Dissertations / Theses: 'Supernatural in literature'

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Manor, Gal. "Supernatural language in the works of Robert Browning." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248427.

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Clery, Emma Juliet. "The writing of the supernatural in eighteenth-century Britain." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.240444.

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Gan, Min. "The phantom returns: on Lilian Lee's three supernatural stories." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2010. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/804.

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This thesis, based on Green Snake, The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus and Rouge, three novels written by Hong Kong author Lilian Lee, discusses the respective supernatural heroines in relation to the Chinese folklore and to the Hong Kong status quo before the 1997 Handover, seeking to find the allegorical significance behind the heroines beyond the genre of fantastic.

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Yule, Jeffrey V. "Science, the supernatural, and the postmodern impulse in contemporary fiction /." The Ohio State University, 1998. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487952208107624.

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Tupman, B. W. "A commentary on magic and the supernatural in Petronius' Satyrica." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2000. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/27744.

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Petronius, like many of his contemporaries, had a deep interest in magic. Although magic rituals and tales with a supernatural theme make up a considerable part of the fragments that remain of his novel the Satyrica, little attention has been paid to Petronius’ account of magic. It is a commonplace of Petronian scholarship that the author is a realist, in his predilection for the seamier side of life, in his reproduction of popular speech, in his satirising of contemporary social issues, in his frank treatment of sexuality and in his expropriation of the popular mime, a genre defined by its attention to realism. This thesis, however, will argue that Petronius is a realist in a dimension which has not hitherto been explored in detail: his treatment of res magicae, which, as the commentary will show, is grounded in a bedrock of popular belief as recorded in documentary, as well as literary, texts. The commentary provides, therefore. a detailed examination of a selection of passages from Petronius’ novel Satyrica which have bearing on this aim. These passages include the rituals of Quartilla (16.1-26.6), Proselenos (131.1-131.7) and Oenothea (134.8-138.4) as well as the supernatural anecdotes recounted in the Gene Trimalchionis: the tales of Niceros (61.6-62.14) and Trimalchio (63.1-64.2). it is the contention of this thesis that these passages have real value for the study of ancient magic in that they provide rare insight into contemporary beliefs and realistically describe in detail actual magical rites as they would have been practised by members of Petronius’ society. The commentary provides numerous parallels for the magical procedures described by Petronius as well as discussion, and where these procedures are part of a greater scheme (for example, the three rituals mentioned above) particular attention has been paid to the role these individual procedures play in the ritual as a whole.

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Fathallah, Judith. "Changing discursive formations from Supernatural : fanfic and the legitimation paradox." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/58900/.

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This thesis argues that fanfic operates through a paradox of legitimation. Using the current cult text Supernatural (CW, 2006-) as a case study, discourse theory adapted from Foucault is utilized to establish that discursive formations from the source text can be de- and re-constructed, sometimes consolidating canon’s constructions, but at other times, altering Othered characterizations and criticising statements from canon. Paradoxically, however, this process utilizes and functions through the capital of the already-empowered: the White male Author (Jenkins 1995; Hills 2002; 2010a; Wexelblat 2002; Gray 2010; Kompare 2011; Scott 2011), and/or the White male protagonists of the series (c.f. Dyer 1992). The discursive formations studied are identified from the researcher’s situated position as fan- insider and academic (c.f. Hills 2002; Hodkinson 2005). They are judged to be of significance in the canon and fandom, and pertinent to the questions of power and Authority this study addresses. The methodology utilizes some techniques from network analysis (Park and Thelwall 2003) to chart the impact of fan-statements in an innovative fashion, using both quantitative and qualitative measures, whilst retaining insights from discourse theory to account for the specificity of fiction as a particular form of writing. In this way, the strength of statements, discursive boundaries, and techniques for alteration can be observed. The study concludes that, though the legitimation paradox cannot be unproblematically escaped or overcome, fanfic has begun to compromise it via deconstruction of the concepts of originality and authorship; and thus, from a postmodern perspective, the terms of the legitimation paradox can begin to be questioned.

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劉柏康 and Pak-hong Lau. "Tales of vixen transformation in traditional Chinese "supernatural stories"." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1996. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3121549X.

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Maguire, Muireann. "Soviet Gothic-fantastic : a study of Gothic and supernatural themes in early Soviet literature." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/224215.

