In this dissertation I consider the ideological implications of representations of courtesan cult... more In this dissertation I consider the ideological implications of representations of courtesan culture in Émile Zola’s Nana, and assert the validity and value of this analytic approach to the naturalist text. The date range I have chosen (1860-1885) encompasses the rise of fall of the Second Empire, from its pinnacle at the Exposition Universelle in 1867, to Napoleon III’s surrender to Prussia at the Battle of Sedan in 1870. French terms are referenced throughout this dissertation so I have included a glossary of translations after the concluding chapter. The chapters of my dissertation develop a Zolaesque framework, forming concentric circles that push out from the novel’s central theme: the sexual body. Briefly summarised, Chapter One explores the body observed: the body as myth, the body as spectacle, and the body in (and evading) the narrative field of vision. Chapter Two addresses the ‘crisis of the nude,’ structures of marginality, and the degradation of the social and political body of Second Empire high society. Chapter Three is concerned with the function of environment in the novel, particularly spaces of modernity and how they operate on gender. Nana is, once again, the centre of the hurricane; the focal point of sexual frenzy, the sexual narrative, and of its analysis; a site for the inscription of moral, political and social ideological commentary to which all symbolism returns. Accompanying each chapter is an analysis of Édouard Manet’s realist paintings Nana (1877), Olympia (1863) and Bar at the Folies-Bergére (1882), opening a wider commentary on literature and art as communicating forms of ideological discourse. Contrary to dominant academic criticism—which I will both cite and scrutinise throughout this dissertation—I posit that Zola’s moralising intention is not at odds with his naturalistic literary aim. Rather, the naturalist novel anticipates the immobilisation of its excessive commitment to descriptive realism; it signals the significance of its apparent contradictions as crucial to the topos with which it is engaged; its calls attention to formal and thematic dissonance, and in turn, the historical circumstances it seeks to expose. The irruption of the natural in the naturalist novel observes the ironies of man-made deformations of the natural world, and through ideological commentary on the body and its environment, Zola condemns the conditions of the Second Empire as the fall of man — posing naturalism as its redemption. Both Zola and Manet’s texts develop around a disparate historical, social and political context, and it is in their aberrations that they come the closest to observable truth.
A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. A discussion of the importance of ... more A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. A discussion of the importance of space in the American novel, focused on the close analysis of Willa Cather's 'The Professor's House'. I examine the relationship between the spatial and the temporal, open and closed spaces, gendered space, and space as American textual identity.
A coursework submission from the final year of my English BA. A study and application of René Gir... more A coursework submission from the final year of my English BA. A study and application of René Girard's mimetic theory to Fydor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground and David Foster Wallace’s “B.I. #48 08-97” in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. By examining how desire, especially Girardian desire, is portrayed and exhibited in these texts, I discuss both sides of the recurring Dostoevskian question: can a person attain independence from the mediators of their desire?
A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. An analysis of Oliver Goldsmith's ... more A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. An analysis of Oliver Goldsmith's 'The Deserted Village' and Voltaire's 'Candide', examining their response to the altered state of Europe as it straddled 18th century Enlightenment thinking and an impending 19th century Romantic worldview. I contrast the pastoral with the philosophical travel narrative and discuss their criticisms of modernity, depopulation, aristocratic landownership, plutocracy, organised religion and the school of Optimism.
This review is a coursework submission from the final year of my English BA, and aims to summaris... more This review is a coursework submission from the final year of my English BA, and aims to summarise the roles of discourse, that of institutions and culture, and their implications and shortcomings in the historical constitution of the homosexual. I examine Foucault's 'History of Sexuality' as a precursor of queer theory, and subsequent texts that established the framework of queer theory. The review will end with a short concluding paragraph discussing broader conceptual issues and how my sources will be applied to the topic of a final 3000 word essay.
This is an assignment from the first year of my undergraduate studies which examines the intertex... more This is an assignment from the first year of my undergraduate studies which examines the intertextual relationship between Alice Munro's 'The Beggar Maid' and Edward Burne-Jones' Pre-Raphaelite painting 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid'. It focuses on the relationship between Rose and Patrick, which can be understood on two primary levels: as in independent romantic narrative, or as a product or reaction to Burne-Jones' painting. By analysing corresponding themes of class divide, idealistic veneer and conquering love, this essay postulates whether Munro deliberately juxtaposed her short story with Burne-Jones' painting, and whether this offers narrative cohesion or indeed contrast between the two mediums.
By analysing what bisexuality is not rather than insisting on what it is, an understanding of bis... more By analysing what bisexuality is not rather than insisting on what it is, an understanding of bisexuality in monosexual culture can be reached without promoting one of the well-worn tropes that sentence it to non-existence.
Curated by Josephine Lanyon, Emotional Archaeology features a number of key works spanning Wright... more Curated by Josephine Lanyon, Emotional Archaeology features a number of key works spanning Wright's 30 year career including impressive sculptural works, films, watercolours and prints exhibited across five galleries at the Arnolfini. Wright directs a tender scrutiny toward sensitive and often brutal themes which provoke the viewer to undertake a series of internal excavations; the archaeological dig, in this sense, is one of unrelenting psychological engagement. Lanyon remarks that 'a day in the life of an Emotional Archaeologist must be exhausting' and this is can be said not only of the labour-intensive processes of producing art. Though there are numerous points of access to Wright's work that range from classical sculpture to country music, the clarity of their communication is disrupted by a series of shifts that simultaneously narrow the viewer's focus and broaden the scope of thought and feeling.
