Maimed bodies in George R.R. Martin’s A song of ice and fire
- Authors: Goodenough, Amy Caroline
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Martin, George R. R. -- Song of ice and fire , Violence in literature , Fantasy fiction -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7301 , vital:21240
- Description: George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, has joined franchises like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings at the forefront of popular culture. Unlike other popular fantasy franchises, however, Song is notably ‘gritty’ - inspired as much by the realism of historical fiction as it is by its fantastical predecessors. The novels focus on a massive struggle for power, and that struggle is a famously bloody one: the violence of the novel’s medieval-inspired world and of medieval warfare, is placed front and center. This thesis argues that Song portrays this excessive violence with a view to more than mere sensation. The body is central to Martin’s text, and since power is the object of Martin’s characters, he depicts the way in which power interacts with the body with sophistication. The use of capital and corporal punishment is foregrounded frequently in the text, and presented as central to the process of ruling, but horrifying in its potential for injustice. For all that these acts of maiming - public execution, public torture - may be presented as ceremonies of justice, Martin makes it evident that they are in fact rituals of power. The spectacular display of maimed bodies occurs frequently - so frequently that it is clearly ordinary to Martin’s characters - and nearly always with a view to creating a perception of power. Heads are spiked on castle walls, gibbets hung in town squares, and slaves crucified on road-signs, and these all speak not of the criminality of the victims, but of the power of those doing the punishing. While such displays may be successful, they usually signal weakness to the reader: Martin writes numerous characters whose acts of violence come as misplaced reactions to their own vulnerability. This dynamic comes to the fore most powerfully in the absurd performances of violence by Theon Greyjoy, and, later, in his torture by Ramsay Bolton.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Riding into myth: Manifest Destiny, Nietzschean ethics and the creation of a new western frontier mythology in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
- Authors: Edley, Christopher
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-. Blood meridian , Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Influence , Mythology in literature , American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism , West (U.S.) -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7334 , vital:21243
- Description: Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West is a provocative evocation of the American West that has attracted a wide range of critical responses. This study has three foci: the novel as epic myth, McCarthy’s critique of Manifest destiny, and the influence of Nietzschean philosophy on the judge and McCarthy’s portrayal of the human condition. These concerns conduce to an alternative reading of the conclusion of the novel. Blood Meridian is a unique textual enterprise as it both conforms to and subverts mythic conventions associated with both Classical epic and the American West. Recognition of the resonances between Blood Meridian and these mythologies helps the reader to engage with McCarthy’s ambitious creation of a powerful literary allegory in the tradition of Twain and Faulkner. Having situated McCarthy’s enterprise within these co-ordinates, the study then moves on to examine the novel’s stunning critique of Manifest Destiny, in the context of the implications that such thinking has had on American foreign policy over the past two centuries, and that continue to inspire American involvement in military conflicts well into the twenty-first century. The final area of focus is the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy on the character of the judge and the weltanschauung that the novel presents. McCarthy’s ultimate objective is to demonstrate that humankind’s most basic condition is an inherently violent one. The more critically accepted reading of the novel is challenged by postulating the kid’s triumph over the judge as not only in keeping with the literary tradition of Melville and others but also a logical outcome of the novel’s allegory of American military involvement in Vietnam. The study concludes that whilst McCarthy has gone on to receive critical acclaim and public praise for works published after Blood Meridian, this work remains both his artistic masterpiece and his most far-reaching engagement with issues of eschatological and political importance. It is argued that, given the contemporary escalation in geo-political tensions, Blood Meridian may well continue to provide insight into the nature of American domestic and foreign policy for decades to come.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Self-reliant transcendentalism in five modern American nonfiction texts