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This thesis analyses the persistence of Gothic-fantastic themes and motifs in the literature of Soviet Russia between 1920 and 1940. Nineteenth-century Russian literature was characterized by the almost universal assimilation of Gothic-fantastic themes and motifs, adapted from the fiction of Western writers such as E.T.A. Hoffmann, Ann Radcliffe and Edgar Allen Poe. Writers from Pushkin to Dostoevskii, including the major Symbolists, wrote fiction combining the real with the macabre and supernatural. However, following the inauguration of the Soviet regime and the imposition of Socialist Realism as the official literary style in 1934, most critics assumed that the Gothic-fantastic had been expunged from Russian literature. In Konstantin Fedin's words, the Russian fantastic novel had "умер и закопан в могилу". This thesis argues that Fedin's dismissal was premature, and presents evidence that Gothic-fantastic themes and motifs continued to play a significant role in several genres of Soviet fiction, including science fiction, satire, comedy, adventure novels (prikliuchenskie romany), and seminal Socialist Realist classics. My dissertation identifies five categories of Gothic-fantastic themes, derived jointly from analysis of canonical Gothic novels from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and from innovative approaches to the genre made by contemporary critics such as Fred Botting, Kelly Hurley, Diane Hoeveler, Elaine Showalter and Eric Naiman (whose book Sex in Public coined the phrase 'NEP Gothic'). Each chapter analyses one of these five Gothic themes or tropes in the context of selected Soviet Russian literary texts. The chronotope of Gothic space, epitomized in the genre as the haunted castle or house, is readdressed by Mikhail Bulgakov as the 'nekhoroshaia kvartira' of Master i Margarita and by Evgenii Zamiatin as the 'drevnyi dom' of his dystopian fantasy My. Gothic gender issues, including the subgenre of Female Gothic, arise in Nikolai Ognev's novels and Aleksandra Kollontai's stories. The Gothic obsession with dying, corpses and the afterlife re-emerges in fictions such as Daniil Kharms' 'Starukha' (whose hero is threatened by an animated corpse) and Nikolai Erdman's banned play Samoubiitsa (the story of a failed suicide). Gothic bodies (deformed or regressive human bodies) are contrasted with Stalinist cultural aspirations to somatic perfection within a utopian society. Typically Gothic monsters - vampires, ghosts, and demon lovers - are evaluated in a separate chapter. Each Gothic trope is integrated with my analysis of the relevant Soviet discourse, including early Communist attitudes to gender and the body and the philosopher Nikolai Federov's utopian belief in the possibility of universal resurrection. As my focus is thematic rather than author-centred, my field of research ranges from well-known writers (Fedor Gladkov, Bulgakov, Zamiatin) to virtual unknowns (Grigorii Grebnev and Vsevolod Valiusinskii, both early 1930s novelists), and recently rediscovered writers (Sigizmund Krzhizhanovskii, Vladimir Zazubrin). Three Soviet authors who explicitly emulated the nineteenth-century Gothic-fantastic tradition in their fiction were Mikhail Bulgakov, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovskii and A.V. Chaianov. Many mainstream Soviet writers also exploited Gothic-fantastic motifs in their work. Fedor Gladkov's Socialist Realist production novel, Tsement, uses the trope of the Gothic castle to dramatise the reclamation of a derelict cement factory by the workers. Nikolai Ognev's Dnevnik Kosti Riabtseva, the diary of an imaginary Communist schoolboy, relies on ghost stories to sustain suspense. Aleksandr Beliaev, the popular science fiction writer, inserted subversive clich's from the Gothic narrative tradition in his deceptively optimistic novels. Gothic-fantastic tropes and motifs were used polemically by dissident writers to subvert the monologic message of Socialist Realism; other writers, such as Gladkov and Marietta Shaginian, exploited the same material to support Communism and attack Russia's enemies. The visceral resonance of Gothic fear lends its metaphors unique political impact. This dissertation aims at an overall survey of Gothic-fantastic narrative elements in early Soviet literature rather than a conclusive analysis of their political significance. However, in conclusion, I speculate that the survival of the Gothic-fantastic genre in the hostile soil of the Stalinist literary apparatus proves that early Soviet literature was more varied, contradictory and self-interrogative than previously assumed.

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Pulham, Patricia Elizabeth. "Grown-up toys : aesthetic forms and transitional objects in Vernon Lee's supernatural tales." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2001. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/1699.

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This thesis examines the fantastic tales of the marginalized writer Vernon Lee (Violet Paget 1856-1935), focusing on such confections as Hauntings: Fantastic Stories (1890), Pope Jacynth and Other Fantastic Stories (1904), and For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories (1927). It traces the influence of European Romantics such as Hoffmann and Heine on her writings and juxtaposes Lee's work with that of fin-de-siecle contemporaries such as Walter Pater, Henry James, and Oscar Wilde. Her stories often depend on the supernatural properties of art objects for their uncanny effect, and this study traces the contradiction between Lee's concern with form in her aesthetic treatises, and the 'formless' and metamorphic qualities of the 'ghostly' objects that come to fife in her works. The resultant conflict is explored in the context of D. W. Winnicott's 'transitional object' theory which suggests that a child's subjectivity is formed in a 'potential space', a space existing in a developmental 'limbo' in which the child plays with items or toys while negotiating its separation from the mother, and recognizing its individuality. According to Winnicott, in adulthood, this childhood process is re-experienced in the illusory realm of art and cultural objects. With this premise in mind, this thesis argues that, in Lee's tales, the supernatural functions as a 'potential space" in which Lee 'plays' with the art object or 'toy' in order to explore alternative subjectivities that allow the expression of her lesbian subjectivity. Using an interdisciplinary approach which combines literature with psychology, aesthetics, mythology, religion, and social history, this thesis demonstrates the contemporary validity of Lee's tales, and its importance for the study of gender and sexuality in the nineteenth-century fin de siecle.

