This thesis deals with the issue of cultural appropriation by the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn. Under which conditions does Golden Dawn (GD) manage to implement cultural personas and objects...Show moreThis thesis deals with the issue of cultural appropriation by the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn. Under which conditions does Golden Dawn (GD) manage to implement cultural personas and objects in its narrative, what enables it to do so, and what is the result of this practice? Can a cultural object mobilised for political purposes speak back and what does that entail for the object’s political force? Furthermore, how can culture and one’s way of looking at it function as a catalyst for the formation of bonds amongst men? Focusing on C.P. Cavafy’s mobilisation by GD, and using concepts and insights by Bal, van Alphen, Derrida, and Puar as its theoretical background, this thesis will probe into these questions. Approaching GD’s website as a museum where cultural objects are placed and viewers are invited to gaze upon them, as well as by examining performances of homophobia by GD, I argue that there is a strong aspect of theatricality in these practices. This theatricality shapes an audience, which, whether accepting or condemning what it sees, essentially serves to further foster male bonds within Golden Dawn.Show less
This thesis examines the role of education in the Mysterious Benedict Society series on two levels. On the level of the story, I analyze how the two opposite characters of Nicholas Benedict and...Show moreThis thesis examines the role of education in the Mysterious Benedict Society series on two levels. On the level of the story, I analyze how the two opposite characters of Nicholas Benedict and Ledroptha Curtain function as "educators" in the intradiegetic world. Then, on a second level, I delve into the ways in which the text can "educate" its readers. I place my research in a framework of children's literature theory and criticism, narratology, and a text on education by Jacques Rancière.Show less
In recent years, in the field of contemporary literature, greater attention has been put on literary productions dealing with environmental pollution or destruction, prompting the surge of...Show moreIn recent years, in the field of contemporary literature, greater attention has been put on literary productions dealing with environmental pollution or destruction, prompting the surge of environmental criticism – ecocriticism – to a well developed and independent discipline within the environmental humanities. Nevertheless, the field, as Karen Thornber correctly noted, has been mainly focused on issues raised by western literary works. Environmental fictions – or ecofictions – produced in East Asia, despite their preoccupations with pollution and environmental disaster, are usually excluded from the analyses of ecocritics. In Japan in particular, after the Fukushima disaster of March 3, 2011, varied literary works – from short stories to novels and poems – have addressed topics of nuclear pollution and environmental disaster. Therefore, it becomes paramount to focus on this gap in ecocriticism and start to develop more comprehensive studies of ecofictions expanding beyond literary production in English or western languages. This thesis, presenting as a case study the novel Somersault (1999) – by the Japanese author O̅e Kenzaburō, tries to address this gap by focusing on the narrativization of nuclear disaster in relation to the representations of time and space. After the introduction of an analytical tool comprehensive of various theoretical concepts, this study endeavors to demonstrate the importance of accounting for those elements revealing deeper environmental concerns that are often overlooked by critics in literary productions. My study of narrrativizations of time and space, as they take shape in this Japanese case study, shall prove productive also for the analysis of other ecofictions produced in different languages and arising from varied cultural traditions. Furthermore, an analytical tool linking together temporality and space could enable comparative studies between East Asian and Western ecofictions. This study could thus contribute to the field of ecocriticism by allowing for a diversification in the understanding of perceptions of time and space in literary works from different literary and cultural traditions dealing with the threat, or in the aftermath, of an environmental disaster.Show less
This thesis looks at the concept of double consciousness through a comparison of hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar's albums 'To Pimp a Butterfly' (2015) and 'DAMN.' (2017). To capture the...Show moreThis thesis looks at the concept of double consciousness through a comparison of hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar's albums 'To Pimp a Butterfly' (2015) and 'DAMN.' (2017). To capture the particularities of the development of double consciousness in 'DAMN.', the author proposes to add the new concept of post-critical double consciousness to the theoretical field.Show less
The focus of this thesis is on a mysterious group of beings encountered in William S. Burroughs’ (1914-1997) literary works: the Wild Boys. These Wild Boys are a personification of many of the...Show moreThe focus of this thesis is on a mysterious group of beings encountered in William S. Burroughs’ (1914-1997) literary works: the Wild Boys. These Wild Boys are a personification of many of the central themes of Burroughs’ works, such as homosexuality, masculinity and violence, but also revolution, anarchism and utopianism. As embodiments of all the above themes, the Wild Boys offer much that is of interest in the present day political sphere because they exist as (and express) a reaction to some of the dominant ideological and social conflicts of Burroughs’ time. The structure of these conflicts may have changed but they have certainly not disappeared: family structures, masculinity and femininity, the capitalist economic paradigm, pacifism contra revolutionary desires and, last but by no means least, the relation of the West to ‘the rest,’ and in relation to this, American imperialism and its 20th century crises. Through the Wild Boys, Burroughs outlines an alternative form of social organisation which has its own internal contradictions and pitfalls, but which is ultimately concerned with possibilities of radical emancipation.Show less
This thesis is an attempt to come to a meaningful reading of the self-reflexive and ironic work Being John Malkovich, by Spike Jonze (dir.) and Charlie Kaufman (script). My lead question is how the...Show moreThis thesis is an attempt to come to a meaningful reading of the self-reflexive and ironic work Being John Malkovich, by Spike Jonze (dir.) and Charlie Kaufman (script). My lead question is how the structural element of the mise-en-abyme functions within the meaning production process. This structural relation between part and whole is traditionally thought of as a relatively stable synecdoche: a miniature of the whole reflecting its meaning. However, I find that it may also function as a self-reflexive, instable synecdoche: a miniature questioning the very possibility of the work’s meaning production. Traditionally, the first option refers us to the field of hermeneutics, the second to deconstruction. The primary objective of this thesis is to find out how these two reading strategies relate and differ: and how these differences negotiate the boundary between a hermeneutic or a deconstructive mise-en-abyme in Being John Malkovich.Show less
