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
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
Romance fiction inevitably reveals much of the romantic values and traditions of its time, reflecting cultural and societal changes that promoted changes in romance literature. Despite the many...Show moreRomance fiction inevitably reveals much of the romantic values and traditions of its time, reflecting cultural and societal changes that promoted changes in romance literature. Despite the many changes and interpretations romance fiction has seen, the idea persists that romantic comedies promote fantasies rather than reflect real life. However, a genre must draw from related cultural phenomena in order to persist. As our romantic values and our experiences change, so do the ways these stories are told. Romantic comedy engages with our discourse on romance and relationships and though they may be packaged differently today, they are essentially what they have always been: stories about relationships, about intimacy, about the human experience of connecting, intimately, with another. Modern works such as Sex Education, Wanderlust and Grace and Frankie demonstrate how the genre of romantic comedy has redefined itself. These television shows reveal an awareness of the genre’s conventions, the scepticism, the struggle and yet the wish persists to believe in the happily-ever after.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
In Elizabeth Bowen’s The Demon Lover and Other Stories (1944), Rosamond Lehmann’s The Ballad and the Source (1944), and Rose Macaulay’s The World My Wilderness (1950), the actual present strikes...Show moreIn Elizabeth Bowen’s The Demon Lover and Other Stories (1944), Rosamond Lehmann’s The Ballad and the Source (1944), and Rose Macaulay’s The World My Wilderness (1950), the actual present strikes characters as unreal, since history is overturned, partly by the proximity of war: past, present and future are mingled. These prose texts are placed in relation to T.S. Eliot’s poetic commentary on our ambivalent attitude to time, Four Quartets (1943), which can similarly be seen as a response to the writer’s experience of the Blitz. The texts this thesis engages with explore the idea of simultaneity, a multiplied presence – but they also bespeak a disbelief in an independent present, one untainted by the past and future. Indeed, in these texts, the “anaesthetized and bewildered present” (The Demon Lover and Other Stories, Bowen 221) is obscured both by compressions and expansions of time, often in combination with a collapse of identity. Brimming with both nostalgia and painful memories, but also due to the looming presence of war, the texts are all in some way ‘haunted’, both metaphorically as well as literally. Ultimately, this thesis will argue that under the pressure of the war and its aftermath, 1940s Modernist texts question the linearity of time and experience.Show less
Taking Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), Samir Calixto in his dance-theatre play of the same title offers a new interpretation of an old order. In his work, God is a vain tyrant, Satan a...Show moreTaking Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), Samir Calixto in his dance-theatre play of the same title offers a new interpretation of an old order. In his work, God is a vain tyrant, Satan a tragic hero, Adam a weak marionette, and Eve a brave leader who, with determination and hope, guides Adam out of the Paradise towards enlightenment and a new beautiful world. This thesis aims to examine the difference in portrayal of gender roles in the two works. The main research question seeks to explore performance of gender roles in the background of gender studies and literary criticism on Milton. The sub-questions investigate how literature influences dance and what is the relationship between the two art forms; how the physicality of dance and lack of dramatic text affect possible interpretations; and whether Eve can be seen as the embodiment of the masculine. The emergence of modern dance, particularly understood as a form not based on narrative, is described along with the notion of intermediality and postdramatic theatre. A conceptual base regarding gender theory and adaptation studies is set out with examples from Milton's poem before an in-depth analysis of Calixto's performance.Show less
This thesis employs queer and psychoanalytic theory in order to analyze three Gothic texts from the Romantic Period: William Godwin's 'Caleb Williams' (1794), Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (1818),...Show moreThis thesis employs queer and psychoanalytic theory in order to analyze three Gothic texts from the Romantic Period: William Godwin's 'Caleb Williams' (1794), Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (1818), and James Hogg's 'Justified Sinner' (1824). Through close readings, this thesis argues that the male protagonist's 'double' is a manifestation of his repressed homosexual desires. Do to societal pressure for normative behaviour, the protagonist experiences opposing feelings of desire and homophobia, ultimately causing his isolation and self-hatred.Show less
Disney has been releasing Disney Princess films since 1937. They started out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and just now, a thirteenth film has been added to the list: Moana. A distinct...Show moreDisney has been releasing Disney Princess films since 1937. They started out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and just now, a thirteenth film has been added to the list: Moana. A distinct change in character is noticeable when looking at the princesses. The princesses from the first generation (1937-1959) have passive characters, they are submissive, enjoy domestic chores and play no active role in their own tales. They simply wait to be swept off their feet by a prince. In fact, they represented what people considered to be the perfect woman in those days. However, nowadays, that is not what we consider the perfect woman to be. The second generation princesses (1989-1998) introduced a change. They were rebellious, took agency and instead of falling for any man, they wanted the right one. However, these films still focus on finding love, as if that is all that a woman's life should be about. The most recent princesses (from 2010 onwards) are increasingly more independent and active. They do not rely on men to save them, take matters into their own hands and determine their own fate. They are progressive princesses and continue to increasingly become more proactive and independent. These new princesses provide the twenty-first-century audience with role models they can actually learn from. Disney is not there yet, but they are slowly but surely letting go of the Disney formula.Show less
In the following chapters, I shall compose a theoretical framework of both children’s literature and female gender studies and use this for an analysis of the presentation of female gender in Roald...Show moreIn the following chapters, I shall compose a theoretical framework of both children’s literature and female gender studies and use this for an analysis of the presentation of female gender in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (chapter 2), The Witches (chapter 3) and Matilda (chapter 4). Following Culley’s analysis, Dahl’s at times grotesque and even sadistic narratives appear to uncover ideological hypocrisies like sexism or stereotyped gender roles, hereby drawing attention towards gender issues. However, the satirical presentation of these ideological stereotypes may present Dahl’s work as mainly humorous or entertaining, in this way overshadowing the actuality of repressing gender stereotyping as projected in the text.Show less