In this dissertation I consider the ideological implications of representations of courtesan cult... more In this dissertation I consider the ideological implications of representations of courtesan culture in Émile Zola’s Nana, and assert the validity and value of this analytic approach to the naturalist text. The date range I have chosen (1860-1885) encompasses the rise of fall of the Second Empire, from its pinnacle at the Exposition Universelle in 1867, to Napoleon III’s surrender to Prussia at the Battle of Sedan in 1870. French terms are referenced throughout this dissertation so I have included a glossary of translations after the concluding chapter. The chapters of my dissertation develop a Zolaesque framework, forming concentric circles that push out from the novel’s central theme: the sexual body. Briefly summarised, Chapter One explores the body observed: the body as myth, the body as spectacle, and the body in (and evading) the narrative field of vision. Chapter Two addresses the ‘crisis of the nude,’ structures of marginality, and the degradation of the social and political body of Second Empire high society. Chapter Three is concerned with the function of environment in the novel, particularly spaces of modernity and how they operate on gender. Nana is, once again, the centre of the hurricane; the focal point of sexual frenzy, the sexual narrative, and of its analysis; a site for the inscription of moral, political and social ideological commentary to which all symbolism returns. Accompanying each chapter is an analysis of Édouard Manet’s realist paintings Nana (1877), Olympia (1863) and Bar at the Folies-Bergére (1882), opening a wider commentary on literature and art as communicating forms of ideological discourse. Contrary to dominant academic criticism—which I will both cite and scrutinise throughout this dissertation—I posit that Zola’s moralising intention is not at odds with his naturalistic literary aim. Rather, the naturalist novel anticipates the immobilisation of its excessive commitment to descriptive realism; it signals the significance of its apparent contradictions as crucial to the topos with which it is engaged; its calls attention to formal and thematic dissonance, and in turn, the historical circumstances it seeks to expose. The irruption of the natural in the naturalist novel observes the ironies of man-made deformations of the natural world, and through ideological commentary on the body and its environment, Zola condemns the conditions of the Second Empire as the fall of man — posing naturalism as its redemption. Both Zola and Manet’s texts develop around a disparate historical, social and political context, and it is in their aberrations that they come the closest to observable truth.
A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. A discussion of the importance of ... more A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. A discussion of the importance of space in the American novel, focused on the close analysis of Willa Cather's 'The Professor's House'. I examine the relationship between the spatial and the temporal, open and closed spaces, gendered space, and space as American textual identity.
A coursework submission from the final year of my English BA. A study and application of René Gir... more A coursework submission from the final year of my English BA. A study and application of René Girard's mimetic theory to Fydor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground and David Foster Wallace’s “B.I. #48 08-97” in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. By examining how desire, especially Girardian desire, is portrayed and exhibited in these texts, I discuss both sides of the recurring Dostoevskian question: can a person attain independence from the mediators of their desire?
A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. An analysis of Oliver Goldsmith's ... more A coursework submission from the second year of my English BA. An analysis of Oliver Goldsmith's 'The Deserted Village' and Voltaire's 'Candide', examining their response to the altered state of Europe as it straddled 18th century Enlightenment thinking and an impending 19th century Romantic worldview. I contrast the pastoral with the philosophical travel narrative and discuss their criticisms of modernity, depopulation, aristocratic landownership, plutocracy, organised religion and the school of Optimism.
This review is a coursework submission from the final year of my English BA, and aims to summaris... more This review is a coursework submission from the final year of my English BA, and aims to summarise the roles of discourse, that of institutions and culture, and their implications and shortcomings in the historical constitution of the homosexual. I examine Foucault's 'History of Sexuality' as a precursor of queer theory, and subsequent texts that established the framework of queer theory. The review will end with a short concluding paragraph discussing broader conceptual issues and how my sources will be applied to the topic of a final 3000 word essay.
This is an assignment from the first year of my undergraduate studies which examines the intertex... more This is an assignment from the first year of my undergraduate studies which examines the intertextual relationship between Alice Munro's 'The Beggar Maid' and Edward Burne-Jones' Pre-Raphaelite painting 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid'. It focuses on the relationship between Rose and Patrick, which can be understood on two primary levels: as in independent romantic narrative, or as a product or reaction to Burne-Jones' painting. By analysing corresponding themes of class divide, idealistic veneer and conquering love, this essay postulates whether Munro deliberately juxtaposed her short story with Burne-Jones' painting, and whether this offers narrative cohesion or indeed contrast between the two mediums.
By analysing what bisexuality is not rather than insisting on what it is, an understanding of bis... more By analysing what bisexuality is not rather than insisting on what it is, an understanding of bisexuality in monosexual culture can be reached without promoting one of the well-worn tropes that sentence it to non-existence.
Curated by Josephine Lanyon, Emotional Archaeology features a number of key works spanning Wright... more Curated by Josephine Lanyon, Emotional Archaeology features a number of key works spanning Wright's 30 year career including impressive sculptural works, films, watercolours and prints exhibited across five galleries at the Arnolfini. Wright directs a tender scrutiny toward sensitive and often brutal themes which provoke the viewer to undertake a series of internal excavations; the archaeological dig, in this sense, is one of unrelenting psychological engagement. Lanyon remarks that 'a day in the life of an Emotional Archaeologist must be exhausting' and this is can be said not only of the labour-intensive processes of producing art. Though there are numerous points of access to Wright's work that range from classical sculpture to country music, the clarity of their communication is disrupted by a series of shifts that simultaneously narrow the viewer's focus and broaden the scope of thought and feeling.
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