz Joseph Gall and psychologist Arthur Ladbroke Wigan. Stevenson incorporated these theories in his novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Machen incorporated these theories in his novel The Great God Pan (1890). Both authors incorporated scientific theories in their novel as a tool to demonstrate their resent towards the moral dimension of Victorian science, which was used by scientists to attribute mental and physiological aspects of an individual with ideological constructs such as good and evil. Both authors also demonstrated that the scientific discourse of the Victorian age upheld not only the dominant moral framework, but also the dominant gender ideology.Show less
In this thesis the Dementor from the Harry Potter series is studied as a monster within the framework of monster theory. The Dementor is read as a symbol for depression.
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis focuses on haunting house tales - fictions which depict an active and malevolent house - through the lens of postmodernism. Using the theories of Brian McHale and Linda Hutcheon, the...Show moreThis thesis focuses on haunting house tales - fictions which depict an active and malevolent house - through the lens of postmodernism. Using the theories of Brian McHale and Linda Hutcheon, the thesis analyzes three American haunting house novels: Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House," King's "The Shining," and Danielewski's "House of Leaves." Especially the notions of history, knowledge, and science are of relevance in this context. As is claimed, the haunting house does away with the idea that knowledge about the house and its past is empowering, since the supernatural events are not caused by a gruesome crime of the past.Show less
The portrayal of witches and wizards in older fairy tales such as the Grimm brothers’ “Hansel and Gretel” and “Snow White” (1812) and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) differ significantly...Show moreThe portrayal of witches and wizards in older fairy tales such as the Grimm brothers’ “Hansel and Gretel” and “Snow White” (1812) and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) differ significantly from the witches that appear in more recent works of fantasy, like Garcia and Stohl’s Caster Chronicles (2009-2012) and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (1997-2007). Of course some of these differences can be attributed simply by the different attitudes towards witchcraft that circulated in the different eras in which these works were written. This thesis will show that, at least in part, the different literary representations of witches is due to the genre conventions that govern the text in which the witch-character appears. The close-textual analyses of William Harrison Ainsworth’s historical novel The Lancashire Witches(1848), Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Romantic verse narrative “The Witch of Atlas” (1820) and several witches in J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series will reveal that the genre conventions that are imposed on these literary works play a role in determining the appearance, the skills, and the role of the witch(es) in the story.Show less
