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“I Bid My Hideous Progeny Go Forth and Prosper”: Frankenstein’s Homosocial Doubles and Twentieth Century American LiteratureFrampton, Sara 29 July 2013 (has links)
This dissertation explores the reoccurrence of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein within twentieth-century American novels. While the inaccurate 1931 film version by James Whale remains the best known adaptation of Frankenstein, I argue that Willa Cather, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Chuck Palahniuk return to Shelley’s 1818 novel to critique racist and misogynistic responses to anxieties about gender and racial power in the age of industrial consumer culture. In doing so, I extend existing scholarship on the American Gothic to demonstrate that The Professor’s House, Invisible Man, Beloved, and Fight Club represent a specifically Shelleyan Gothic tradition in twentieth-century American literature.
My project draws upon influential feminist and postcolonial readings of Frankenstein and on the theoretical work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and later critics who have developed her theory to show how the twentieth-century novels echo themes and motifs from Shelley’s novel to critique the destructive effects of male homosociality. Each novel contains a protagonist that resembles Victor Frankenstein and responds to historically specific anxieties about gender, race, and industrial technoscience by creating a doppelgänger who enables participation in a homosocial bond that is initially empowering but proves destructive to women, racial minorities, and eventually the creature and creator figures themselves. My reading reveals unexpected similarities between Cather’s The Professor’s House and Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Cather’s novel appears to glorify Tom Outland as the ideal masculine hero but ultimately reveals him to be a monstrous doppelgänger who acts out the Professor’s oppressive impulses; similarly, Fight Club seems to romanticize the male violence instigated by the doppelgänger figure Tyler Durden but actually echoes Shelley’s critique of male homosociality as monstrous. My reading also reveals previously overlooked similarities between Invisible Man and Beloved, both of which feature a black protagonist who surprisingly resembles Victor Frankenstein by creating a doppelgänger to challenge his or her disempowerment by the structures of white male homosociality but end up emulating the destructive homosocial structures they critique. My dissertation shows how all of these writers share Shelley’s critique yet move beyond it by offering alternatives to the destructive cycle of violence, embodied in each case by a female figure who resists or reclaims the position of the abject other in the homosocial triangle.
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Constructing chivalry: the symbolism of King Mark in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"Heikel, Julie Anne 02 December 2010 (has links)
Despite Tristan’s place as a cornerstone of the operatic repertory, there has been surprisingly little scholarship on King Mark, whom scholars often overlook in favour of the title characters. This study examines Wagner’s adaptation of his source, the Tristan of Gottfried von Strassburg, to construct a character that represents the courtly chivalric society of the opera in opposition to the new order represented in Tristan’s passionate pursuit of love and, ultimately, of death. Building on literary scholarship of the Tristan tradition, this study explores issues of duality and decline in Mark’s character and the elements of his chivalric friendship with Tristan within the homosocial constructs of the courts. Through his use of traditional operatic lament form, associative orchestration, and text expression, Wagner constructs a king who is more nuanced that any of his predecessors: one cleansed by tragedy and capable of forgiveness.
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“I Bid My Hideous Progeny Go Forth and Prosper”: Frankenstein’s Homosocial Doubles and Twentieth Century American LiteratureFrampton, Sara January 2013 (has links)
This dissertation explores the reoccurrence of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein within twentieth-century American novels. While the inaccurate 1931 film version by James Whale remains the best known adaptation of Frankenstein, I argue that Willa Cather, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Chuck Palahniuk return to Shelley’s 1818 novel to critique racist and misogynistic responses to anxieties about gender and racial power in the age of industrial consumer culture. In doing so, I extend existing scholarship on the American Gothic to demonstrate that The Professor’s House, Invisible Man, Beloved, and Fight Club represent a specifically Shelleyan Gothic tradition in twentieth-century American literature.
My project draws upon influential feminist and postcolonial readings of Frankenstein and on the theoretical work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and later critics who have developed her theory to show how the twentieth-century novels echo themes and motifs from Shelley’s novel to critique the destructive effects of male homosociality. Each novel contains a protagonist that resembles Victor Frankenstein and responds to historically specific anxieties about gender, race, and industrial technoscience by creating a doppelgänger who enables participation in a homosocial bond that is initially empowering but proves destructive to women, racial minorities, and eventually the creature and creator figures themselves. My reading reveals unexpected similarities between Cather’s The Professor’s House and Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Cather’s novel appears to glorify Tom Outland as the ideal masculine hero but ultimately reveals him to be a monstrous doppelgänger who acts out the Professor’s oppressive impulses; similarly, Fight Club seems to romanticize the male violence instigated by the doppelgänger figure Tyler Durden but actually echoes Shelley’s critique of male homosociality as monstrous. My reading also reveals previously overlooked similarities between Invisible Man and Beloved, both of which feature a black protagonist who surprisingly resembles Victor Frankenstein by creating a doppelgänger to challenge his or her disempowerment by the structures of white male homosociality but end up emulating the destructive homosocial structures they critique. My dissertation shows how all of these writers share Shelley’s critique yet move beyond it by offering alternatives to the destructive cycle of violence, embodied in each case by a female figure who resists or reclaims the position of the abject other in the homosocial triangle.
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Från adlig uppfostran till borgerlig utbildning : Kungl. Krigsakademien mellan åren 1792 och 1866 / From Upbringing to Education : The Swedish Royal War Academy, 1792 to 1866Larsson, Esbjörn January 2005 (has links)
This thesis presents an analysis of cadet training at the Royal War Academy between 1792 and 1866. The purposes of this study are to problematise the Academy's function and to investigate male social reproduction amongst the Swedish upper classes. Two different aspects of social reproduction are studied: the transmission of social position between generations; and the communication of ideals and lifestyle that were linked to the position that was reproduced. The former was studied with the help of Pierre Bourdieu's terminology, while the latter necessitated the use of theoretical perspectives on masculinity. This thesis demonstrates the changes in the preconditions for male social reproduction, and relates them to the transition from a late feudal to a capitalist society. At the end of the eighteenth century, the usual route to a military career was still through the family's personal contacts in the armed forces. In Bourdieu's terms, this was a very direct means of transferring symbolic capital, and one that also required social capital. With the emergence of the middle class, the Academy's recruitment patterns altered. This process coincided with the emergence of a Swedish education system, and cadet training gradually adapted to fit with other elements in the school system. The ability to transfer symbolic capital directly to the next generation crumbled in the face of a system where education was necessary for the reproduction of a social position. Unlike the shifting shape of social reproduction, masculine upbringing was central at the Academy throughout the whole period. The cadets entered as boys and left as men. In this process, relationships within the cadet corps were of crucial importance. The new cadets first had to subordinate themselves to their elders, and then in turn subordinate others. It was this social order that ensured the cadets learnt a harsh lesson in leadership.
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”I was anxious to keep her in ignorance” : - berättarperspektiv och makt i Emily Brontës Wuthering HeightsEdström, John January 2014 (has links)
Denna uppsats redogör för och undersöker berättarperspektiv och maktrelationer i Emily Brontës roman Wuthering Heights. På vilket sätt läsaren tar del av romanens komplexa berättande, om det är samma berättare genom hela romanen eller om det skiftar, vilka maktrelationer som existerar mellan romangestalterna och förhållanden mellan makt och berättarperspektiv undersöks genom analys av verket.
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