This thesis examines the tradition of the Great American Novel (GAN). Against current academic trends, this literary canon is not understood to safeguard conservative hegemonies. Here, it is rather...Show moreThis thesis examines the tradition of the Great American Novel (GAN). Against current academic trends, this literary canon is not understood to safeguard conservative hegemonies. Here, it is rather studied as an ongoing discourse that has questioned ostensible certainties in American national identity throughout the twentieth century. A select number of GANs are shown to have survived in the canon for decades, and to share an even more select number of archetypes which the novels consistently problematise. The continued resonance of these narratives is argued to be indicative of inherent ambiguities that fester on in American identity as cultural unfinished business. An added relevance is the fact that those uncertainties cropped up precisely during periods when US nationalism seemed to peak, a pattern that forms a surprising, alternative cultural history. The term “Great American Novel” was coined in 1868 by John William DeForest, who called for realist American novels to equal European ones, and to present an imagined US community that overcame post-Civil War regional divisions. Ever since, the tradition has been alluring to American authors seeking to establish their cultural weight. Yet the canon as we know it today only took shape after the confidence-boosting outcome of the First World War, when critics and academics renounced the European, realist ideals of their predecessors in favour of “Romance”, a symbolical style which they claimed had always been the basis of literary American exceptionalism. Retroactively, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick and Huckleberry Finn were canonised as the Romance-edifice, as if they had always been just that. Their archetypes, namely individualism, the American Dream and the frontier spirit, together became a national mythology of sorts, so successful was this invented tradition. Soon it was so familiar, that subsequent authors who sought to reflect on American identity could do so by alluding to those three ultimate GANs. The canon thus became an ongoing discourse, a cultural conversation in which a limited set of rules and clichés were contemplated as national roots. Authors from the Great Depression were the first to demonstrate this. They took the three tropes mentioned, and superimposed them onto topical stories of economic hardship. GANs from the era thus romanticised the canonical archetypes as the eternal foundations of American exceptionalism, precisely by linking their betrayal to contemporary, “un-American” injustices. The years following the Second World War, by contrast, saw such a boost to national confidence that they were named a “Golden Age.” Yet a new generation of authors showed its teeth by digging up GAN-archetypes and weaponizing them, especially those related to frontier-adventurism, against contemporary ideals of dull material comfort. Indeed, the canon’s role as underminer of cultural certainties became fixed in these years. Hence the nadir in GAN-output amid the blows to American superiority of the 1960s and 1970s: the eras of Vietnam and Watergate required no reminding of American problems. The Reaganist 1980s did, however. Especially black authors began to attack Americans’ sense of innocence regarding their history, by again returning to the GANs’ archetypes: taken as the roots of US exceptionalism, they were rewritten as shared traumas. Far from weakening the canon’s position, this attack on its traditions actually revitalised its function as ongoing discourse. Consequently, the 1990s saw more (critically acclaimed) GAN-attempts than any other decade. Within them, authors indicated how the end of the Cold War not only boosted American exceptionalism, but also left it without a signifying Other, and thus without direction and narrative. Again, cultural confidence in the wake of a victory in a major global conflict was being undermined by GANs’ exposing hidden ambivalences in national mythology. The GAN’s imagined community has always destabilised American certainties. The canon forms a surprising, alternative cultural history, in which anxieties invisible in other histories come to the fore, precisely when one would least expect them to. Understanding canons as mere conservative bastions is thus argued to be highly reductive, and damaging to their rich analytical promise in cultural analysis. NB: Dubbelscriptie t.b.v. de opleidingen MA Literary Studies en MA GeschiedenisShow less