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O'Keefe, Karen Maeve. "Relationship between music and the supernatural as that is portrayed in early medieval Irish literature." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9678.

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This thesis is an essay in the phenomenology of religion; it is not primarily a study of the literature or history of early Ireland. This thesis investigates the content and meaning of the early Irish people's language and expression as it relates to music. The culture being investigated is that of early medieval Ireland, up to and including the twelfth century. The focus of the thesis is on a Collection of music references extracted by this author from selected literature; the Collection itself is presented here as an independent Appendix volume to the main body of the thesis. The specific literature selected for this thesis is found in eight major categories of Old and Middle Irish texts: 1) tales from the Mythological Cycle; 2) Dindshenchas (Place-lore poems); 3) the tales and sagas from the Ulster Cycle; 4) the tales from the Cycles of the Kings literature; 5) the Immrama ("Voyage") literature; 6) tales from the Acallam na Senorach; 7) early Irish poetry; and 8) the early Irish saints' Lives. This thesis is divided into five major chapters--Performers, Instruments, Effects, Places, and Times. The Performers chapter examines the "supernatural" performers, the mundane performers, and those performers portrayed with some degree of Otherworld influence(s). The Instruments chapter discusses the various instruments portryed in this literature, as well as how they might relate to the Otherworld. The Effects chapter examines all of the various effects of music mentioned in the references from the Collection, and discusses how they relate to the "supernatural". The Places and Times chapters discuss the "supernatural'', liminal, and mundane places and times regarding music, as referred to in the references from the Collection. Comparative material is used from other world cultures, in each chapter, for illustratory purposes only. Arguing that music is a means by which the early Irish people test their world and register its realities, this thesis discovers in this select literature on music, an unbroken continuity between the otherworldly and the mundane, experienced and expressed through early Irish music, and this is common to both overtly primal and overtly Christian contexts.

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曾慶慈 and Hing-chi Tsang. "A critical study of supernatural elements in Yuan drama." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1990. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31210028.

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Morgan, Kazel Yvonne. "Not a ghost : liminal female identity and American women's supernatural fiction, 1870-1902 /." Digital version accessible at:, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

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DeJarnett, Torshi. "JerichoA Collection of Short Stories." University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1585750813071813.

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Burrow, Janice. "History's ghosts : representations of slavery and the supernatural in selected North American literary works." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.289090.

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Reider, Noriko T. "Ugetsu monogatari, kaidan, akinari : an examination of the reality of the supernatural in eighteenth-century Japan /." The Ohio State University, 1997. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487947501133161.

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MacDonald, Deneka C. "Locating resistance/resisting location : a feminist literary analysis of supernatural women in contemporary fantastic fiction." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2003. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5344/.

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In this thesis I examine the ways in which feminist and human geographies intersect with contemporary women-centred fantasy fiction. In particular, I consider space and place to be significant to female characters in their role as a physical presence as well as an intangible location. Thus I explore the forest, the body and the mind as territories occupied by the supernatural women. These various spatial themes, I suggest, outline distinctive locations for supernatural female characters and enable them to engage in a position of resistance from patriarchal ideologies. Through a spatial analysis of selected fiction, I reflect on challenges to notions that construct identity, gender and sexuality as well as conflict among women. I argue that the supernatural woman in fiction has been frozen in one-dimensional representation within traditional male-centred texts. This one-dimensionally, I suggest, hinges on the juxtaposition of the overly simplistic good/bad binary that has often illustrated female characters within fantasy fiction. As fantasy is a genre typically more concerned with worlds than characters, the women-centred fantasy text is unique in its exploration and pursuit of the literary character. Given the contemporary and interdisciplinary nature of this thesis, I have drawn upon filmic adaptations of texts at times to illustrate a further level of cultural awareness. The main emphasis is, however, on literary texts and, thus, reference to film is meant to supplement my textual analysis.

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Sanders, Elizabeth Mildred. "Enchanting Belief: Religion and Secularism in the Victorian Supernatural Novel." Diss., University of Iowa, 2015. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5186.

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Stansberry, Tonya Faye. "Imprisoned and Empowered: The Women of Edith Wharton's Supernatural Fiction." [Johnson City, Tenn. : East Tennessee State University], 2003. http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0712103-091758/unrestricted/StansberryT072203f.pdf.

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Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2003.
Title from electronic submission form. ETSU ETD database URN: etd-0712103-091758. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via Internet at the UMI web site.

