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Academic spectacle: commodification of knowledge in Pnin, The Breast and White Noise
Labanczová, Johana ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The thesis called Academic Spectacle: Commodification of Knowledge in Pnin, The Breast, and White Noise deals with the commodifying influence of the consumer society on education, knowledge and the perception of information, as it is reflected in the following American academic novels: Pnin (1957) by Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth's The Breast (1972) and White Noise (1985) by Don DeLillo. The thesis combines the approach of literary analysis with the use of cultural- theoretical terms and theories relating to the state of postmodern society from the texts of Waltr Benjamin, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Linda Hutcheon or Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer. In addition, it elaborates on sociological concepts, such as "the risk society" of Ulrich Beck, the "public arenas model" of approaching social problems of Stephen Hilgratner and Charles Bosk or "the hyperconsumer society", the term Gilles Lipovetsky applies to the state of present societies. Therefore, the thesis belongs to the area of cultural studies, which typically combine the approaches of sociology and literary studies. For the sake of analyzing the influence of the consumer society on the academic environment (as it is reflected in the given novels), we established four basic aspects of commodification: reification, banalization,...
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Ironic Myths and Broken Images: Reflections of the 1798 Rebellion in Twentieth-Century Irish Fiction and Drama
Markus, Radvan ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee) ; Mac Craith, Micheal (referee)
The 1798 Irish rebellion together with the preceding decade is justly regarded as a watershed event in the forming of Irish national identity. Therefore it is not surprising that it has inspired numerous, and often conflicting, interpretations in both historiography and literature. This study concentrates on both English- and Irish-language historical novels and plays written about the rebellion in the course of the twentieth century, especially after the year 1916. Attention is drawn to the interpretations of the event contained in these literary works, comparing them to the various views of 1798 as they have evolved in Irish historiography. As the rebellion, especially from the 1970s onward, has been increasingly seen in the light of the later conflict in Northern Ireland, this connection has an important place in the analysis. On the theoretical level, the thesis draws from the findings of Hayden White, who has famously questioned the border between historiographical and fictional treatments of historical events. At the same time, this relativism is complemented by selected features of the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, who highlighted the inevitable ethical questions connected to representations of history. In accordance with the theoretical preliminaries, the study explores the relative value of...
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Folklore and myth on stage: a comparison of their use in revival and contemporary Irish drama
Kurz, Matouš ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
of the Thesis The topic of this thesis is the use of mythology and folklore in Irish drama from the era of the Irish National Revival and the contemporary period. It focuses closely just on two plays, The Countess Cathleen by William Butler Yeats, representing the Revival period, and At the Black Pig's Dyke by Vincent Woods, representing the contemporary era. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The introductory chapter explains how the terms folklore and mythology are defined and used in the thesis. It also provides some basic background to Irish culture and literature. The second chapter presents the events that conditioned the development in Ireland until the end of the nineteenth century, describing the circumstances that led to the Irish National Revival. The third chapter is dealing with the life of W. B. Yeats, his involvement in the Revival, and also the sources of his inspiration and motivation for writing. Another focal point of this chapter is The Countess Cathleen, its background, origin, reception, and the folklore and mythological elements it contains. In the fourth chapter, a short account of the changes in Irish drama during the last hundred years is given. It focuses on some of the events that had a direct impact not only on the life in Ireland, but also on the modern Irish...
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"The Dead" - A critical compilation of existing interpretations
Fíl, Lukáš ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Armand, Louis (referee)
The essay collects and discusses several reading perspectives of 'The Dead,' a short-story by James Joyce from his collection Dubliners (1914). It contends that the story is very much open to creative reading and subjective interpretation, as it may be seen as a platform for various discourses, hidden and unfinished stories, themes, historical testimonies, etc. It argues that 'The Dead' even successfully dramatizes the very event of interpreting a literary text. At the same time, the paper pays attention to how the story is closely tied to its author's personality, life history, and how the whole collection to great extent derives from Joyce's overall scepticism held towards his countrymen in Dublin. The chapter "A Biographical Reading" discusses James Joyce as an interpretive principle for the story. It reflects on Richard Ellmann's essay "The Backgrounds of 'The Dead'" and notes its positive aspects, but it also acknowledges drawbacks of what is called a biographical method of reading 'The Dead.' The next chapter, "The Dubliners Project," starts by outlining two reading perspectives that don't defy one another, but may rather be seen as mutually enriching. The first sees 'The Dead' as an individual piece of writing, whereas the second as an integral part of the collection. The chapter then...
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Topographies of Culture and Identity: The Role of Landscapes and Cityscapes in Selected Film Representations of Ireland
Pavlíčková, Tereza ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
1 Abstract The thesis focuses on the role of landscapes and cityscapes in selected film representations of Ireland. It is the discipline of cultural geography which serves as the primary theoretical basis for this analysis. Firstly, the general observations concerning the social elaboration of place are applied within the particular cultural context. Thus, it becomes revealed that these socio- cultural practices bear a special significance in Irish culture. Apart from that, the thesis also fully delineates the complex nature of both the concept of Irish identity and Irish cinema. This account provides the basis for to the primary assertion that film portrayals of Ireland require strongly a wide, non-linear analytical approach. Importantly, the thesis also draws attention to particular cultural dichotomies which prevail within most realms of Irish society, showing a tension between its relationship to the present and the past. Within the context of film representation, this binary cultural perspective is then presented as a phenomenon which has had a significant impact on both the process of filmmaking in Ireland, as well as on the perception of produced films. Especially in the second case, the effect can be perceived as rather negative, since it prevents the realization of a fully non-exclusionary...
