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Imaginations of "Otherness" and Freak Show Culture in the 19th- and 20th-Century Prague
Herza, Filip ; Storchová, Lucie (advisor) ; Hanulík, Vladan (referee) ; Sokolová, Věra (referee)
in English Dissertation deals with the freak show culture in Prague and the Czech lands in a broader context of the modern discourses of dis/ability and the imaginations of the collective body of the Czech nation. Exhibitions of "Lilliputians", "Giants", "Siamese twins" and other "extraordinary" bodies are analyzed here as a part of the history of an international entertainment culture in the 19th-century Europe. The emphasis lays on the turn of the century, the decade that witnessed rash development both of the capitalist entertainment industry and the expert disciplines that dealt with the "ab/normal". I claim, that the popularity of freak shows in this period rested in their ability to articulate fears and ambitions of their visitors, both in their individual embodied experience and their imaginative belonging, notably their belonging to the collective body of the Czech nation. In four case studies, I focus on individual freak figures and analyze how the intersections of different axes of difference - ethnicity, gender, class - within the representation of "the extraordinary", coproduced certain notion of social order and power hierarchies that were closely intertwined with the imagined collective body of nation.
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"Just let it be a healthy child!": Parenting in the Context of Caring of a Child with a Chronic Illlness
Tampierová, Lenka ; Sokolová, Věra (advisor) ; Ezzeddine, Petra (referee)
My diploma thesis deals with issues of gender relations and the construction of identities of lived experiences of parents caring for a child (children) with a chronic illness. For my qualitative research, I have chosen the method of semi-structured interviews with both parents of the child (children). Subsequent analysis of the data in this empirical study examines the way in which care for a child with chronic illness affects, due to its demanding character, gender relations and whether it leads to more balanced gender relations or vice versa. I also deal with the process of identifying both parents in the day care of a child with chronic illness in the context of a combination of paid work and home care and children. In my work, I see how my communication partners are conceptualizing the chronic illness of the child as a differentness and the care of a child with a chronic illness as a burden. I focus on the emotional plane of parenthood and also analyze the processes of negotiation within different institutions (health and education organizations, state authorities). Key words: Chronic illness, child, parenthood, differentness, burden, care, gender relations
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Analysis of queer child through the movie
Kašparová, Šárka ; Kolářová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Sokolová, Věra (referee)
Diploma thesis with the title "Analysis of queer child through the movie" is situated to the context of queer theories. These theories are discussed through the movie "Tomboy" (2011). Theoretical part of the thesis discusses fundamental theoretical background including attitudes towards to concept of gender within gender studies. The thesis is also focused on the theory of performativity and also discusses the normative socialization of children and their nonconformist behaviors. Key opinions to queer theories in context of sexuality and identity are introduced in this part of the thesis. I also present Stockton's arguments on queer child. Research section presents methodological part of analysis of the movie Tomboy. It also presents the specific method, which is Stuart Hall's theory of representation. In the analysis of the movie there are major themes reflected - how the category of gender, queerness, sexuality and identity are constructed in the context of queer child. Keywords Queer, performativity, childhood, socialization, gender, jinakost, identity, sexuality, film, stereotypes.
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Divnolidi z Brna a okolí: Construction of otherness on Facebook social network site
Matesová, Kateřina ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Hladík, Radim (referee)
This thesis aims to describe and analyze the process of construction of otherness, use of humour and taste performance on Facebook page Divnolidi z Brna a okolí. Theoretical background explores contemporary approaches to the research of social network sites (particulary on privacy and sharing; a separate chapter is devoted to Facebook social network site), sociological term of taste as the instrument for social distinction (here, the study is primarily based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu), interdisciplinary concept of otherness (in which we examine works of Mary Douglas, Stuart Hall and Marc Augé) as well as theoretical approach to humour called theory of superiority. We conducted a quantitative description of Divnolidi z Brna a okolí page and a qualitative analysis (a method often called "data-crawling") of 47 page posts. Analytical section of this study focuses on answering following questions: What types of posts can be found on the site? How are individuals captured in these posts perceived? How do the users perceive taste / otherness of the captured individuals? Where were these "weird people" (in Czech language "divnolidi") spotted and how do the users perceive these places? Furthermore, we analyze the use of humour by the page users and the way they react to the site's policy and other...