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Gowdy, Robert Douglas. "Redemption and the Other: The Supernatural Narrator and the Intertextual (Sub)version of the Miltonic Command." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2000. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2530/.

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In literary discourse from the Genesis creation myth through John Milton's Paradise Lost and beyond, Eve has been patriarchally considered to be the bringer of Sin and Death into the world. In Paradise Lost Eve is depicted as deceiving Adam into the Fall by way of the Serpent. Paradise Lost creates a Miltonic command that helps to further blame Woman for Sin and Death. Milton's poem is based on the Genesis creation myth written by Canaanite authors. In this myth the Canaanite authors wished to rid the world of Goddess worship and, by humanizing Eve, they successfully obliterate that form of worship. As a result of this obliteration of the Goddess, Eve, as a humanized form of the ancient Goddess Asherah, remains unredeemed for her sin and forever held to blame. Throughout what Michel Foucault calls the archive, or discourse in which power resides, Eve/Woman continues to be seen by patriarchal discourse as to blame for the Fall. There has never been a successful redemption for Eve in the archive. Although Samuel Richardson's Clarissa has been suggested as a successful redeemer of Eve, Clarissa's blatant will to death and, therefore, will to power precludes a successful redemption of Eve. The successful Redemption of Eve comes in Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. By way of Tess's Goddess stature and her self-sacrifice at the end of the novel she successfully effects a redemption of Eve/Woman. As Goddess, Tess enters a state of otherwise than being in the intertext and becomes the Supernatural narrator who narrates both her own story and the unsaid story of the Goddess in the mythic narrative. By way of this otherwise than being as the Supernatural narrator, Tess takes on Eve's blame and intertextually subverts the Miltonic command by narrating the Goddess's prehistorical purity. As a result, then, Eve is redeemed and the Goddess's unsaid story is reinstated in the mythic narrative.

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Bodley, Antonie Marie. "Gothic horror, monstrous science, and steampunk." Pullman, Wash. : Washington State University, 2009. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Summer2009/a_bodley_052109.pdf.

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Harris, Jason Marc. "Folklore, fantasy, and fiction : the function of supernatural folklore in nineteenth and early twentieth-century British prose narratives of the literary fantastic /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9456.

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Froelich, Leslie Abrams. "Persistent phantoms: the supernatural in victorian fiction as metaphor for an age of transition." FIU Digital Commons, 2000. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3609.

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The purpose of this study is to explore the reasons for the great outpouring of high-quality supernatural fiction that appeared in late Victorian Britain and how these stories were influenced by contemporaneous technological, sociological and cultural changes. For this purpose, a number of literary works from the period have been chosen for review and analysis. In addition, numerous historical and critical texts have been consulted for their ability to illuminate and comment upon the significance of the fictional works. Results indicate that Victorian supernatural fiction reflected Victorian attitudes toward and anxieties about their changing world, leading to the conclusion that it served Victorians both as a refuge from their anxieties and as an opportunity to confront their problems imaginatively during a time of transition.

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Wallace, Nathaniel R. "H.P. Lovecraft's Literary "Supernatural Horror" in Visual Culture." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1417615151.

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Cosner, Justin David. "Make-believe: uncertainty, alterity, and faith in nineteenth-century supernatural short stories." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5738.

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This thesis, “Make-Believe: Uncertainty, Alterity, and Faith in Nineteenth-Century Supernatural Short Stories,” illustrates the confluence in nineteenth century America of a philosophical investment in uncertainty and the emergence of a genre suited to its expression. I argue that supernatural short story collections, characterized by stories with explicit fantastical elements or which leave open that possibility, helped voice and explore uncertainty as a critique of prevailing master narratives of both Enlightenment rationalism and religious orthodoxy. My study examines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), Herman Melville’s The Piazza Tales (1856), Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman, and Other Conjure Tales (1899), and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903), whose fantastic elements question the confident subjectivity shored up by rationalism and the sense of totality it projects. The genre’s insistent uncertainty conditions a reader into an alternative posture of openness to possibilities—an openness which, at its most ethically effective, describes a means to approach alterity without the totalizing certainty which so often reduces the other. The terms of faith are crucial here, as a means to lend numinous or transcendent meaning to the world beyond the reach of, and therefore setting limits on, rational materialism. But faith also functions on an ethical and interpersonal level, in the act of believing the testimony of an other despite the assumptions of the self. As the century progresses, this genre was taken up by authors with identities more vulnerable to society’s master narratives and the power structures they uphold. My final two chapters demonstrate how the supernatural uncertainty in these collections provided not just a theoretical model for approaching otherness but a specific articulation of the oppressions which certainty enables and the openness which the supernatural helps to found.

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Burgess, Moira. ""Between the words of a song" supernatural and mythical elements in the Scottish fiction of Naomi Mitchison /." Thesis, Connect to e-thesis, 2006. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1046/.