- Authors: Brits, Jason
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Transcendentalism in literature , Self-reliance in literature , Creative nonfiction, American -- History and criticism , Abbey, Edward, 1927-1989 -- Desert solitaire , Krakauer, Jon -- Into the wild , Gilbert, Elizabeth, 1969- -- The last American man , Harlan, Will -- Untamed: the wildest woman in America and the fight for Cumberland Island , Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 , Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7312 , vital:21241
- Description: This thesis is concerned with the persistence of Self-Reliant Transcendentalist thought in modern American nonfiction. It traces the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (as progenitors of the Self-Reliant strand of the Transcendentalist movement in America) in the patterns of thought and endeavours of individuals as documented in five notable nonfiction texts published between 1968 and 2013. The texts are Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man, and Will Harlan’s Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island. Each of the seemingly Romantic individuals portrayed in these texts not only seeks to live a life similar to that of Thoreau during his famous sojourn at Walden Pond, but also seems to embody some of Emerson’s and Thoreau’s key Transcendentalist ideas. These modern and contemporary individuals, and the way in which they are portrayed in texts that fall under the general rubric of “creative nonfiction,” are testament to the continuing relevance of Transcendentalist thought in the United States - and in Western society more generally, as it seeks to negotiate a new relationship with Nature in the shadow of massive impending ecological disaster.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Unity and diversity, love and conflict: an exploration of the philosophy of life in C.S. Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy
- Authors: James, Michael William
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963. Space trilogy , Social conflict in literature , Love in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7345 , vital:21245
- Description: The subject of this thesis is to explore the philosophy of life that informs C.S. Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength). These texts are “spiritual adventures” which exemplify Lewis’s phenomenology of spiritual progress - the movement from self-centredness to Other-centredness. I perform a close reading of the trilogy and attempt to understand the way(s) in which the three major thematic threads - Conflict, Love, and the relationship between Unity and Diversity - all contribute to the proposed phenomenology of the spirit. In the final chapter, I use Kierkegaard’s “stages in life’s way” (the aesthetic, ethical and religious) as a structural frame for understanding the trilogy’s dialectical movement. I also take the unusual step of codifying the fruits of my exploration into what I call ‘the Cosmic Manifesto,’ which serves as my creative engagement with the results of the philosophical exploration. My research shows that the philosophy of life is expressed through a tripartite spiritual journey. The traveller firstly visits the sphere of Mars, which entails developing clear perception and overcoming fear of the Other. Next, the traveller must pass through the sphere of Venus, where - through courageous action on behalf of the Other - s/he learns the nature of self-sacrificial love. Successfully traversing these two stages, the traveller then apprehends the spirit of Harmonia, the love-child of Mars and Venus. As a result, the ideal relation between the self and the Other - unity in diversity - is discovered. I conclude that the philosophy of life underlying the trilogy is both aesthetically, ethically and religiously rich, and is an insightful perspective on a “life worth living.”
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- Date Issued: 2017
William Blake’s animal symbols: tensions and intersections between science and allegory In Eighteenth-Century attitudes towards animals
- Authors: Singh, Jyoti
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4590 , vital:20696
