ABSTRACT: This thesis will examine how Geoffrey Chaucer uses the language of gender in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale in the Canterbury Tales. I will examine the gendered, or gender-neutral diction the Wife of Bath uses, specifically when describing the gender roles and norms of English Medieval society. To support my claims, I will reference other stories in the Canterbury tales, specifically the Miller’s Tale, which uses highly gendered diction to distinguish men from women in terms of their physicality. I will also include sources that speak about commonly used Middle English diction and syntax in order to distinguish between Chaucer’s own creation and characterization, and the linguistic norms of the time.
ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the subversive potential of the romance plot by critically
comparing both the domestic coming-of-age novel Little Women with the dystopic novel The
Handmaid’s Tale. Though pertaining to very different genres, Alcott and Atwood’s heroines are
made to deal simultaneously with their respective love interests and their main storyline. Both
authors play with the romantic plot and idealized tropes to utilize its familiarity in their favor.
For Jo, her marriage to the unconventional Professor Bhaer is more intellectually fulfilling, but
ultimately is representative of the compromise that Alcott had to make to satisfy her publishers
and readers alike. While for Offred, the addition of a romantic storyline undermines the novel’s
critique of the patriarchy. In each case, Alcott and Atwood both use a familiar narrative plot
precisely to disrupt normative narrative expectations. The heroines of Little Women and The
Handmaid’s Tale are, in this way, not dissimilar to Trojan horses: outfitted by their authors as
relatively unassuming women on the outside, yet ultimately disruptive to the status quo of the
plot on the inside.
ABSTRACT: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" initiated a genre of literature in
which women writers use fiction as a means of telling their own stories of mental illness.
Various as mental illnesses may be, the literature of this genre shows a good deal of
commonality from one work to another. These works reinforce each other in telling a story in
which women's illness is specifically female and connected to the vocations available or
unavailable to women. They also narrate of a medical profession dominated by men, in which
female patients' complaints are not listened to or taken seriously. This essay will look at three
works that are prominent in this genre: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"
(1892), Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963). What is
most interesting from a literary point of view is how these authors transform their stories into
works of fiction.
ABSTRACT: Why does a poet decide to write a novel? What can prose offer compared to poetry? How does the author’s message change in this transition? Which aspects of the poet’s novel can be encountered in a specific work? These are the research questions I will be addressing in this thesis about the phenomenon of the poet’s novel, taking into consideration two authors who come from different backgrounds and generations: Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong. It is, however, necessary to specify that, with this paper, I do not mean to find the exact reason why poets across nationalities and generations write novels—since each case is different from another—but rather consider these two poets in particular, whose writing resonates with my artistic sensibility. I will also offer an in-depth analysis of their poems and see the similarities and differences with their fiction. As a writer myself, I feel more comfortable writing poetry than prose, maybe because, in my mind, it allows me more freedom to express what I feel and to experiment. On the other hand, I am not excluding that I will write a short story collection someday, or even a novel, which is why I admire those writers who challenge themselves by experimenting with a different genre from the one they feel most comfortable with. The ultimate question I will be answering is: why do poets write novels? Is it to increase their chances to sell? To draw more attention to their next poetry collection from a public of mostly prose-readers? Or do they want to express something they could not have expressed in their poems, maybe using a different medium? Whatever those reasons might be, Plath and Vuong deliver beautifully written contributions to the ongoing dialogue concerning the worthiness and purpose of poetry and prose, teaching us that boundaries and genres are not fixed, but flexible.
ABSTRACT: In Virginia Woolf’s novels, Nature is always present. It takes the form of the flowers in
Mrs. Dalloway, the sea in To the Lighthouse, and the trees in Orlando. In all of these novels,
Nature dominates the scenery, and the visions of Woolf’s protagonists. While its specific
functions vary depending on the case, Nature generally represents an inspiration for selfdiscovery. It helps Clarissa and Septimus to discover the true essence of life; it teaches Lily
how to be a woman and an artist in Edwardian England; it leads Orlando to embrace a new
and androgynous gender identity. To see how Virginia Woolf gives such a great power to
Nature, the four chapters of this thesis are going to analyze in detail the functions of flowers,
the sea, and the trees in Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. In particular, the
thesis will consider Virginia Woolf’s representations of Nature in relation to those of the
Romantics, and to the woman’s feminist ideas. Quite frequently, Woolf’s personal desire to
promote change for both her sex and marginalized people becomes alive on the page.
ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to establish a connection between the coming of age of the
female characters of traditional children’s literature and their journey through the Otherworld–a
landscape which stands separately from the world of adults. The Otherworld will be understood
as the Freudian representation of the child’s id, a place which will have to be left behind in order
for the child to grow towards maturity. The first part of the thesis analyzes the necessity of the
coming of age process and what it entails for the protagonists of Peter Pan, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland, The Secret Garden and The Wizard of Oz. Then, there will be a gender-based
analysis of their journeys through the theme of motherhood and the relationship of the
protagonists with the guide figures found in the Otherworld. Finally, the last chapter investigates
the three functions that the adult characters have in these stories in relation to the coming of age
process.