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An analysis of representation of significant events and personalities of Irish history in the period from 1916-1923 in Irish film
Kejmar, Tomáš ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta Ústav anglistiky a amerikanistiky Tomáš Kejmar Abstrakt bakalářské práce THE ROAD NOT TAKEN Analýza reprezentace významných událostí a osobností irských dějin v období 1916-1923 v irském filmu Abstract of BA Thesis An analysis of representation of significant events and personalities of Irish history in the period from 1916-1923 in Irish film. Praha, květen 2011 vedoucí práce: Clare Wallace, Ph.D. 2 Thesis abstract This thesis focuses on the period of Irish history from 1916 to 1923, i.e. the period commencing with the Easter Rising and concluding with the end of the Irish Civil War, as it was captured in three feature historical films shot in the last two decades: Jonathan Lewis' The Treaty (1992), Neil Jordan's Michael Collins (1996) and Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006). The main interest of the thesis is the way the historical events and the main characters of the films are represented. The implications of such representations are analyzed and possible explanations offered. Selection, misrepresentation, falsification and invention of historical material by the authors of the films is scrutinized and pointed out. The contrast between historical and biographical accounts of the characters and their filmic portrayals is considered and...
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Contemporary culture vs. Irishness in the plays of Martin McDonagh
Pichrtová, Lenka ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
Thirteen years ago, in 1997, the theatrical community around the world was for the first time amazed by the new emerging persona of European drama, Martin McDonagh (1970), who made a spectacular debut by his play The Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1996. This work was followed by three more pieces in quick succession, further confirming McDonagh's status as a rising star. The author has to date publicly produced seven plays which quickly found their way from Great Britain and Ireland into the whole world and enjoyed tremendous success everywhere they were performed. The appearance of a new persona naturally invited a large amount of attention and sometimes very heated criticism; the core debate focuses mainly on the most prominent and shocking aspects of McDonagh's plays - namely violence, emotional vacuum, authenticity and alleged misrepresentation of Irishness. In its introductory contextual part, this thesis would like to illuminate McDonagh's status as an Irish writer, try to place him within the Irish dramatic tradition and provide a comparison with some of his predecessors, namely J. M. Synge and his Playboy of the Western World. This chapter of the thesis will equally concentrate on major themes and means of representing Irishness in the plays and on features connecting McDonagh to other Irish...
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Depiction of media in British dystopian fiction
Bakič, Pavel ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The purpose of this thesis was to trace the depiction of media in British dystopian fiction, or rather some of its most prominent landmarks. In its course, however, a need of eclectic approach became apparent, as each novel invited a different framework of interpretation, at least partly: H. G. Wells's The Sleeper Awakes fuses mythological elements with very current exploration of self-definition in the world of freely circulating media images, A. Huxley's Brave New World presents electronic media as dangerous to the proper balance of individual faculties of the human mind, G. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four prophesizes the destruction of an individual by ever-escalating state control of media, made possible by technological progress. A. Moore's and D. Lloyd's V for Vendetta adopts and re-imagines all these concerns in a post-modern, self-reflexive and metatextual manner. A more extensive selection of primary texts could possibly yield a clearer line of the theme's evolution throughout the 20th century, or at least succeeding or competing trends in its treatment, but the current, narrower choice bespeaks the considerable individuality of vision in the represented authors' works, even as they often address similar issues and engage in a dialogue by means of shared motifs and concerns.
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"Within un-, sub- or supernatural forces": establishing the world of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Krtička, Filip ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The atmosphere of Stoppard's tour de force is one of confusion from the beginning to end. Guildenstern is confused about the outcome of the coin tossing and, thus, about the ruling principle of the world, Rosencrantz is confused about Guildenstern's role-playing practice of questioning Hamlet, everyone is confused about which one of the pair is Rosencrantz and which one is Guildenstern, and they are in turn confused about everyone else. Determinism is confused with absurdity, fate is confused with chance, reality is confused with fiction, and art with life. All this is because of the coin, because of all the duality and duplicity of and in the play. When it is announced at the end that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet, all are dead, the reader or the audience are confused about what they have read and seen. "Clearly, Stoppard is transgressing well-defined literary boundaries, and doing so in such a way that his own characters suffer the consequences of his manipulations."287 Stoppard's drama, a hypertext, is situated at the fringes of texts. He thematizes the textual relationships of Rosencrantz's hypotexts. By doing so, the confusion of his protagonists is brought about by the (con)fusion of texts: "That duplicity of the object, in the sphere of textual relations, can be represented by the old analogy...
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Translating titles: strategies in translating the titles of American fiction into Czech
Hanžlová, Jitka ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The position of the title of a literary work within the context of the whole work is undoubtedly a special one; consequently, its translation is no less important. The aim of this BA thesis is to focus on the strategies that have been used in translating the titles of American fiction into Czech since 1945. Attention is paid especially to the titles in which some kind of shift in comparison with the original version may be discerned. The work is divided into two parts; the introductory section is theoretical and concentrates on the general characterization of a title, on the way it is structured from the grammatical, formal and stylistic points of view, and on the functions that are attributed to book titles in general. In the following chapter, the standards expected to be fulfilled while translating a book title are described at first. Furthermore, the factors that influence the final shape of the titles in the target language are divided there into two basic groups - objective and subjective. Within the first category, causes such as discrepancies between the two language systems, for example question tags, gerunds or conversion, differences between the aspects of American and Czech life and institutions, and the influence of literary tradition can be found. In the latter category, translating strategies...
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