This dissertation reassesses the function of the Greek models mentioned or implied by the Roman playwright Plautus (c.255-184 BC) in some of his comedies. The research presented in this work... Show moreThis dissertation reassesses the function of the Greek models mentioned or implied by the Roman playwright Plautus (c.255-184 BC) in some of his comedies. The research presented in this work questions traditional approaches to Plautus’ plays as extant Latin (un)faithful translations of some lost Greek originals. New light is shed instead on the discursive function of the mentions of or allusions to Greek models in Plautus’ oeuvre. This reassessment shows that the claimed or implied presence of Greek models in Plautine comedy works better as a persuasive means aiming to meet the expectations of an audience concerned with the Greekness of literary genres. Plautus’ fabulae palliatae feature a strong Italic indigenous taste, thus they could sound as extremely innovative, or, as Plautus himself ironically admits, ‘barbarian’, to a philhellenic spectator. Greek literary genres formed an established canonical system whose generic features applied also to Roman literature. Therefore, in order to promote his ‘barbarian’ plays and make them look more Greek, Plautus needed to dress them in a Greek ‘cloak’ (this is what fabula palliata means) by anchoring them in the established Greek tradition. Claiming or implying the presence of Greek models proves to be the strategy chosen by Plautus. Show less
In 1686, the French Jesuit and writer René Rapin wrote his treatise Du grand ou du sublime, in which he proclaimed French king Louis XIV as being the most sublime person. To do this, he used the... Show moreIn 1686, the French Jesuit and writer René Rapin wrote his treatise Du grand ou du sublime, in which he proclaimed French king Louis XIV as being the most sublime person. To do this, he used the concept of 'le sublime', a notion Rapin derived from the Greek classical writer Longinus. With his book, Rapin actually builds on an older tradition: writers had been using an elevated rhetoric to write about Louis XIV for many decades. In this discourse, architecture played a key factor. Writers recognized the overwhelming potential of the king's buildings and future projects, and also employed architectural metaphors and transcendent fictions to try and elevate the monarch. Ultimately, however, all of these works and projects - like Rapin's claim - proved very problematic. Firstly, the rhetoric of the sublime used to evoke the effect of sublimity has always been problematic, since it relies on an interplay between opposite extremes, which are highly unstable. Secondly, when attempting to establish the king himself as sublime, writers were confronted with the far-reaching implications of this claim. The sublime is not only an extreme notion but also a highly subjective one. It cannot be asserted, nor can it be wielded. Show less
In Savage Embraces: James Purdy, Melodrama, and the Narration of Identity, Looi van Kessel explores the ways in which the early works of the American author James Purdy undermine the notion of a... Show moreIn Savage Embraces: James Purdy, Melodrama, and the Narration of Identity, Looi van Kessel explores the ways in which the early works of the American author James Purdy undermine the notion of a stable and true identity. Writing in the 1950s and 60s, a time in which identity politics enjoyed increased purchase in the United States, Purdy imagines characters who feel the urge to act out their sexual desires without having to conform to oppressive identity categories. In so doing, Purdy is searching for a language that shows how identity is produced through narration. To tease out this language, Looi approaches Purdy’s writing through the mode of melodrama—a mode that focuses on the aesthetic dramatization of tensions in the plot—while also bringing his work in conversation with current queer thinking. Ultimately, this dissertation attempts to bring the disparate fields of narrative theory and queer theory in a meaningful relation with one another. Show less
This thesis investigates the fate of medieval reading practices in the early modern verse of John Donne. Monastics, working within the tradition of lectio divina (I focus particularly on the work... Show moreThis thesis investigates the fate of medieval reading practices in the early modern verse of John Donne. Monastics, working within the tradition of lectio divina (I focus particularly on the work of Bernard of Clairvaux), had approached Scripture in order to experience God’s indwelling presence. Scriptural reading, these monks believed, was not a means whereby knowledge might be delivered, but an activity in which divine presence could be immanently experienced.Investigating three Donne poems, The Anniversaries, “La Corona” and “Goodfriday 1613. Riding Westward”, I argue for Donne’s engagement with lectio divina. This engagement is not straightforward, however. Although I see Donne to be confident in verse about his ability to experience the divine through reading, he is much less evidently secure in regard to his own ability to inscribe such divinity. There is a disparity, therefore, between Donne’s felt abilities as reader and writer, which leads him to a form of verse that presses an essentially monastic reading methodology, yet displaces this method’s original goal in respect to its own readership. Donne’s concern, I argue, is with the reading experience of his own readers, what is most clearly experienced by these readers, however, is not the divine but Donne himself. Show less