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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Glasgow, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 270-288). Print version also available. Mode of access : World Wide Web. System requirements : Adobe Acrobat reader required to view PDF document.

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Young, Whitney. "Monsters In My Bed: Accounting For The Popularity Of Young Adult Paranormal Romances." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2013. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/wsi_theses/32.

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Using textual analysis of 49 young adult paranormal romances, I answer what it is about the cultural milieu that makes these novels popular right now? This thesis argues that the discourse which emerges from the novels reflects contemporary discourse and narrative about the girls and young women who read the genre and who place themselves within this discourse and narrative. The novels respond to this discourse by offering instances where the girls' ideologies, built on the discourse taught to them, can be temporarily restored when the narrative proves false. These novels also undermine the confining discourse which the girls find themselves stuck in.

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Takolander, Maria, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Apprehending butterflies and flying beauties: Bringing magical realism to ground." Deakin University. School of Communication and Creative Arts, 2003. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20050825.154534.

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Harris, Jason Marc. "The Angle of Desire and Other Stories." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395068706.

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Gallagher, Ronald. "The uses of the supernatural in the works of Lord Dunsany and James Stephens /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/6675.

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Paolucci, Peter Leonard. "Re-reading the vampire from John Polidori to Anne Rice structures of impossibility among three narrative variations in the vampiric tradition /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ56254.pdf.

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Martins, Nivea Oura. "Kaidan - narrativas do sobrenatural: um estudo a partir da obra Kwaidan de Lafcadio Hearn." Universidade de São Paulo, 2013. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8157/tde-05062013-114006/.

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O presente trabalho apresenta a perspectiva do sobrenatural, representado em narrativas japonesas que tratam do estranho e do mistério, pertencentes ao gênero literário kaidan. Nesse contexto, esta dissertação descreverá o imaginário popular japonês e determinados tipos de seres sobrenaturais, com a proposta de melhor compreender a relação do povo nipônico com este tema. Posteriormente a esta descrição, será abordada a formação da literatura kaidan e suas características gerais. Para melhor compreender o conteúdo das narrativas pertencentes a este gênero, serão utilizados os textos da obra Kwaidan, de Lafcadio Hearn. Desta forma, far-se-á necessária a apresentação de um breve histórico do referido autor, sua produção literária e sua relação com a cultura japonesa. Por fim, realizaremos uma análise das narrativas do Kwaidan, no intento de desvendar a forma como os seres sobrenaturais atuam alegoricamente no imaginário japonês. Além disso, este estudo analítico também nos permitirá elucidar os diversos mecanismos das estruturas textuais que conferem a algumas das narrativas o aspecto fantástico e assustador.
This paper presents the perspective of the supernatural, represented in Japanese narratives that discuss what is strange things and mysterious, which belong to the kaidan literary genre. In this context, this paper will describe the Japanese popular imagination and certain types of supernatural beings, in order to better understand the relation between the Japanese people and this theme. Following this description, it will be discussed the formation of kaidan literature and its general characteristics. To better understand the content of the narratives that belong to this genre, texts of the work Kwaidan, of Lafcadio Hearn, will be used. Thus, it is necessary to present a brief history of that author, his literary production and its relation to Japanese culture. Finally, we will conduct an analysis of the narratives of Kwaidan, in an attempt to unravel how the supernatural beings act allegorically in the Japanese imagination. Additionally, this analytical study will also allow us to elucidate the various mechanisms of the textual structures used in the narratives which give them the fantastic and frightful imprint.

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Sidell, Crystal. "Victorian Perspectives on the Supernatural: The Imaginary Versus the Real in Two Brontë Novels." Scholar Commons, 2008. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/495.

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The Victorians obsessed over the supernatural and this fascination with the otherworldly emerges in the literature of the day. With this thesis, I look at two nineteenth century novels that exhibit supernatural phenomena: Charlotte Brontë's Villette (1853) and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847). Both novels, I propose, utilize this aspect of the gothic tradition to enhance their characters' psychological realism. With Villette, I examine the supernatural as a fabricated experience. First, I study the protagonist's psyche and show how her emotional state directly contributes to the appearance of fantastic material. Specifically, I examine Lucy Snowe's childhood experiences in Bretton and then look at her continuing emotional isolation at the boarding school in Villette. I then illustrate how Lucy compensates for this loneliness by transforming the identities of her acquaintances and by often embellishing her own experiences. Following this, I examine her response to an external phenomenon, the ghostly nun. I argue that as Lucy discovers emotional fulfillment via her relationship with Paul Emanuel, she grows increasingly skeptical of the nun. This skepticism climaxes in a scene of violence, after which Lucy successfully denies the existence of the otherworldly. With Wuthering Heights, I examine the supernatural as a genuine phenomenon. To begin, I analyze two significant scenes which frame the main narrative: Lockwood's dream and Heathcliff's death. Both events, I subsequently demonstrate, are instances of supernatural interaction with the real world. Finally, I examine the spiritual and occult beliefs of the lovers, Catherine and Heathcliff. I then show how their ideology influences their decisions and, ultimately, brings about their reunion in the afterlife.

