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"New Future Selves:" Gender Fluidity in the Short Stories of Jackie Kay and Ali Smith
Stehlíková, Anežka ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
1 Abstract This master's thesis examines and juxtaposes the portrayal and construction of gender fluidity in the short stories of two contemporary Scottish writers, Jackie Kay and Ali Smith, positing that it operates as an argument against, and subversion of, culturally and socially specific norms and standards. To be able to elaborate on this argument and accurately assess the examined works, the second chapter of the thesis delineates the theoretical framework through the lens of which the subsequent analysis is carried out. First, the juncture of postmodern feminism and queer theory is used to outline the germane theory of gender. Namely, the ideas of Judith Butler and Mimi Marinucci are drawn on to define gender, its discursive production, performativity, and sociocultural contingence; to explain how and why it may be understood as fluid and what the thesis signifies by the term fluidity, and to underline the means of subversion and effecting change as understood by the two theorists. Subsequently, the chapter maps the intersection of Scottishness and the Scottish sociocultural sphere with gender to elucidate why Kay and Smith's depictions are considered subversive. This section of the thesis summarises the contemporary political agenda regarding gender in Scotland, highlights the traditionally...
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A Variety of Perspectives: The Role of the Narrator in Selected British Dystopian Novels
Yavtushenko, Alona ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
This bachelor thesis focuses on examining the narrative situations in selected British dystopian novels and determining how the specific narrative strategies contribute to the texts' efficiency. The discussed novels are Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty- Four, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The study analyses the narrative situation in every novel separately, concentrating on the role of the narrator and their contribution to the presentation of the dystopian world. The thesis works with Gérard Genette's theory of narrative and his concept of focalization, using his terminology to describe the narrative mode in each of the novels. By examining the role of the narrators in the texts, the present study aims to determine how the chosen narrative techniques augment the depiction of the fictional worlds, thus making the novels more effective and relatable. Each of the novels was given their individual chapters in order to provide a detailed analysis of the narrative situations and determine how the particular type of narrator influences the way the text is perceived. In the introductory part, the genre of dystopia and its primary purpose are discussed. The chapter also introduces the theoretical framework and the primary texts. The second chapter is dedicated to...
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Wilson Harris's Mythic Vision in The Guyana Quartet
Nguyen, Mai Chi ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
This thesis engages with Wilson Harris's vision for the Caribbean in light of the processes of land settlement, appropriation, genocide and slave trafficking that have historically denied the region's population of human identity. Concerned primarily with Wilson Harris's first four published novels, Palace of the Peacock (1960), The Far Journey of Oudin (1961), The Whole Armour (1962), and The Secret Ladder (1963), which were then grouped together and republished as The Guyana Quartet (1985), the study of this quartet also focuses on Harris's critical essays, most notably "The Amerindian Legacy" (1990). Firstly, this thesis situates Wilson Harris within the context of postcolonial thought and Caribbean literature in the 20th century. Then, it focuses on the remnants of colonial conquest that appear continuously in Harris's four novels under the repeated motif of pursuit. By exploring the presence of Jungian thought in Harris's fictional writing and critical writing, as well as the immanent ontology of the Caribbean that underpins the author's vision, the thesis draws out Harris's response to the cycle of persecution that he believes to stagnate the Caribbean. Harris's mythopoetic revisioning of Caribbean identity in The Guyana Quartet proposes a form of rebirth that transforms the dialectic between...
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"…before they turn us into something worse": A Postcolonial Reading of The Satanic Verses
Fediakova, Anastasiia ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
This paper attempts to analyze Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, its structure, multiple dimensions and characters through the lens of postcolonialism, separately from the infamous controversy. The thesis consists of three chapters which primarily deal with the themes of dehumanization, migration, exile, cultural contamination and possession (both literal and imaginary) of the territory through bodies. In addition to Rushdie's novel which lies in the core of this thesis, this paper also introduces a number of other literary texts and one film, all belonging to the authors coming from different backgrounds though curiously repeating and overlapping some of the notions when it comes to the portrayal of the migrants. Whereas the introduction of the thesis could be regarded as general, giving a necessary background to the reading of The Satanic Verses and outlining the methodology, the conclusion concerns not so much the repetition of what the chapters investigate, but rather draws the final line, discusses and interprets what the characters as well as entire narrative had arrived to. Whereas "the migrant can do without the journey altogether; it's no more than a necessary evil; the point is to arrive",1 Rushdie's novel seems to continuously enable movement rather than fixity. 1Salman Rushdie, The...
