“A thousand mad things before breakfast”: the interplay of reason and imagination in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series
- Authors: Dingle, Teresa Anne
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) , Rowling, J. K. -- Characters -- Harry Potter , Rowling, J. K. -- Criticism and interpretation , Fantasy fiction, English -- History and criticism , Magic in literature , Wizards in literature , Rationalism in literature , Imagination in literature , Prejudices in literature
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/118065 , vital:34592
- Description: Realism and imagination serve roles in J.K. Rowling’s world creation in the Harry Potter series and thus will be traced through this thesis. Both rational and imaginative thinking are modes of thought and play roles in characters’ responses to issues. Further, reason and imagination are used in Harry Potter as modes of resistance against the prejudice which shapes much of the society of the magical world and so will be examined. In the Harry Potter series, Rowling combines fantasy traditions with realism and in so doing ensures her wizarding world mirrors the world of the reader. Rowling enacts a re-creation of the real world of the reader through a recombination of realistic and fantasy elements. This thesis will call on fantasy theorists Rosemary Jackson and Dimitra Fimi as well as the fantasy and science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin to examine how Rowling conforms to and expands on the fantasy tradition in which she writes in her creation of the magical world. It is made evident through Rowling’s treatment of Harry’s friends Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood that combining reason and imagination is more beneficial than choosing one over the other. The girls’ ways of thinking, seeing and interacting with those around them are complex and he learns from their combined wisdom how to navigate challenges and trials. Criticism focusing primarily on the secondary character of Luna is relatively scarce, despite her impact on Harry’s views regarding death and the afterlife. This thesis offers a new perspective on the importance to Rowling’s narrative of this open-minded, idiosyncratic figure. Rational and imaginative ways of thinking are necessary modes to use in the resistance to prejudice in wizarding society since this pervasive privileging of wizards over other magical beings espoused by the magical government inspires Lord Voldemort to kill or subjugate those whose magical heritage falls short of pure-blooded wizarding ancestry. In analysing the ostensibly conflicting rational and imaginative modes of thought, I examine Rowling’s unconscious use of shadow theory through her treatment of Harry’s dreams and visions – a direct connection between Harry and Lord Voldemort. Harry confronts his antagonist – and addresses the prejudices pervading wizarding society – through making rational decisions that require imaginative action.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
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.
- Full Text:
- 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.”
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Fusing fact and fiction: biography and autobiography in the novels of Virginia Woolf
- Authors: White, Joshua Craig
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4005 , vital:20580
- Description: Virginia Woolf was noted for a preoccupation with the genre of life-writing throughout her career. Her aims when it came to reshaping the nature of biographical and autobiographical literature were numerous. She veered away from the aggrandising and patriarchal methods with which Victorian biographers tended to depict their subjects. She increased the focus on women in life-writing, examining and subverting traditionally prescribed gender roles prevalent in both her society and the literature that reflected it, and advocating a balance between male and female patterns of thinking. She also devised a method of incorporating both basic biographical fact and aspects of fiction into life-writing in order to approach a more truthful depiction of a subject’s personality or character. This method is linked to the aforementioned balance of gendered thought patterns, since Woolf often aligns factuality with male thinking and the contrasting qualities of fiction, such as intuition, ambivalence and perspicacity, with female thinking. This thesis examines three novels which demonstrate Woolf’s constant preoccupation with combining fact and fiction in order to capture the essence of personality. In her debut novel, The Voyage Out, she presents Rachel Vinrace, who must achieve a balance of male-oriented fact with female-oriented insight in order to fashion a sufficient identity for herself and to identify others in a selective and judicious manner, thus being simultaneously autobiographical and biographical. In Orlando, Woolf explicitly subverts the traditional Victorian biography by depicting Vita Sackville-West as a man who transforms into a woman and remains living for over 400 years. In presenting such a character, Woolf posits that personality consists of and is influenced by myriad aspects of a person’s life that cannot be documented in the restrictive manner employed by Victorian biographers. Orlando’s essence being obfuscated by manifold “selves” attests to Woolf problematizing attempts to attain such an essence. The same challenge is particularly important in her autobiographical novel, To the Lighthouse, in which she transposes the traumas of her own life into a fictitious narrative in order to achieve catharsis for her and her readers, and to present the difficulty in capturing the essence of character. The conclusion that Woolf eventually posits is that personality cannot be reduced to an essence, but rather that it consists of idiosyncrasies that are various, intertwining, and capricious.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016