- Description: This thesis explores the tensions and intersections between science, allegory, and related eighteenth-century attitudes towards animals in William Blake’s poetry through detailed analysis of individual animal symbols and tropes. It will focus specifically on the period between 1794 and 1820, to coincide with the dates of Blake’s major works. Chapter One outlines Blake’s key philosophies, concentrating on his particular approach to symbolism. By rejecting certain Enlightenment ideals and beliefs surrounding allegory, Blake created his own form of the literary tradition, and the subjects and symbols of his poetry clearly demonstrate shifting allegorical frames. The chapter also explains why he argued for the recognition, and even valorisation, of the imaginative faculty, or “Poetic Genius”, in an era which accepted reason and rational thinking as one of the main means of apprehending the world. Chapter Two considers the significance of Blake’s use of predatory animals in the SONGS Of INNOCENCE and Of EXPERIENCE. In focussing on symbolic animals, the chapter assesses whether the ‘real’ animals (with all their scientific associations) are alluded to, and the extent to which they influence their symbolic counterparts. In choosing these symbols to represent key themes throughout his oeuvre, Blake drew on some familiar associations and contemporary attitudes towards animals, but offered no critique of society’s attitudes to animals. Chapter Three identifies and analyses the “fragments of Eternity” represented in the contraries of “Good” and “Evil”, and “Energy” and “Reason” embodied by the animals in THE MARRIAGE of HEAVEN and HELL. The symbols’ division between “Reason” and “Energy” develops an understanding of the complex attitudes towards animals, both in Blake’s mind, and in that of the eighteenth-century British public. Chapter Four is concerned with Blake’s depictions of the Worm and Serpent in his poetry, and how his conception of “Beulah” provides more insight into these symbols and their functions. It also grapples with Rod Preece’s argument that the poet recognised the sanctity and divinity in all forms of life, and sought to endorse these beliefs through his animal symbols. As the thesis illustrates, though, Blake is not arguing for the sanctity of all life to be upheld, nor does he see any divinity in the beings and objects found in nature. Sanctity and divinity are constructs of the imagination, and it is through exercising the imaginative faculty - the “Poetic Genius’’ - along with our senses and instincts, that we are able to make sense of the world. The study thus concludes by considering the extent to which ‘real’ animals intrude upon Blake’s oeuvre, and attempts to determine the value of reading the symbols through an “animal studies” paradigm. It also argues that ‘real’ animals are inseparable from their cultural and symbolic representations, because these are the only means of interpretation we have.
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- Date Issued: 2017
“Something past provoked by something to come”: the dystopian complex in selected texts by Lauren Beukes
- Authors: Forrest, Catherine
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Beukes, Lauren -- Moxyland , Beukes, Lauren -- Zoo City , Dystopias in literature , Science fiction -- History and criticism , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/18604 , vital:22360
- Description: This thesis examines Lauren Beukes’s novels, Moxyland and Zoo City, in relation to spectral theory, a tool of critique which enables an inspection of the author’s fictional societies, by looking at the return of that which has previously been repressed. It will be argued that, by portraying the country’s future imaginaries in a dystopian light, Beukes predicts the dissatisfaction that continues to be felt in the urbanised present as having extended into the near-future. Such discontent results not solely from the country’s history of apartheid and the poverty-stricken period of recovery that has followed, but in the lack of agency found in the future subject. The concerns of this thesis lie with the programmed conditions placed on the societies depicted in Beukes’s novels and the citizens that are made to inhabit these predetermined spaces. Arising from these fixed conditions are spectral subjectivities, protagonists who, having been denied recognition by the hegemonic powers at hand, are made inherently aware of the discourse of othering imposed upon them. Constructed from the writings of Jacques Derrida and contemporary spectral theorists, I present a framework capable of dealing with the popularity of ghosts/spectres, and the propensity for haunting, within post-transitional literature. Spectrality, then, is understood as a conceptual metaphor and a mode of characterisation that Beukes employs in her writing to highlight various inconsistencies about the spectralised subject and the future. By working with a theory capable of blurring the divide between the living and the dead, the self and other, it is possible to read Beukes’s fiction as possessing the potential to destabilise supposedly secure positions on otherness and alterity. Furthermore, it will be argued that, by tracking the spectre’s capacity to haunt and the multiplicity of responses which it invokes, it is possible to conceive of alterity, and the response which it generates, as responsible for determining the conditions for the coming of a radically unknowable and therefore open future.
