Browsing by Author "Djamoukhanov, Rassoul"

This thesis, entitled “A Critical Analysis of Albert Camus’s L’Etranger (The Stranger, published in 1942) and Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus, published in 1942) from Post-Colonial and Religious Perspectives,” concerns itself with the discussion of Albert Camus’s The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. These two works have been chosen for critical examination due to their philosophical interconnection. The major thematic preoccupations contained in these writings, such as the Absurd morality and existentialism as well as underlying motifs of The Stranger like colonialism, are brought into focus and discussed at length in this research. The critical discussion encompasses analysis of the Absurd hero whose life is founded on the moral principles expounded in The Myth of Sisyphus. In the course of the study, some interesting analogies have been established between Camusian absurd man and Nietzscheian superhuman; both have much in common in terms of their moral outlook and attitude towards life. Special treatment is given to the theme of colonialism which is so pronounced in The Stranger. The discussion of the morality of the Absurd directs this study towards some metaphysical issues including the relationship between God and human beings, as well as the individual’s worldly and spiritual goals. This research points out the deficiencies of the Absurd philosophy and the detrimental consequences of nihilistic vision. The thesis traces the links between Camus’s own life and the ideas that these two works contain, and pays particular attention to his philosophical outlook and his stand towards the Algerian problem.

This dissertation entitled Women and Witchcraft in Selected Jacobean Plays: A Feminist Study discusses four English Jacobean plays: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606), Thomas Middleton’s The Witch (1609), Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley’s The Witch of Edmonton (1621), and Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Queens (1609). As the title suggests, the thrust of the argument of this thesis centres on the representation of women in the respective plays and offers comparative study of the plays, two of which, Macbeth by Shakespeare and The Witch by Middleton, are claimed to be misogynistic in their portrayal of women, whereas the other two, The Masque of Queens by Jonson and The Witch of Edmonton by Dekker, Ford and Rowley actively promote gender-equality and give voice and presence to women. Special attention is given to the phenomenon of witchcraft because it plays a crucial role in each play. One of the aims of this research is to show how some dramatists of the Jacobean period contributed to the feminisation of witchcraft and made it almost exclusively a feminine crime. It is argued that Shakespeare’s and Middleton’s works uphold misogynistic views of King James and thus significantly contribute to the construction and saturation of the witch image. The research also espouses that Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley expressed scepticism with regard to witchcraft and refused to endorse the persecution of women although their stand involved a considerable risk of being penalised for disagreeing with the official viewpoint on the matter. Despite the widespread opinion that women in Jacobean England were oppressed and mistreated, this study puts forward an argument that not everything was so gloomy and hopeless for the women of that era. The contextualised analysis of the play-texts bears out that female voices had begun to emerge and question the established gender ideology in early modern England. Some male playwrights had captured that shift and came out in favour of gender-equality. The female characters they create often resist masculine, ideological constructs and expose the injustices of male dominance. Thomas Dekker and his collaborators openly challenged the established patriarchal system and advocated gender-justice. Ben Jonson, who has traditionally been described as a misogynist, demonstrates through his writings that he is free from anti-feminine bias. His masques, especially The Masque of Queens, provide ample evidence in support of this claim. Since some preconceptions about women are strongly linked to the concept of the Original Sin in Christian theosophy, the research briefly examines the influence of the Biblical texts on the plays in question. Such examination intends to reveal the anxieties of patriarchal society and the Jacobean preoccupation with the ‘wayward women’.