An analysis of the liminal as a theme in three British fantasy novels from 1958-1974, centred around young, female characters. The thesis examines Catherine Storr’s Marianne Dreams (1958), Angela...Show moreAn analysis of the liminal as a theme in three British fantasy novels from 1958-1974, centred around young, female characters. The thesis examines Catherine Storr’s Marianne Dreams (1958), Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop (1967) and Doris Lessing’s Memoirs of a Survivor (1974). The liminal unveils contemporary ideologies around psychological development and the roles of children and women in society. The thesis evaluates the liminal motifs of each text against contemporary psychological, child development, feminist and literary theorists in order to explore boundaries and to reveal and deconstruct the dominant ideology in society.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
The nature of the animals that appear in Goblin Market, The Water Babies and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are either fixed(as in Bestiaries) or in flux (influenced by evolution theories,...Show moreThe nature of the animals that appear in Goblin Market, The Water Babies and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are either fixed(as in Bestiaries) or in flux (influenced by evolution theories, depending on the author's view on timeless childhood and the message they want to convey through their work.Show less
This thesis explores the literary theme of aliens in disguise, taking the sit-com 3rd Rock from the Sun as its main focus, yet drawing on various works of science fiction. The disguises used by the...Show moreThis thesis explores the literary theme of aliens in disguise, taking the sit-com 3rd Rock from the Sun as its main focus, yet drawing on various works of science fiction. The disguises used by the aliens in this TV-show are explored in relation to character roles and dramatic purposes, revealing set tropes as well as the ways in which the disguises are used to reflect on human practices such as emotions, gun control and gender. It is through the aliens' disguises that the audience learns about humanity, along with the aliens.Show less
Ghosts are, of course, an integral part of ghost stories and their meanings entwine with the meaning of the story as such. Research has often focused on the appearance of the ghosts and how that...Show moreGhosts are, of course, an integral part of ghost stories and their meanings entwine with the meaning of the story as such. Research has often focused on the appearance of the ghosts and how that feeds into the uncanniness of the story. However, ghosts are important in themselves and in terms of what they stand for and mean. Therefore, this thesis researches the ghosts and the uncanny feelings they provoke, arguing that their presence stands in the place of psychological disturbances in the protagonists. Moreover, I shall argue that they draw the audience inside the protagonists' uncertain and ambiguous perceptions. In this way, all three texts explore the conflict between subjective impressions and the objectively real, and they lead the reader or viewer into a state of fear and confusion regarding what is real or not. All three texts employ the ambiguous figure of the ghost in order to play with the nature of perception, and with our empathetic relationship to the main figure of a story. They aim to induce in the audience the same hesitation as to the truth of perceptions that haunt the protagonists themselves. As part of my methodology here, I draw upon Sigmund Freud’s theory of the uncanny to examine the disruption and haunting of perception in all three texts. I place the uncanny and that disruption in relation to how the text affects the audience.Show less
This thesis analyses the application of Cultural memory and the unity between the Christian and pre-Christian origins of Christmas in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, John Masefield's The Box of...Show moreThis thesis analyses the application of Cultural memory and the unity between the Christian and pre-Christian origins of Christmas in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, John Masefield's The Box of Delights and Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.Show less
‘Gothic has, in a sense, always been ‘queer’’, or so Hughes and Smith argue in their introduction to Queering the Gothic. Other critics have suggested that Gothic is queer in the sense that it has...Show more‘Gothic has, in a sense, always been ‘queer’’, or so Hughes and Smith argue in their introduction to Queering the Gothic. Other critics have suggested that Gothic is queer in the sense that it has always occupied the liminal spaces and transgressed boundaries in order to interrogate what is “normal” in society . In the Victorian age the sexual aspect of the queer becomes of pivotal importance. When the Labouchere Amendment was passed in 1885, acts of homosexuality became officially criminalised. Research shows how the Gothic then evolved even more strongly into a space for expressing ‘sexual defiance’. Late Victorian authors found ‘a safe location’ in the Gothic genre to ‘explore the landscape of sexual taboos’. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray are both narratives of the late Victorian period and have been widely researched for expressing homosexuality in their narratives. This thesis examines the two novels explicitly for the similar Gothic tropes they use in order to express their queer narrative. This thesis is a close reading of the two novels, comparing and contrastingthese texts by showing how they employ similar Gothic tropes the two novels use to express their homosexual narrative, namely: contemporary anxiety around degeneration, a repressed hidden identity, and the strategical use of elision and “silence”. Through this I will investigate how The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray mirror one another’s queer narratives and how they use the Gothic to criticise and accuse Late Victorian society and law enforcement for marginalising homosexual men and thus creating the internalised double homosexual ‘monster’.Show less
For his deeply considered secondary world Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien shaped and reshaped all the elements of this fictional realm, not least the way that he conceived his Elves. In doing so, he...Show moreFor his deeply considered secondary world Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien shaped and reshaped all the elements of this fictional realm, not least the way that he conceived his Elves. In doing so, he deviated from the popular and traditional Germanic concept of elves with regards to their origins, their inner characters, their external appearance, and their function and significance within society. This thesis shows how, why and to what end Tolkien’s Elves are different from the conventional figure of the elf.Show less
This essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s...Show moreThis essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s End (1910). The relationship between houses and female power will be explored through three chapters. The first will focus on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and will examine the relevance of the house as a physical space within women’s lives. The second will look at The Spoils of Poynton in the context of female homelessness, shedding light on the importance of the female home in wielding power, as women without property are left disenfranchised throughout, as well as the precarious nature of female inhabitance of the home. The third and final chapter will examine Howard’s End in light of this. Women, able to take full ownership of the home, are able to exert control over their environment and exercise a relatively high degree of independence. Howard’s End, then, I will examine in terms of legal female ownership of the house and female inheritance. This essay will examine the role of the house in female agency within the novel, and how these novels emerge from, and form part of, the shifting political, social and legal context of the 19th Century.Show less
In this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to...Show moreIn this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to Austen’s fictions. I shall argue that, although Austen uses the rather conservative genre of the courtship novel, or according to Marilyn Butler, the conservative partisan novel, she employs this genre to subversively express her radical ideas (Butler 3). I shall explore the idea that Austen rarely made her views explicit in her work, due to the prejudice that was attached to feminist opinions at the time due to the life story of Mary Wollstonecraft; I shall trace the effect of Wollstonecraft’s biography on Austen in the next chapter. By investigating different aspects of the family in Austen’s novels, I shall demonstrate how Austen did express her ‘feminist’ opinions through her works, albeit subversively. In particular, I shall examine the weakness of authority figures in her novels. The weakness of these authority figures allows Austen’s heroines to exert more power and therefore have a greater sense of their own agency. I shall further argue that Austen employs the weakness of authority figures in her novels to inspire more feminist behaviour in her heroines, who are not the ‘perfect’ image of Georgian femininity but are nevertheless, as is clear to the reader, favoured over the other characters by Austen. I attempt to show that Austen’s ‘feminist’ tendencies can be seen in her praising her heroines beyond all other characters while these are the characters that display the most agency and therefore are seen to possess ‘masculine’ properties.Show less
Research into the representation of the main character Sara in each Western film adaptation created in the twentieth century. The thesis focuses on gender stereotypes and the representation of the...Show moreResearch into the representation of the main character Sara in each Western film adaptation created in the twentieth century. The thesis focuses on gender stereotypes and the representation of the significance of friendship, imagination and intelligence.Show less