***Please note that the print and digital version of this thesis are not identical as to the order of the various parts of the front and back matter.***Following the emergence of concepts related... Show more***Please note that the print and digital version of this thesis are not identical as to the order of the various parts of the front and back matter.***Following the emergence of concepts related to Arab nationalism there was a clear struggle between the progressive thinkers who wanted to secure a secular society and release public life from religion, and the conformists who wanted to maintain their traditional practices. This research proposes a critical understanding of letterist abstraction works of art by devising a tool that allows scholars to place a letterist work of art on a spectrum of abstraction in relationship to different elements in the painting. It is a way to understand the artworks and their artists in relationship to each other. Understanding letterists abstraction artists and the dynamics that dictated their work was essential for understanding the movement and its artistic production.The research places the life and work of letterist abstraction artists in a wider artistic, social and political context, thus helping the reader form an understanding of the movement from a broader perspective. By tracing all the threads for the assessment of letterist abstraction works of art and artists, I hope to encourage the emergence of more such scholarly and critical works, until we have a better critical understanding of the contemporary Arab art scene as a whole. Show less
External PhD candidate Annette Jenowein investigated how women have changed the meaning of gender by claiming their place in traditionally male-dominated domains. Her research focuses on the life... Show moreExternal PhD candidate Annette Jenowein investigated how women have changed the meaning of gender by claiming their place in traditionally male-dominated domains. Her research focuses on the life of Charlotte Jacobs: the first woman to establish herself as an independent pharmacist in the Dutch East Indies, a profession that was then regarded as a male profession. Since 1866, when girls were allowed to take the apprentice pharmacist's exam, a woman in the pharmacy was no longer a peculiarity. But when the first woman graduated as a pharmacist in 1881, (male) colleagues openly questioned whether a woman could also manage a busy pharmacy and establish business contacts just as well as a man could. Charlotte Jacobs, sister of Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929) - who was seven years younger and was a doctor and advocate for women's suffrage - managed to run her pharmacy in Batavia for nearly thirty years, all of which she managed exclusively with female assistants. Jenoweins research shows that the entry of women into male domains, such as science and higher professional work, has not only changed the meaning of gender, but has also radically changed the meaning of these institutions. After her death, Charlotte Jacobs earmarked a large part of her assets for a study fund for women and girls who wanted to study at a university but could not pay the costs themselves. This Charlotte Jacobs Study Fund still exists and flourishes and annually supports an average of thirty women and girls who want to study at a Dutch university. Show less
By focusing on the fascinating connections between the ideas on imitation and emulation expressed by Dionysius (in On Imitation and other relevant passages), Quintilian (in Institutio 10 and other... Show moreBy focusing on the fascinating connections between the ideas on imitation and emulation expressed by Dionysius (in On Imitation and other relevant passages), Quintilian (in Institutio 10 and other relevant passages) and contemporary Greek and Latin authors, this dissertation sheds light on the intercultural dialogue and exchange of ideas between Greek and Roman intellectuals in early imperial Rome.Although we may well assume that Dionysius represents a Greek, Quintilian a Roman perspective on imitation in the field of rhetoric, the twofold hypothesis of this dissertation is that these two critics 1) made use of a shared discourse of imitation, and 2) each adapted this shared discourse, and made it subservient to their own rhetorical agendas, which are determined by factors such as writing goal, readership, pedagogical aims, and developments of classicism and literary taste in the decades between their activities.This hypothesis allows us to consider the remarkable differences and similarities between the mimetic ideas of Dionysius, Quintilian and their Greek and Latin colleagues in relation not only to the traditional parameters of ‘Greekness’ and ‘Romanness’, but also to the idea of a shared conceptual framework of imitation that could be used discretionally. Show less
Written Culture at Ten Duinen: Cistercian Monks and Their Books, c. 1125-c. 1250 uses both traditional and new methodologies to examine the extant twelfth- and early thirteenth-century manuscripts... Show moreWritten Culture at Ten Duinen: Cistercian Monks and Their Books, c. 1125-c. 1250 uses both traditional and new methodologies to examine the extant twelfth- and early thirteenth-century manuscripts from the Flemish abbey of Ten Duinen, once situated in the dunes near present-day Koksijde. Patterns in the production and use of books are identified within the abbey's extant manuscripts and defined by analyzing substantial data, gathered within a customized database, for each manuscript unit (i.e., both homogenous manuscripts and non-homogenous manuscripts wherein parts can be differentiated by production period or technique). Scriptorium, library, and reading practices are then situated within the context of the Long Twelfth Century (c.1075–c.1225) and the abbey’s Cistercian network to discuss how the monks of Ten Duinen organized, accessed, interpreted, and transmitted knowledge in the manuscripts they made and used. Show less
This dissertation consists of five articles and focuses on five cases of deception, all presented and exposed in early modern London: The Originall of Idolatries (1624), Alexander Bendo’s... Show moreThis dissertation consists of five articles and focuses on five cases of deception, all presented and exposed in early modern London: The Originall of Idolatries (1624), Alexander Bendo’s mountebank handbill (1676), George Psalmanazar’s An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704), the case of Mary Toft (1726) and the Great Bottle Hoax (1749). These are all examples of creative forgery, fakes without a prototype, that were created to be woven into the fabric of reality. The articles discuss the cases’ dynamics of persuasion and response within their respective cultural contexts but they also explore the wider implications of the five cases and what they can tell us about the perception and role of forgery in early modern culture. Why did early modern illusionist artists and playwrights explicitly compare their work to this kind of deception? How did forgery contribute to the development of the distinction between fiction and scholarship? And what can discussions of newly exposed forgeries tell us about the cultural negotiation of the concepts of reality, authenticity and originality in early modern England? Show less