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Renderings of the Self: The Theme of Fluid Identity in the Work of Jackie Kay
Stehlíková, Anežka ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
The bachelor thesis performs an analysis of the treatment of Scottish national and gender identity in selected poetry and fiction of the third modern Scots Makar, Jackie Kay (1961-), and argues that the author's works, regardless of genre, portray identities as self-invented and fluid rather than fixed and environment- or birth-determined. Kay's speakers, characters and narrators recurrently (re)construct their own identities, often in defiance of socially given norms, and, consequently, display one's ability to flexibly formulate own self-concept. The argumentation demonstrating the given depiction of identities is based on an examination of the poetry collection The Adoption Papers (1991), the novel Trumpet (1998), and the short story collection Why Don't You Stop Talking (2002) respectively. The analysis of Kay's poetry and fiction is preceded by the survey of the theoretical framework germane to the identity subcategories focused on in the thesis: Scottishness and gender identity. Conceiving both as social identities which, among other components, constitute an individual's self-concept, the overview provides the chief approaches to the formation of each identity category separately. Delimiting the civic, ethnic and cultural perception of Scottish national identity and the essentialist,...
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Menstrual stigma in advertising of menstrual products
Poncarová, Petra ; Dudová, Radka (advisor) ; Mazák, Jaromír (referee)
(in English): This thesis deals with menstrual stigma in advertising of menstrual products. First, the theoretical basis for stigma associated with menstruation is presented and then several articles are described that dealt with the analysis of advertisements for menstrual products. With the use of exploration method, the thesis tries to capture the phenomenon of menstrual-related stigma, where the main question is: "How do advertisements advertise different types of menstrual products and how do they work with menstrual stigma?" It is further divided into individual sub-questions, which are: "Can any differences in work with stigma be identified for different types of products, especially in the comparison of traditional and alternative menstrual products?", "In what ways is stigma used, maintained or abolished in advertising?" and "Are these ways of work related to the type of product and the target audience?" With the help of theory, certain categories were established, according to which the advertisements were subsequently analysed. Further categories were discovered in the analysis of advertising itself, with the proviso that they relate to the menstrual stigma, the analysis of which is the main goal of this work. The qualitative analysis of the advertisements showed that most of the...
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The Political Poetry of Derick Thomson
Poncarová, Petra Johana ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Dunbar, Rob (referee) ; Markus, Radvan (referee)
This dissertation focuses on the political verse and journalism by the Scottish Gaelic poet, scholar, publisher, and activist Derick Thomson (Ruaraidh MacThòmais, 1921-2012). The chosen set of themes can be broadly described as "political issues", although Thomson should not be regarded only as a political poet in the narrow sense of a propagandist, nor does his political poetry deal with elections and campaigns. The political aspect of his poetry is much broader, including concerns with language and power. Politics also represent the connection between Thomson's multiple activities, and therefore a suitable framework in which to explore them. So far, the prevailing paradigm for studying Thomson's works has been the poetry of place, a concept deeply rooted in the Gaelic tradition, and both popular and critical attention was paid especially to his Lewis poems and, to a less extend, his writing about Glasgow. This dissertation strives to provide answers to the following questions: Which political issues can be traced in Thomson's poetry? What were his main concerns? How does he handle politics in his verse? Are there poems where a political interpretation might be constructed, but that also allow other ways of reading? What were Thomson's actual political convictions, as far as we can reconstruct...
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From the Woods of Raasay to Glasgow Streets: Poetry of Place in the Works of Sorley MacLean and Derick Thomson
Poncarová, Petra Johana ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Markus, Radvan (referee)
This thesis focuses on the poetry of place in the works of the two most important figures of modern Scottish Gaelic verse: Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 1911-1996) and Derick Thomson (Ruaraidh MacThòmais, 1921-2012). Both poets exhibited a keen interest in poetry of place, although each one approached it from a very different angle: MacLean's poetry is proudly local and audaciously universal at the same time, moving from the Cuillin of Skye to Spain and Russia in the space of one stanza, while Thomson inquires in the ways in which the island environment, in terms of nature, language and religion, shapes the individual psyche, memory and creative abilities, and he is also a significant poet of the city. The opening chapter gives reasons for the choice of these two authors, introduces the structure and method of the thesis, and outlines what is meant by "poetry of place." It also sums up different theoretical approaches to places and discusses important features of Scottish Gaelic poetry of place of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as both poets employed, altered and contradicted certain traditional patterns and motifs. The second chapter provides a context for the subsequent discussion by explaining the basic facts about the linguistic, social and cultural conditions of Gaelic...
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The Satanic Verses: In Quest of Identities
Poncarová, Petra ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Varhaníková, Halka (referee)
in English This thesis is concerned with the theme of identity in Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, namely with the metamorphoses of identity in relation to space. The issue of space and identity comprises both the analysis of the concrete locations and their impact on human beings, but also broader topics such as the mass migration in the second half of the 20th century. The novel is (in)famous mainly for the charge of blasphemy that was brought against it, and for the international controversy that followed its publication, but this thesis tries to read the novel as a literary work of art, as a manifestation of free authorial imagination which nevertheless addresses many issues of great social and political relevance. The first chapter defines the scope of the thesis, its methods and main theoretical sources; the second begins the actual discussion of identity: how are identities presented at the beginning of the novel. This chapter also briefly introduces some theoretical attitudes to identity. The relation of identity to space is the topic of the third chapter. Salman Rushdie's writing in general is characterized by the author's deep interest in the transformations of human identity under the influence of migration, and in The Satanic Verses, this theme becomes both the formal and the...
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