The author Agatha Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels between 1916 and 1973. Christie wrote her detective stories during a time in which English society also experienced the first and...Show moreThe author Agatha Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels between 1916 and 1973. Christie wrote her detective stories during a time in which English society also experienced the first and second wave of feminism. This thesis will investigate to what extent the first and second wave of feminism influenced Christie’s depiction of her well-known female detective Miss Marple and her views on women’s roles and identities in British society. This analysis will focus on the following three Miss Marple novels: The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), A Murder is Announced (1950), and Nemesis (1971). Eventually, this thesis will show that the feminist thought and activism key to the first and second wave of feminism have had a significant influence on Christie’s depiction of Miss Marple. Throughout these years, Christie has gradually increased Miss Marple’s agency, prominence and engagement with feminist thought expressed in her time. Even so, the exploration of feminist thought concerning same-sex relationships presents to be a boundary for Christie.Show less
This thesis presents an analysis of the way language is used as a form of power in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four represents a society which uses the...Show moreThis thesis presents an analysis of the way language is used as a form of power in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four represents a society which uses the manipulation of meaning in order to restrict individual thought. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 likewise presents a government whose goal it is to diminish individual thought. However, Fahrenheit 451 focuses more on the violent destruction of written language.Show less
Inspiration drawn from the Middle Ages can be found in many forms of modern pop culture. In fact, so-called ‘neomedievalism’ has emerged onto the global scene, and has become almost as widespread...Show moreInspiration drawn from the Middle Ages can be found in many forms of modern pop culture. In fact, so-called ‘neomedievalism’ has emerged onto the global scene, and has become almost as widespread and as often referenced as when the Roman and Greek cultures were rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance. Neomedievalism is described as the postmodern ‘use’ of medieval cultures which often deliberately denies historical accuracy and is usually a nostalgic or romanticized version - or a crude representation - of medieval culture. This way of appropriating medieval themes and stories is possible because it is still “productive in the contemporary imagination”. This claim is substantiated by the popularity of countless medieval-inspired TV-series, films, medieval-styled ‘role playing games’, books such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book and TV series - and of course music containing neomedievalist themes. This thesis will explore the role of neomedievalism in Viking Metal, Anglo-Saxon Metal and Neofolk, to find out how neomedievalism fits in with the counter-culture of these music subgenres.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
This thesis explores the clique-wallflower dynamic in four seminal teenage high-school films: Carrie (1976), The Breakfast Club (1985), Heathers (1988) and Mean Girls (2004).
This thesis will show that Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy critically explore contemporary social concerns in modern-day America, such as the unfair...Show moreThis thesis will show that Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy critically explore contemporary social concerns in modern-day America, such as the unfair distribution of wealth, the potentially corruptive nature of power and the dual nature of identity. The trilogies also question the capability of both totalitarian and democratic political regimes to govern their people fairly. Both authors introduce their young-adult audience to such pressing socio-political topics by presenting them with two different prospective dystopian futures. Both the Hunger Games as well as the Divergent series present protagonists who are young adults themselves – making the storyline easier to relate to – and the novels critically explore socio-political themes specifically tailored for the young readership. Beyond these initial similarities, both trilogies exhibit a different vision regarding not only contemporary America, but its future development as well, giving relevance to their comparison. Whereas the Hunger Games series' social critique is mainly centered around governmental systems, the Divergent series focuses more on the controversy surrounding identity development, commenting on the precarious balance between a character’s free will to develop his or her own identity and an imposed identity constructed from various external social and economic forces.Show less
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature is introduced as a Romantic hero, with human emotions and needs and a grotesque appearance. The image of the Creature has since changed repeatedly...Show moreIn Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature is introduced as a Romantic hero, with human emotions and needs and a grotesque appearance. The image of the Creature has since changed repeatedly through mass-media adaptations of Shelley’s novel. For example, the current standard image of the Creature bears a strong resemblance to Boris Karloff’s Creature (Frankenstein, 1931) in appearance and personality. This thesis examines the form and function of “the Creature” in contemporary cinematic adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). By analysing the appearance, abilities and behaviour of the Creature in the original Frankenstein (1818) and in cinematic adaptations from various genres, it is shown how the representation of the Creature is influenced by internal and external genre cues of the adaptation in which he is featured. The genres that are explored are the horror genre and the action genre, represented by the movies Frankenstein: Day of the Beast (2011) and I, Frankenstein (2014), respectively.Show less
While much scholarly work has been done on American Cold-War science fiction, John Wyndham’s work has received relatively little attention from literary scholars. Only a handful of sustained...Show moreWhile much scholarly work has been done on American Cold-War science fiction, John Wyndham’s work has received relatively little attention from literary scholars. Only a handful of sustained literary discussions of his work have been published. An unfortunate event, since many of his books give a representation of post-war developments in the form of (post)-apocalyptic stories, and these narratives reflect the society’s fear of what humankind was able to invent, and how these inventions could be harmful to its very existence on a global scale. By embedding non-fictional post-war developments in his science fiction, Wyndham created stories that – even today – can be read as warnings against such dangers. This thesis examines the ways in which post-war social, political and economic developments are embedded in Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1951), The Kraken Wakes (1953), The Chrysalids (1955), and The Outward Urge (1959), and what rhetorical force his stories have. Moreover, the thesis concentrates on how the science fiction genre enabled Wyndham to warn his readership for the possible fatal consequences of the Cold War parties’ behaviour and how the genre facilitated Wyndham in expressing criticism of these two power blocs. Furthermore, it focuses especially on Cold War elements that affected British society, such as the nuclear threat, the Space Race, and the changing social position of women.Show less
