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Lilliputians.Representations of the bodily "difference" in the Prague's freakshow culture 1820-1940
Herza, Filip ; Storchová, Lucie (advisor) ; Kolářová, Kateřina (referee)
In the following essay, I focus on the representations of bodily "difference" in the Prague's freakshow culture, particulary on the displays of the so called "Lilliputians", which were popular among the public from the beginning of the 19th Century to the 40's of the 20th Century. Firstly, I introduce the Prague's curiosity exhibitions as a specific social praxis and I compare them with similar displays in Europe and the United States. In the second part of this essay, I try to analyse those exhibitions critically, using the concepts from the present disability studies discourse. I deal with the bodily "otherness" as a category of difference, which arises from the intersection of different ideologies. According to the point of view, this category shaped the individual and collective identities and fostered the social hierarchies of the time. Throughout the essay, I focus on the dis/continuities in the imagination of bodily "difference" and I try to describe the specificity of the Czech freakshow tradition. Key words: 19th Century, body, representations, bodily difference, abnormality, ideology
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Unbeheld Body: Seeking for the Literary Form of the Queer Body in the Novels of Jeanette Winterson
Hlucháňová, Zuzana ; Kolářová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Sokolová, Věra (referee)
The thesis elaborates upon a question which literary techniques Jeanette Winterson applies in her novels The Passion and Written on the Body to portray queer body. The thesis conceptualizes queer body as crystallizing in discontinuous relationships between the categories of sex, gender identity and compulsory heterosexuality within Butlerian heterosexual matrix. The possibility of discontinuous relationships between them - gender disorder - is realised in the act of beholding queer body. Conceptualization of queer body embedded within the Butlerian heterosexual matrix has not been elaborated upon in the full scope of Jeanette Winterson's work. Literary criticism deals with the body in Written on the Body, not, however, in the context of Butlerian model of heterosexual matrix. Articulation of queer body is realized by deconstructive techniques of Jeanette Winterson's writing. These are comprised in the motifs of mirroring in The Passion and palimpsest in Written on the Body. Ontological anxiety in The Passion brings queer body. Magic realism in the novel gives queer body magical skills which make gender disorder possible. Queer body is abject in the novel. In Written on the Body genderless narrator describes queer body as his/her body. It is an adorable and morbid body. The queer body in this novel...
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Contemporary Czech Sexology and Homosexuality
Mašková, Johana ; Sokolová, Věra (advisor) ; Kolářová, Kateřina (referee)
7 ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on a textual analysis of articles in the field of sexology, which were published in the Czech Republic after 1989. It will examine through both quantitative and qualitative methods, how authors of sexological articles defined the term homosexuality and worked with it, as well as explore their varying approaches to the topic depending on context. The thesis will ask whether the sexological discourse about homosexuality has changed after the fall of the communist regime, and if it has, in what ways. Keywords: AIDS/HIV, biologization, coming out, discourse, essentialization, gay, gender, heteronormativity, homosexuality, lesbian, medicalization, registered partnership, sexualization, sexology, stereotype, stigmatization, taboo, victimization
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Beyond the heteronormative understanding of gender and sexuality
Jahodová, Dita ; Kolářová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Sokolová, Věra (referee)
This thesis presents the basic principles of the functioning of the heteronormative order: in what way heterosexuality is constructed as the norm and in what way it is maintained as such. The thesis simultaneously examines the possibilities of disrupting the heteronormative order, creating queer spaces, and defining the term queer and queer politics in the framework of a queer subculture. The aim of the research carried out within the thesis is to contribute to the visibility of queer subculture, present ways in which the term queer is used in queer subculture and show to what degree the examined queer subcultural spaces are created as open spaces and to whom they are accessible. In the Czech Republic the term queer is used as a synonym for LGBT identities or as an umbrella term for LGBTI people and activities. Nevertheless, as follows from the analysis of semi-structured interviews, the term queer can have even other meanings. It can express criticism of heteronormativity, homonormativity, mainstream LGBT politics and culture, and the attempt to overcome the norms connected with gender and sexuality. In this regard, the term queer can refer not only to an identity and also to a political position. The interweaving of queer and feminist theory can be inspiring not only for the development of gender...
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Gender Aspects of Rehabilitation Care of People with Disabilities in Rehabilitation Centre Kladruby
Svatková, Petra ; Kolářová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Kiczková, Zuzana (referee)
In diploma thesis I have focused on gender aspects of rehabilitation care of men and women with a physical "handicap" that was not inborn. Theoretical sources of the thesis were mainly concepts of the Feminist Disability Studies, whose point of view helped me to specify the terms "disablement" and "handicap" and to embed them into broader meaning of medicinal, social and cultural models, which I have subjected to critical reading. I was especially interested in intersectionality of gender and "disablement" and I introduced its possible implications. In the chapter called "Methodology" I determined my research position and ethical aspects linked to the topic of handicap; methodological procedures used in the thesis were also introduced in this chapter. After introducing Rehabilitation Center Kladruby and its function I went on describing the form and course of the rehabilitation care as well as concrete rehabilitation methods. The basis of the empirical part of the thesis were interviews with disabled men and women who repeatedly underwent physiotherapy in the Rehabilitation Center Kladruby. The analyses of the interviews were focused on gender aspects of perceiving the center as an institution, as well as on the way the role of gender projects to the rehabilitation care and the overall life with handicap.
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Nomadic Pilgrimage before Sleep (Stories for Children as Nomadic Maps Presented by Lesbian and Gay Parents)
Janátová, Blanka ; Kolářová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Knotková - Čapková, Blanka (referee)
Nomadic Pilgrimage before Sleep (Stories for Children as Nomadic Maps Presented by Lesbian and Gay Parents) Abstract: The diploma thesis is based on study dealing with attitudes of lesbian and gay parents toward literature they presented to their children. Through the contextualization of child literature and lesbian and gay topic in Czech Republic and foreign countries, there is developed concept of fairy tale and stories for children as a multilayered text where is the crucial role in meaning ascribing played by the active reader/listener of the text. Further is discussed the concept of nomadism and nomadic subject from perspective of Rosi Braidotti. It is interconnected with fairytales and stories for children, which become a kind of invisible nomadic maps. Followed by interpretation of lesbian and gay parent's responses from semi-structured interviews. Keywords: fairytales, stories for children, nomadism, nomadic subject, lesbian and gay representation.
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