Deze scriptie behandelt de vraag hoe het verleden zich al dan niet laat ervaren via film. Specifiek richt ik mij op de notie van presence - een voelbare, onbemiddelde ervaring van het verleden. Dit...Show moreDeze scriptie behandelt de vraag hoe het verleden zich al dan niet laat ervaren via film. Specifiek richt ik mij op de notie van presence - een voelbare, onbemiddelde ervaring van het verleden. Dit idee problematiseer ik aan de hand van een excurs door de Kritische Theorie, specifiek waar deze film aan de orde stelt. Naar blijkt is de ervaring (van het verleden) niet een kwestie van een onbemiddelde aanwezigheid, maar zelf een historisch bemiddelde categorie.Show less
Robert Lansing was van 24 juni 1915 tot 13 februari 1920 minister van Buitenlandse Zaken onder president Woodrow Wilson. Beide mannen lagen niet altijd op een lijn als het aankwam op het te voeren...Show moreRobert Lansing was van 24 juni 1915 tot 13 februari 1920 minister van Buitenlandse Zaken onder president Woodrow Wilson. Beide mannen lagen niet altijd op een lijn als het aankwam op het te voeren beleid. In dit Bacheloreindwerkstuk wordt er specifiek gekeken naar in hoeverre Lansings ideeën voor de Volkenbond verschilden met die van president Wilson.Show less
Dit onderzoek onderwerpt vier Amerikaanse politieke romans aan een tekstuele analyse om uit te vinden hoe de systematische kritiek op de Amerikaanse democratie die deze werken leveren zich verhoudt...Show moreDit onderzoek onderwerpt vier Amerikaanse politieke romans aan een tekstuele analyse om uit te vinden hoe de systematische kritiek op de Amerikaanse democratie die deze werken leveren zich verhoudt tot de daadwerkelijke hervormingsdrang van de auteurs.Show less
This thesis exlores the interlinkage between cats and women in the domestic sphere. It goes into the more overall image and treatment of cats around 1900, but also more explicitly within the...Show moreThis thesis exlores the interlinkage between cats and women in the domestic sphere. It goes into the more overall image and treatment of cats around 1900, but also more explicitly within the domestic sphere and the ideal of domesticity. However, the final chapter demonstrates how cats could actually be utilized by women to escapte the narrow notion of domesticity. Animal agency and the animal experience are important factors as well.Show less
In dit onderzoek is een poging gedaan om tot een oordeel te komen wat betreft het optreden van journalisten tijdens de invasie van Irak in 2003. De samenwerking tussen het Amerikaanse ministerie...Show moreIn dit onderzoek is een poging gedaan om tot een oordeel te komen wat betreft het optreden van journalisten tijdens de invasie van Irak in 2003. De samenwerking tussen het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie en journalisten is lange tijd onderwerp van discussie geweest en wordt in dit onderzoek vanuit meerdere perspectieven belicht; dat van de journalisten zelf; dat van andere journalisten die de samenwerking niet aangingen; en dat van de wetenschap.Show less
This thesis examines and compares the ways in which Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden made use of the rhetoric of American exceptionalism in their public speeches and statements between...Show moreThis thesis examines and compares the ways in which Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden made use of the rhetoric of American exceptionalism in their public speeches and statements between 2007 and 2017. It argues that although all three politicians were members of the Democratic Party and were part of the same administration, there are significant differences in the way they used and related to the concept of American exceptionalism.Show less
In this thesis, the distinction between ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism is questioned through a study of sources from the Confederate States government during the American Civil War. Key...Show moreIn this thesis, the distinction between ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism is questioned through a study of sources from the Confederate States government during the American Civil War. Key concepts in this study are 'othering', 'framing' and theories from heritage studies. The main conclusion is that Confederate nationalism cannot be defined solely as ethnic or civic. The creation of Confederate nationalism is a continuously changing process and can be adjusted to support various differing narratives.Show less
A thorough study of the personal writings of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, in an effort to show that Jefferson was far more radical in his thoughts than one would assume.