In this dissertation I have used three Dutch literary works, Karakter by Borderwijk, De avonden by Reve and Hamlet versus Hamlet by Lanoye, to discuss the Hamlet constellation from a... Show moreIn this dissertation I have used three Dutch literary works, Karakter by Borderwijk, De avonden by Reve and Hamlet versus Hamlet by Lanoye, to discuss the Hamlet constellation from a psychoanalytical and a cultural analytical perspective – taking into account both a historical as well as conceptual approach – in order to show the waning belief in the father’s role, or more radically termed, to show a process of emancipation. In Freud’s vision and the Oedipus complex sits centre stage. In his early theory Lacan also uses an abstract Oedipal model in which the father’s role is dominant and where the access to the symbolic order is created by means of symbolic castration. The Hamlet constellation is a supplementary model next to the Oedipus complex which is necessary to interpret a subject position of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Using the Oedipus complex it was possible to read the neurotic construct of the patriarchal master discours, based on a meaning construct where the external ground of authority took an hierarchical position related to the subject. The horizontal authority is a conviction based on the Sinthomatic model of communal acceptance of a ground, the laws on which authority is founded. Show less
Longinus’ treatise Peri hypsous (On the Sublime) has been interpreted in a multitude of ways since its rediscovery in Renaissance Italy. This dissertation shows that early modern scholars... Show moreLonginus’ treatise Peri hypsous (On the Sublime) has been interpreted in a multitude of ways since its rediscovery in Renaissance Italy. This dissertation shows that early modern scholars adapted their readings of Peri hypsous to their own views by highlighting aspects of the treatise that were most relevant to their arguments. Daniel Heinsius adapted parts of Peri hypsous to defend the primordial sublimity of Homer and Hesiod in his Prolegomena on Hesiod (1603). Hugo Grotius was among the first to use Longinus’ reference to Genesis in the context of Biblical scholarship. Franciscus Junius used Peri hypsous in his De pictura veterum (1637) as part of his reconstruction of ancient art theory. Isaac Vossius studied manuscripts of Peri hypsous to establish a critical text of Sappho’s fragment 31 (Peri hypsous 10.2). Jacobus Tollius, aided by Vossius’ notes, published an edition of Peri hypsous and wrote a series of essays that used Peri hypsous to reflect on the ancient literary canon. These often creative adaptations of Longinus’ treatise gave rise to an interpretation that exerted great influence on later criticism through Nicolas Boileau’s French translation of the treatise (1674), but which, as this dissertation shows, has traceable roots in seventeenth-century Dutch scholarship. Show less
This dissertation focuses on the literary function of the ambiguities and wordplay in the work of Apollinaire, Prévert, Tournier and Beckett, showing that this function is much broader than the... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the literary function of the ambiguities and wordplay in the work of Apollinaire, Prévert, Tournier and Beckett, showing that this function is much broader than the humour and entertainment function usually associated with such language play. In the work of these writers, ambiguities and puns often generate serious reflections or tragic plots. Moreover, these language games are so central to the works under investigation that they reflect or underlie their very structures. This use of language is common to all texts explored here, despite their significant diversity in terms of execution and design. This study of the interrelation between ambiguity and wordplay on the one hand and structure on the other, is grounded in close reading. This approach was selected for the insight it can offer into the intentions of the writers under investigation, and for being well suited to the kinds of invitations to interpretation extended by the authors themselves. It is evident that all four approach the idea of authorship with the conviction that the role of the author is both insignificant and inconceivable without the additional complicity and involvement of the reader, from whom they require a co-creative effort. Show less
From the 16th century onwards, scholars searching for a satisfying explanation for the origin of the horn of the land-unicorn (which supposedly provided protection and cure for almost all ailments)... Show moreFrom the 16th century onwards, scholars searching for a satisfying explanation for the origin of the horn of the land-unicorn (which supposedly provided protection and cure for almost all ailments) considered the sea-unicorn as the carrier of this coveted horn. Until the 18th century, it was widely assumed that the sea-unicorn (regarded as the marine equivalent of the land-unicorn) inhabited the waters of distant, unknown territories worldwide. The animal was described in bestiaries, in the discourses of natural historians, doctors and apothecaries, and in the reports of sailors. For different reasons, they all contributed, each in their own way, to the myth of the animal, either reinforcing or weakening it. In two different appearances - the equine sea-unicorn and the fish-like sea-unicorn - the animal even adorned nautical charts and was depicted in the visual arts.This study has provided the sea-unicorn with a unique, double identity and reveals that this animal played a much more significant role in the early modern period than solely to legitimatize the declining belief in the existence of the land-unicorn. Its history is exemplary for the development of natural history research into fauna in the early modern period (including existing animals, animals people believed existed, and imaginary animals). Show less