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Spears, Jamie. "A seance room of one's own : spiritualism, occultism, and the new woman in mid-to late-nineteenth century supernatural fiction." Thesis, University of Sunderland, 2016. http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/6503/.

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This thesis will examine the nineteenth-century supernatural stories written by women connected to Spiritualism. These include ‘standard’ ghost stories, esoteric novels and works infused with Spiritualist and occult themes and tropes. The middle- and upper-class Victorian woman was already considered something of a spirit guide within her own home; following the emergence of Modern Spiritualism in the 1850s, women were afforded the opportunity to become paid spirit guides (that is, mediums and lecturers) in the public sphere. Spiritualism was an empowering force for female mediums like Elizabeth d’Espérance and Emma Hardinge Britten, and Spiritualist philosopher Catherine Crowe. In this thesis I will examine how these new power dynamics—to use Britten’s phrasing, the ‘place and mission of woman’—are reflected in society and literature. This thesis sees Spiritualism as the impetus for several occult movements which emerged near to the end of century, including Marie Corelli’s Electrical Christianity, Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophy, and Florence Farr’s Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Each of these women founded, or had significant input in the founding of, their respective creeds. There is an area of critical neglect around the fiction written by these women. Corelli’s works are often analysed in the New Woman framework, but rarely in the spiritual or occult; scholarly interest in Blavatsky focuses on the incredible power she consolidated, but her Theosophical fiction tends to be dismissed in favour of her treatises; d’Espérance’s fiction has not been properly examined thus far. With this thesis I hope to offer a re-reading or re-framing of this supernatural literature by placing it, and its authors, in its socio-political context at the tumultuous end of the nineteenth century.

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Liu, Tryphena Y. "Monsters Without to Monsters Within: The Transformation of the Supernatural from English to American Gothic Fiction." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/632.

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Because works of Gothic fiction were often disregarded as sensationalist and unsophisticated, my aim in this thesis is to explore the ways in which these works actually drew attention to real societal issues and fears, particularly anxieties around Otherness and identity and gender construction. I illustrate how the context in which authors were writing specifically influenced the way they portrayed the supernatural in their narratives, and how the differences in their portrayals speak to the authors’ distinct aims and the issues that they address. Because the supernatural ultimately became internalized in the American Gothic, peculiarly within female bodies, I focus mainly on the relationship between the supernatural and the female characters in the texts I examine. Through this historical exploration of the transformation of the supernatural, I argue that the supernatural became internalized in the American Gothic because it reflected national anxieties: although freed from the external threat of the patriarchal English government, Americans of the young republic still faced the dangers of individualism and the failure of the endeavor to establish their own government.

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Bann, Jennifer Patricia. "Spirit writing : the influence of spiritualism on the Victorian ghost story." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/373.

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This thesis investigates the connection between the spiritualist movement and the literary ghost story, both of which came to prominence and mass popularity during the second half of the nineteenth century. While existing critical literature has viewed both phenomena as symptomatic of a wider Victorian fascination with the supernatural and the nature and possibility of an afterlife, little attention has been paid to the relationship between the two movements. By examining spiritualist literature alongside the work of both canonical and lesser-known writers, I attempt to address this area. My thesis argues for an understanding of the post-1850 ghost story as a dramatic representation of a new conception of the dead largely created by spiritualism, and reads the appearance, actions, behaviour and narratives of literary ghosts as an ongoing reflection and discussion of this idea.

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McIntire, Janet E. "H. Rider Haggard and the Victorian occult." Full text available online (restricted access), 2000. http://images.lib.monash.edu.au/ts/theses/McIntire.pdf.

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Skrove, Katie Suzanne. "The power of voice: Cultural silencing and the supernatural in women's stories: Allende's The House of the Spirits, Kingston's The Woman Warrior, and Morrison's Beloved." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2002. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2382.

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This thesis focuses on a study of the female voice and silencing as well as on the use of the supernatural in selected works of literature from three different cultures: Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, and Toni Morrison's Beloved.

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McGee, Katherine Marie. "Responsibility and Responsiveness in the Novels of Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley." Scholar Commons, 2014. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5376.