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- Date Issued: 2017
“The surprising involvement of the outsider”: an examination of pessimism and Schopenhauerian ethics in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes
- Authors: Bosman, Sean James
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Coetzee, J. M., 1940- -- Waiting for the barbarians , Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Under Western eyes , Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860 , Ethics in literature , Outsiders in literature , Svenska akademien
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36105 , vital:24479
- Description: When the Swedish Academy lauded J. M. Coetzee for portraying situations in which “the distinction between right and wrong, while crystal clear, can be seen to serve no end” (“PR” para. 3), it presented an interpretation of his texts that considers ethics to be legislative and imperative (see Cartwright, NS 255). The Swedish Academy’s assertions are worth exploring, given that this highly respected body’s statements are indicative of the critical debates generated by Coetzee’s work. It identified a common metaphysical malaise between Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Conrad’s Under Western Eyes, and offered pessimism as a dubious explanation for this apparent lack of value in choosing between right and wrong action. This thesis takes exception to the logical inconsistencies of this opinion and offers a sustained and systematic counterargument with the aim of suggesting an alternative interpretation of the value of ethical action in the two works. My counterargument uses interpretive and methodological models that draw on the works of Gabriele Helms, cultural narratology and Bakhtinian theory in order to investigate the texts, using the philosophy of one of the foremost German pessimists, Arthur Schopenhauer, as an ideological point of reference. The affinity between Schopenhauerian philosophy and Eastern religions (particularly Brahmanism and Buddhism) suggests, contrary to the implications of the Swedish Academy’s statements, that there is value in ethical and moral choices in systems other than those that posit Judeo-Christian rewards and punishments in an afterlife, and that pessimism cannot legitimately be used to nullify this value. Rather, UWE and WB present an alternative set of ethics - one that is voluntary and virtue-based, valuing acts of compassion above all else. But basing my arguments on the novels’ textual affinities with Schopenhauerian ethics, I maintain that neither Conrad nor Coetzee offers strictly uncomplicated presentations of the value of compassion. Yet the sustained thematic and authorial considerations of compassionate deeds suggest that there is indeed value in deciding between morally right and morally wrong action - even if the ‘rewards’ are not guaranteed and may only - at best - be temporary.
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- Date Issued: 2017
“We’ve Tamed the World by Framing It”: Islam, ‘Justifiable Warfare,’ and situational responses to the war on terror in selected post-9/11 novels, films and television
- Authors: Sulter, Philip Eric John
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5544 , vital:20940
- Description: This thesis explores geopolitically diverse fictional responses to 9/11 and the War on Terror. Drawing on Judith Butler’s (2009) notion of the “frames of war,” Jacques Derrida’s (2005) conception of the ‘friend’/‘enemy’ binary, and Mahmood Mamdani’s (2004) critique of the ‘good’ Muslim, ‘bad’ Muslim dichotomy (delineated in 2001 by President George W. Bush) I examine how selected examples of contemporary literature, as well as a popular television series, depict the War on Terror; and analyse how these differently situated texts structure their respective depictions of Islam and Muslims. In the first chapter, I focus on how The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), a novel by the Pakistani author, Mohsin Hamid, problematises the ‘good’ Muslim, ‘bad’ Muslim binary, and argue that the protagonist’s decision to leave the United States in the wake of 9/11 represents an important political comment on global perceptions of American foreign policy and the human cost of millennial capitalism. Chapter 2 is an investigation of two novels: The Silent Minaret (2005) and I See You (2014), by the South African writer, Ishtiyaq Shukri. By situating his characters in a variety of geopolitical spaces and temporal realities, Shukri encourages the reader to discard the structuring frames of nation, race, and religion, and links the vulnerability and violence implicit in the War on Terror to a longer history of conquest, colonialism, and apartheid. In the process, Shukri illustrates the importance of understanding repressive local contexts as interwoven with global and historical power dynamics. Chapter 3 is a study of the popular American television series, Homeland (2011—), created by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, and focuses on the manner in which the Central Intelligence Agency’s “Overseas Contingency Operations” are portrayed by the show. I argue that Homeland initially problematises the ‘friend’/‘enemy’ binary, but subsequently collapses into a narrative in which these two polarities are construed by prevailing American attitudes towards Islam and the notion of the War on Terror as a necessity. This thesis concludes that texts that characterise the War on Terror as a global phenomenon, and situate it within a broad historical discourse, are able to subvert the singularity ascribed to the 9/11 attacks, as well as the epochal connotations of the ‘post-9/11 ’ literary genre. I argue that the novels I have chosen scrutinise the ways in which perceptions are framed by dominant forms of media, historiography, and political rhetoric, and not only offer unique insights on the repercussions of the global War on Terror but attempt to conceive of humanity in its totality, and therefore destabilise the ontological and reductive operation of the frame itself.
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- Date Issued: 2017