This thesis argues that Theodore Roosevelt, as the head of the Progressive Party, attempted to lead the party to victory through the years 1912 to 1916, but ultimately failed due to his personal...Show moreThis thesis argues that Theodore Roosevelt, as the head of the Progressive Party, attempted to lead the party to victory through the years 1912 to 1916, but ultimately failed due to his personal struggles affecting his political strength.Show less
Deze scriptie gaat over het woelige desegregatiedebat in Boston begin jaren ’70 en focust zich specifiek op de kwestie rond ‘busing’, een al dan niet geforceerde transportmethode waarbij kinderen...Show moreDeze scriptie gaat over het woelige desegregatiedebat in Boston begin jaren ’70 en focust zich specifiek op de kwestie rond ‘busing’, een al dan niet geforceerde transportmethode waarbij kinderen op overwegend zwarte scholen zouden worden overgeplaatst naar overwegend blanke scholen, en andersom, met als doel herstel van de raciale balans en uiteindelijk integratie. Het conflict betrof een belangenafweging tussen ouders die zich aangetast voelden in hun keuzevrijheid tussen scholen en ouders die zich verzetten tegen de schrikbarende verschillen in het onderwijs tussen blanke en zwarte scholen. Verzet tegen ‘busing’ werd gevoed door een combinatie van racisme, etnische en sociaaleconomische segregatie, maar vooral eigenbelang, motieven die in deze scriptie centraal staan en uitvoerig worden geanalyseerd. Het verzet werd aangevoerd door Louise Day Hicks. Zij speelde een sleutelrol in bovengenoemde kwestie en voerde een zeer dominante boventoon in het debat rond geforceerde integratie dat zich daaromheen wortelde. Het onderzoek vraagt zich echter af in hoeverre Hicks daadwerkelijk kan worden beschouwd als symbool van de conservatieve tegenreactie, omdat ze op qua persoonlijke idealen en ambities afwijkt van haar politieke achterban en deze soms vanuit een politiek opportunistisch motief lijkt te vertegenwoordigen. Het onderzoek is vernieuwend, omdat het de gespleten beeldvorming rond Hicks poogt te doorgronden en het onderzoek zich toelegt op onuitgewerkte bevindingen over Hicks en daarmee afwijkt van de veelvoorkomende, eenzijdige demonisering van haar politiek optreden.Show less
This Thesis offers a close look at abolitionist white women and the activism they practiced despite the limitations they faced because of their gender. It also studies the prejudices and outright...Show moreThis Thesis offers a close look at abolitionist white women and the activism they practiced despite the limitations they faced because of their gender. It also studies the prejudices and outright racism within the texts these women wrote, which was often informed by their own limitations. It offers an insight on both the complications of intersectionality, and of its necessity when abolitionist texts written by women are judged.Show less
Dit onderzoek toont aan dat er een verandering plaats heeft gevonden in de beeldvorming omtrent Jimmy Carter in de Amerikaanse media. Ook laat het zien dat de presidential rating naar verloop van...Show moreDit onderzoek toont aan dat er een verandering plaats heeft gevonden in de beeldvorming omtrent Jimmy Carter in de Amerikaanse media. Ook laat het zien dat de presidential rating naar verloop van tijd en daden na het presidentschap kan veranderenShow less
This thesis analyzes how The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal explained the loss of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries. This thesis argues that...Show moreThis thesis analyzes how The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal explained the loss of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries. This thesis argues that conservative and liberal media focus on different explanations for Sanders’s loss and that through the style of media reporting several important factors in the Bernie Sanders’s primary defeat, such as the influence of the invisible primary, were not sufficiently explored. Through the media’s “horse race” reporting style, which solely focuses on which candidate is ahead and which candidate is lagging behind, no attention was paid to what happened before the actual primaries and caucuses began. This thesis states, first, that there were no significant differences in how the analyzed newspapers explained Sanders’s loss, second, that the invisible primary was overlooked by the three analyzed media outlets and, third, that the invisible primary played a key role in Sanders’s loss.Show less
This thesis seeks to answer the question "In what way did the pamphleteers of Great Britain identify the colonists living in America during the American Revolution and Revolutionary War (1764-1783)...Show moreThis thesis seeks to answer the question "In what way did the pamphleteers of Great Britain identify the colonists living in America during the American Revolution and Revolutionary War (1764-1783)? To find an answer to this question, twenty pamphlets (each for every year the Revolution and War took place) have been researched. The question of whether or not nationalism was at play during this time has also been a guideline while writing, and researching for, this thesis.Show less
Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan (R) quickly rose within the ranks of the GOP as a vehemently conservative thinker. After the rise of the Tea Party, Ryan was marked as one of the new movement's...Show moreWisconsin Representative Paul Ryan (R) quickly rose within the ranks of the GOP as a vehemently conservative thinker. After the rise of the Tea Party, Ryan was marked as one of the new movement's political leaders and during the 2012 election became the GOP nominee for Vice-President. After the failed 2012 election, his relationship with the GOP's conservative base began to shift. Through the political career of Paul Ryan, this thesis explores the relationship between the GOP leadership and the Party's most conservative base.Show less
