Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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This paper will investigate some of the works that make up the Indonesian exile literature to try and discern specific subjects and themes that make them unique. The primary motivation for this...Show moreThis paper will investigate some of the works that make up the Indonesian exile literature to try and discern specific subjects and themes that make them unique. The primary motivation for this endeavor is that this field of literature has been woefully underrepresented on the international scene. Despite the fact that there is plenty of information to be found on the coup and the subsequent massacre and its effects on society, the exile literature that arose from it has been all but neglected, even in the field of academic literature.Show less
The turbulent past of the women’s suffrage movement is a well known part of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. As Gail Cunningham points out, women had barely any rights before the reign of...Show moreThe turbulent past of the women’s suffrage movement is a well known part of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. As Gail Cunningham points out, women had barely any rights before the reign of Queen Victoria, but the women’s suffrage movement made big steps forward during her reign (1-5). It is therefore interesting to look at literature published in the beginning of the Victorian period, and to compare the way women are portrayed in those novels to their representation in literature published later on in the Victorian period. According to recent research, comparing novels from the beginning of the Victorian period and the end shows that women gradually become represented in a more emancipated way (Williams 43). Indeed, this might at first seem like it is true. However, as Nancy Schumann argues, when analysing the different female characters in these novels, it might also come to show that society’s views on women have not changed as much as we might like to believe (109). To test this theory, this dissertation will discuss the representation of women in Gothic fiction published during and after the Victorian period, as this was a widely read genre at the time (Calder 16). Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, published in 1847, early on in the Victorian period, will be compared to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), published later on in the Victorian period, and to Shirley Jackson’s modern Gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). There is a gap of over a hundred years between the publication of Jane Eyre and the publication of We have always Lived in the Castle, so the latter should show a considerable change in the representation of its female characters. Yet, contrary to what is suggested in current research (Williams 43), Gothic fiction does not mirror this change.Show less
The claim to female slave agency is compared in the narratives of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Jacobs, in which the claim that slavery is immoral, is presented as the main argument.
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
closed access
Deze scriptie bevat een vergelijkend onderzoek naar twee verschillende lezingen van J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter. Hoe is het mogelijk dat twee christelijke schrijvers, Richard Abanes en Connie Neal,...Show moreDeze scriptie bevat een vergelijkend onderzoek naar twee verschillende lezingen van J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter. Hoe is het mogelijk dat twee christelijke schrijvers, Richard Abanes en Connie Neal, twee zodanig van elkaar verschillende lezingen van Rowlings romans hebben opgetekend? Het antwoord op deze vraag vormt zich door middel van een close-reading van enkele passages uit de eerste twee Harry Potter-romans, aan de hand van Mieke Bals narratologietheorie. Op deze manier worden de verschillende keuzes binnen Rowlings narratief en de interpretatie hiervan door Abanes en Neal duidelijk. Door deze te koppelen aan Althussers theorie omtrent ideologie, manifesteert zich de ideologie van beide schrijvers en de invloed hiervan op de interpretaties van Rowlings werk. Zo ontvouwt zich een verklaring voor de onophoudelijke discussie omtrent Harry Potter binnen vele christelijke groeperingen, en in dit geval specifiek voor de totaal verschillende interpretaties van Abanes en Neal. Zoals ook beschreven door Paulus in zijn brief aan de Galaten, motiveert het volgen van de geest van de wet beduidend andere ideologische keuzes dan het volgen van de letter van de wet.Show less
The genre of the captivity narrative is closely connected both historically and ideologically with the colonization of the Americas. The genre emerged in the 1550s, when Hans Staden published an...Show moreThe genre of the captivity narrative is closely connected both historically and ideologically with the colonization of the Americas. The genre emerged in the 1550s, when Hans Staden published an account of his Brazilian captivity in True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America in 1557 (Michaela Schmolz-Haberlein 745). In 1575, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda published Memoir on the Country and Ancient Indian Tribes of Florida, in which he describes his captivity with the Calusa Indians. The first example of a captivity narrative in colonial North America is Mary Rowlandson’s The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682), which became the prototype of the genre in American literature. These three early autobiographical narratives and the fictional captivity narratives that were produced in their wake offer the colonizer’s perspective on the often violent conflicts and cultural encounters between European colonizers and the indigenous population that are a central theme in the genre. In this thesis I will focus on the ideological and cultural work that the captivity narrative performs, both in Mary Rowlandson’s prototypical narrative and Kevin Costner’s 1990 film Dances with Wolves, which presents itself as a kind of counter-captivity narrative. I will do so by providing a comparative close reading of the text and the film in their cultural context.Show less
This thesis describes the history and development of Jewish immigrant theater in New York, focusing on a Yiddish translation of Shakespeare's play "Othello". Comparing this version of Othello to...Show moreThis thesis describes the history and development of Jewish immigrant theater in New York, focusing on a Yiddish translation of Shakespeare's play "Othello". Comparing this version of Othello to other Yiddish translations of Shakespeare's plays, this thesis offers a description of the problems that Jews in America encountered during the process of integration into American society.Show less
