Slang is a nonstandard informal vocabulary peculiar to a group. In this digital age, the reproduction and evolution of slang words has become faster due to the digital platforms that they are often...Show moreSlang is a nonstandard informal vocabulary peculiar to a group. In this digital age, the reproduction and evolution of slang words has become faster due to the digital platforms that they are often used in. Research has been done on the lexical aspects of slang and slang in general (Sornig (1981); Metcalf (2002)), and on forms of digital slang (McCulloch (2019)), but none view slang as a mode of translation and applied it to to other types of text besides messages on social media. This thesis will address where digital slang terms come from, and if their origins can help explain how likely they are to be understood by someone who speaks regular English. To do so I will annotate a slang translation of Harry Potter, and research the etymological origins of the slang to try to discover - using Metcalf’s (2002) FUDGE theory - which slang terms are more likely to be understood. I expect to find that the slang terms that more closely resemble regular English words are more likely to be understood.Show less
Labeled Language analyses the use of language in the Mencius with the goal of finding out how gender differences feature in this Confucian text. It uses an innovative (original) methodology that...Show moreLabeled Language analyses the use of language in the Mencius with the goal of finding out how gender differences feature in this Confucian text. It uses an innovative (original) methodology that fuses text (data) mining and traditional close reading analysis, building from a gap in the academic literature on the topic of language and gender in the Mencius.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis examines the depiction of solitude in the novels Caleb Williams, Frankenstein, and A Tale of Two Cities, and the relationship between these depictions and eighteenth- and nineteenth...Show moreThis thesis examines the depiction of solitude in the novels Caleb Williams, Frankenstein, and A Tale of Two Cities, and the relationship between these depictions and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century discourses on solitude. In particular, this thesis shows the tension between philosophies of sociability and sympathy, such as Rousseau’s and Hume’s, and the moral dimension of solitude. While previous research has examined solitude by focusing on either Romantic solitude or on loneliness as an imposed condition by social forces, this thesis aims to investigate the moral value of solitude, and its relation to social criticism. Taking a cultural materialist approach, this thesis examines cultural discourses surrounding solitude and offers close readings of the novels to argue that these novels present sociability as a divisive force in society, and solitude as both necessary to foster a connection to humanity, and a necessary condition for justice and morality. The privileging of solitude over sociability shows how these novels respond to the emphasis of Enlightenment philosophy on sympathy and similarity and suggest an alternative foundation for justice and morality in situations where sociability and similarity are insufficient.Show less
Human beings make sense of the world through the stories that they tell. Contemporary media is still predominately postmodern, but there are signs that there is a shift towards a new ‘post...Show moreHuman beings make sense of the world through the stories that they tell. Contemporary media is still predominately postmodern, but there are signs that there is a shift towards a new ‘post-postmodern’ paradigm. In this thesis I will analyze this shift through the figure of the literary vampire, introducing the concept of the hauntological dominant of post-postmodernism.Show less
In the last few decades, there has been an emergence of feminist texts that relate themselves to Homer’s renowned myths, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Inspired by these feminist narratives that...Show moreIn the last few decades, there has been an emergence of feminist texts that relate themselves to Homer’s renowned myths, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Inspired by these feminist narratives that revolve around the centring of the female characters within a myth, this thesis poses an analysis of the emergence and importance of mythmaking by women writers. In my research, I have focused on Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls Madeline Miller’s Circe, two of the most recent examples of feminist mythmaking. Both Barker and Miller are able to give a voice to women that have often been silenced in ‘classic’ myths: Briseis and Circe. The texts foreground the complexity of their female protagonists by relating their stories to the patriarchal world surrounding them. Building onto this, both texts reflect on mythmaking and storytelling on an overarching level, thereby offering us a subtle critique on the way myths have been written and read in the past. Strikingly, scholars have recently studied these feminist mythmakings as mere ‘rewritings’ or ‘fictionalisations’ of Homer’s ‘classics’. The effect is a limiting analysis in which the true intertextuality of the stories gets lost in a restricting methodology. In this thesis, I propose a new way to analyze these mythmakings in an appropriate and respectful way, by using the concept of ‘mosaic mythmaking’.Show less