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This dissertation looks at the ways in which humans interact with and respond to other humans and nonhumans in Ann Radcliffe's and Mary Shelley's novels. I argue that in light of the social and political turmoil surrounding the French Revolution, Radcliffe and Shelley call not so much for Revolution or drastic reform but for a change in the ways in which individuals respond to the needs of others, both human and nonhuman, and take responsibility for each other. The ways in which humans interact with the nonhuman inform the positive and negative practices that they should use to interact with other humans and vice versa. Chapter One considers the connection between nature and culture in Radcliffe'sA Sicilian Romance, The Romance of the Forest, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and The Italian to argue that Radcliffe's "explained supernatural" occupies a liminal space between nature and culture. Furthermore, some of the upper class are able to discern that the "real," or material, supernatural does not exist while still acknowledging that some form of spiritual supernatural presence is possible, thus reflecting a heightened awareness of concepts beyond the material. Chapter Two looks at Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian to argue that characters who are able to appreciate nature, particularly landscape, are more admirable than those who ignore it. Specifically, these characters indicate an openness to forming reciprocal relationships with the landscapes, allowing the views offered by the landscapes to offer them peace or comfort while simultaneously respecting the power the landscapes hold. Drawing from the theories of place theorists Tim Cresswell and Yi-Fu Tuan, this chapter posits that landscapes can be classified as being on the verge of place. Chapter Three looks at Frankenstein and The Last Man to argue that Shelley demonstrates the types of reciprocal relationships people should form with both humans and nonhumans. Donna Haraway's idea of "contact zones"--places where the human and nonhuman can communicate--inform this reading of the relationships between the human and nonhuman in these two novels. It investigates how Victor Frankenstein and the creature define "human" and then asserts that in Frankenstein the creature cannot form a place for communication with any of the humans whose acceptance and companionship he seeks because no one is willing to do so. The Last Man's Lionel Verney, on the other hand, is able to form reciprocal relationships with both the human and the nonhuman, thus enabling him to ultimately become the "last man." The fourth and final chapter looks at Shelley's Valperga, Lodore, and The Last Man, set in the past, present, and future, respectively, arguing that Shelley uses these different time settings in order to demonstrate that many of the struggles people have are similar to ones that others had in the past and will continue to have in the future if people do not adjust the ways in which they respond to disaster. By presenting readers with specifics about location and environment, Shelley creates settings that readers can connect to and then entertain the idea that these characters' struggles are like their own.

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Cagliyan, Murat. "Gothic Elements In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle&#039." Master's thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612835/index.pdf.

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The aim of this thesis is to analyse the use of Gothic elements in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle&rsquo
s Sherlock Holmes stories. It begins with an overview of Gothic and detective fiction, pointing out the Gothic novels published in the late Victorian period, and referring to the Gothic influence on Poe, Dickens, and Collins who are important writers in the development of detective fiction. In this way, it is revealed that the presence of Gothic elements in the Sherlock Holmes stories is part of the writing fashion of the era. The thesis then analyses the Holmes stories which present significant Gothic elements in terms of terror, horror and the supernatural. In addition, it examines the whole Holmes canon in an endeavour to find out the Sherlock Holmes character&rsquo
s similarity to the Byronic hero who often appears in Gothic fiction. As a result, this study shows that Gothic elements contribute to the Sherlock Holmes stories in two ways. Firstly, they add to the depiction of minor characters, the setting, and the atmosphere of these stories. Secondly, they manifest themselves in the portrayal of the character of Holmes himself. Thus, the use of Gothic elements enables Doyle to create suspenseful and surprising stories with a strikingly memorable detective figure.

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Vorobiev, Artem. "The Otherworldly Topography: Some Aspects of Space and Movement in Izumi Kyōka’s Yuna no tamashii." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1282069181.

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Ersoy, Ersev. "Social reality and mythic worlds : reflections on folk belief and the supernatural in James Macpherson's Ossian and Elias Lönnrot's Kalevala." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/7842.

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This thesis investigates the representation of social reality that can be reflected by folk belief and the supernatural within mythic worlds created in epic poetry. Although the society, itself, can be regarded as the creator of its own myth, it may still be subjected to the impact of the synthesized mythic world, and this study seeks to address the roles of the society in the shaping of such mythic worlds. The research is inspired by an innovative approach, using James Macpherson’s Ossian (1760-63) and Elias Lönnrot’s Kalevala (1835-49) as epic models that benefit from mythical traditions. Through the examination and the comparison of these two epic collections, both of which seem to have a close association with social reformation and restructuring, the study explores the universality of human nature. It also reveals the extent mythic worlds may exhibit the ‘realities’ of their source-societies and how mythical tradition may become a reflection of a society’s transforming past modes of thinking. Moreover, the study devotes special attention to the influence of mythic heritage on national awakening and the construction of national identities. The research treats Macpherson as the re-inventor of Gaelic oral tradition with his Ossian, where he portrays a Romanticized image of a gallant past according to the norms of the eighteenth century. Therefore, the mythic world of the epic can be seen as a combination of an ancient heroic past and the aesthetic refinement of a polished age. In this framework, as the product of a society going through a transition period from traditional to modern, Ossian seems to reflect the society’s changing world-view, both celebrating, and mourning for a culture on the verge of extinction. Focusing on the Kalevala, the study analyzes its portrayal of Finnish folk belief. The Kalevala, like Ossian, is an attempt to recover ancient tradition, which seems to revolve around supernatural and divine elements, with hopes to establish a common social reality. It is an expression of Finnish language, belief and culture, whose production was prompted by the looming Finnish nationalism. Therefore, the evolving mode of thought represented in the mythic world of Kalevalaic poems, is expected and favoured by the society, enabling the epic to encourage a social reformation.