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Problems in Social Contact with a Person with Visual Impairment
Víšková, Markéta ; Květoňová, Lea (advisor) ; Mužáková, Monika (referee)
Téma: Problémy v sociálním kontaktu s člověkem se zrakovým postižením Autor: Markéta Víšková Abstract The bachelor thesis is focused on the concept of the visual impairment in the context of the phenomenon of otherness, quality of life, social contact and problems that the visual impairment brings in terms of social life. The author assumes that despite all inseparable characteristics and consequences of vision defects, such as problems in orientation and independent movement or deficit of visual stimuli, visual impairment is in particular a problem in psychosocial terms. The link between the three chapters of the present thesis is therefore the social dimension of disability. Therefore it is proceeded from the general topic of the attitude of the society to diversity, formative influence of terminology on the specific personality characteristics, needs and problems in social interaction between the people with visual disabilities and intact society. Key words: otherness, social interaction, disability, society, attitude
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The Gates of the Otherworlds: The Border of the Otherworld in Celtic and Old Norse Myths
Hůlová, Silvie ; Kozák, Jan (advisor) ; Antalík, Dalibor (referee)
The Gates of the Otherworlds: The Border of the Otherworld in Celtic and Old Norse Myths Sylva Hůlová Abstract: My work presents a set of motifs (circumstances, barriers, creatures and other phenomena) that are connected with passage through the border of the Otherworld in the Celtic and Old Norse myths. It should be used as a basic guide for better orientation and understanding of stories describing the journey to the Otherworld and confrontation with Otherness in the chosen cultural areas. The common framework of these stories is the structure of initiation which is also frequently used for interpretation of the examined motifs. A general explanation of the concept of Otherness is based on the phenomenological approach (R. Otto, M. Eliade). Some conclusions are based also on the psychological approach (J. Campbell, S. Freud) and on the theory of narrative (V. J. Propp, N. Frye).
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Representation of "disabilty" and strategies of popularisation in pages of newspaper "Úchylná mládež" 1925 - 1938
Satinová, Gabriela ; Storchová, Lucie (advisor) ; Stella, Marco (referee)
The thesis deals with discourse analysis of a texts published in the magazine "Úchylná mládež". I focus above all on ways, in which bodily "ab/normality" was represented and produced within the Czech eugenic discourse in the first half of the 20th century. The goal of this work is to find out how eugenics influenced the period understanding of ab/normality and how it contributed to perception of ideas of productivity of disabled body. In the work I develop the thesis, that eugenic largely contributed to the incorporation of the disabled body into the productive "collective body" of the national community by supervising and controlling acts, when the "individual body" became a part of "social" and "political" body in the public discourse. Using the conceptual framework of "biopower", I aim at ways in which healthy body was constructed by means of definition of "risky groups". In the work, discursive practices are analysed that made possible to discuss bodily and mental abnormality and to define it in connection with eugenic doctrine and how productivity of disabled body was referred to. In the work, speech agents are analysed that define categories or imaginings about ab/normality.
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Textual Identity in Selected Novels by Philip Roth: Representation, Dissimulation, Creation
Lukeš, David ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The present study seeks to explore the ways in which Jewish identity is discursively deployed in three novels by Jewish-American writer Philip Roth: Portnoy's Complaint (1969), American Pastoral (1997) and The Human Stain (2000). Calling upon a framework of philosophical approaches to identity structured around the key terms of otherness, performativity and ethics, culled from theoretical writings by Judith Butler, Paul Ricoeur and Emmanuel Lévinas, the thesis analyses how writing about Jews in America functions as a political act, initially perhaps against the author's will, and engages the terms of "majority" and "minority." The central topos is that of otherness, viewed as inaccessible and irreducible (Lévinas), but endowed by the characters we will apprehend with powerful fictions, both appealing and repulsive, foci of desire and derision. In relation to our Jewish protagonists, white otherness (Chapter 1), black otherness (Chapter 2) and other Jews (Chapter 3) will be unearthed as crucial sites of imaginative investment which inform the creation of their individual Jewish-American selves. These selves are performed in discourse alternately with and against their discursive precedents, underscoring the aspect of performativity that Butler calls citationality and establishing an intricate...
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