In this thesis I examine concerns about incompetent and effeminate Chinese masculinities within the context of modern Chinese history, with a focus on the works 'Half of Man is Woman' by Zhang...Show moreIn this thesis I examine concerns about incompetent and effeminate Chinese masculinities within the context of modern Chinese history, with a focus on the works 'Half of Man is Woman' by Zhang Xianliang, 'Beijing Comrades' by Bei Tong, and 'Shanghai Baby' by Wei Hui.Show less
This thesis argues that the story about Melibeus must be read as a call for peace, and that each version was written to comment on specific events. The versions of Jan van Boendale and Dirc Potter...Show moreThis thesis argues that the story about Melibeus must be read as a call for peace, and that each version was written to comment on specific events. The versions of Jan van Boendale and Dirc Potter are compared and examined against the political and cultural background of their writers.Show less
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the social composition of the mechanical devices portrayed in E. M. Forster’s novel The Machine Stops and of Franz Kafka’s In der Strafkolonie and how...Show moreThe purpose of this study is to demonstrate the social composition of the mechanical devices portrayed in E. M. Forster’s novel The Machine Stops and of Franz Kafka’s In der Strafkolonie and how this can be effectively used in order to interpret their imminent implosion within the stories. Beyond providing allegorical expressions for the destruction of Forster’s and Kafka’s machines, I will confront these devices with scholarly literature that highlight the social aspect of the machinic concept and, simultaneously, propose its transcendental dimension that exceeds its material structure and expands within social fields. Thus, the machines within Forster’s and Kafka’s stories are not merely operational structures or tools, but social entities with affective propositions.Show less
This thesis is a complete edition of the album amicorum of Dorothea Petronella (Dora) Bohn (1846-1930). Dora Bohn, was a member of the Bohn family of booksellers and publishers active in nineteenth...Show moreThis thesis is a complete edition of the album amicorum of Dorothea Petronella (Dora) Bohn (1846-1930). Dora Bohn, was a member of the Bohn family of booksellers and publishers active in nineteenth-century Haarlem. The album is a poetry book, known in the Netherlands as ‘poesiealbum’, at the time traditionally offered to young girls to keep memories of their youth. The remarkable longevity of this album with a span of 23 years, from 1861 to 1884, expands its significance beyond the recording of friendships. It contains handwritten inscriptions by members of her family and by a network of friends, including the family’s professional contacts. The album reveals certain aspects of the multiple relations that linked the professional society of Haarlem, at that time known as the centre of the publishing industry in the Netherlands, with the family firms working within a network of professional and personal bonds. The edition aims mainly to map Dora Bohn’s network of family, friends and acquaintances, the literature popular in this network and the related authors, and the story of her life as it is recorded in the album.Show less
In this thesis i explore the changing boundaries of gender and sexuality in nineteenth century Iran. Iranian society was greatly influenced by European modernity and tried to combine this met...Show moreIn this thesis i explore the changing boundaries of gender and sexuality in nineteenth century Iran. Iranian society was greatly influenced by European modernity and tried to combine this met Iranian tradition and Islam. By analyzing the books The Vices of Men and The Education of Women i show how traditional upper-class Iranians dealt with the modernization of gender and sexuality in society.Show less
A selection from the Dutch edition of Bernhard von Breydenbach's travel journal, in which he describes his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The result is a historical-critical edition.
An analysis of three Indian-English novels, researching the functions of spirituality in contemporary Indian-English novels. Reading with religious sensibility, Nadieh Rijnbergen uncovers some...Show moreAn analysis of three Indian-English novels, researching the functions of spirituality in contemporary Indian-English novels. Reading with religious sensibility, Nadieh Rijnbergen uncovers some functions of spirituality. Spirituality represents, among others, a pre-colonial identity which questions modern day neo- or post-colonial identities.Show less