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Williams, K. E. R. "Manifestations of the house in the Victorian ghost story." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2005. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28032.

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The appearance of the ghostly is generally described as a manifestation, and to perceive the ghostly is predicated on the act of seeing. To be manifest is to be apparent, clear, evident and obvious and a manifestation is an act of revelation, even one of proof. The genre of the ghostly however is rarely truly seen in critical works, and the aim of this thesis is to engage with and explore the implications raised by the act of seeing within the tradition of the British ghost story. The appearance of the ghostly not only requires the acknowledgement of the existence of ‘the other’ by witnesses, but also actively prompts the viewer to see all that surrounds them in a wholly new way. With the focus firmly on the issue of seeing, this thesis seeks to examine to what extent the ghost story offers a different, and challenging, view of the rational world, and whether the ghost story is more than just an entertaining popular diversion and can actually, as Kenneth Womack suggests, operate as “a mechanism for social critique."

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Horne, Marie E. "Ancient Superstitions Steeped in the Human Heart: Rumors of the Supernatural as Resistance Narrative in The House of the Seven Gables." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2303.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables continuously plays with the idea of narrative authority to explore concepts of class and power within the novel. Since these concepts of class and power are also a central focus of Subaltern Studies, applying some of this body of scholarship to the novel brings into focus these concepts and sheds light on the motivations and types of resistance in the novel. The upper class characters, including the Pyncheons, construct and maintain a narrative based on the declarations of professionals and officials of the state and church. It discusses only the most noble characteristics and events of the upper classes and relies solely on rational, empirical thought. They create this narrative to maintain their authority and dominance. The lower classes, including the Maules, construct an alternate narrative to resist the upper class that is collected and passed down through rumor. Supernatural elements like ghosts and curses figure prominently in this narrative. It is only when the Pyncheon and Maule families begin to listen to and validate multiple narratives that class and power become less important and the reconciliation between families happens.

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Nye, Bret Allan. "Hauntings in the Midwest." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1374166761.

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Pelletier, Valérie. "Etude sur l'entremêlement des concepts d'histoire et de fiction dans la littérature historique et fantastique en Chine." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79969.

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The fantastic stands as an important part of Chinese culture. It is in fact through its literature that it has been made possible for us to enjoy this heritage. With the study of fantastic tales and anomaly accounts, this thesis tackles the problem of rationalism in relation with supernatural. It attempts to understand the mechanisms of the intermingling of the concepts of fiction and history, through the comparison of Chinese historical and fictional texts, as well as parallels between China and Europe. It will also deal with the concepts of nature, in both the perspectives of China and Europe, and the Enlightenment.

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Christensen, Michelle Rae. "MONSTROUS FUTURES: QUEER-POSTHUMANITY IN TELEVISED HORROR." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1470441501.

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Geldenhuys, Vincent. "A signification in stone the lapis as metaphor for visual hybridisation in the Harry Potter films /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2008. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11132008-191836.

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McCain, Katharine Elizabeth. "Today Your Barista Is: Genre Characteristics in The Coffee Shop Alternate Universe." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1595512930155036.

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Hauser, Brian Russell. "Haunted Detectives: The Mysteries of American Trauma." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1227020699.

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Lindve, Katarina. "A Study on the Artemis Fowl Series in the Context of Publishing Success." Thesis, Mälardalen University, Department of Humanities, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-906.

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A close reading of a series of books by Eoin Colfer that enjoyed universal success showed a change in the language between the books especially with respect to minor linguistic features such as choice of location and abstract vs. concrete language. The books are about the boy Artemis Fowl, and were presumably conceived as children’s books.

My original thesis was that the writer could not be sure of the success of the first book, but would definitely be aware of a worldwide audience for at least his third book, due to, for example, questions raised by the translators. If the original audience was expected to be Irish, or British, with very much the same cultural background as the author’s, the imagined subsequent audiences would change with success. My hope was to be able to show this by comparing linguistic features. And indeed, even though some changes could be due to coincidence there was a specific pattern evolving in the series, in that the originally Irish cultural background became less exclusive and more universal. The writer also used more details concerning locations, with added words to specify a place. What could thus be expected in the translated versions would be omissions and additions in especially the first book, but less need for that in later books. This, however, could not be proven in the Swedish translations. I thus conclude that the books became easier to follow for a wider, in this case Swedish, audience mostly because of efforts by the author and less because of the translator.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Supernatural in literature'

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