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Issues of translation in Miroslav Holub's poetry
Prunarová, Markéta ; Quinn, Justin (advisor) ; Delbos, Stephan (referee)
Miroslav Holub, the most translated of twentieth-century Czech poets, has an integral place in Anglophone literature, yet he has received little attention from Czech literary critics. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to shed light on questions that arise from this singular situation. First and foremost, in what ways and for what reasons has Holub's poetry become an integral part of the Anglophone tradition and what artistic features allowed its consolidation? This thesis explores the aspects of Holub's poems and of the cultural and political contexts that helped the positive reception of his work abroad. Since Holub's poetry engaged with the British and American literary tradition in its translated version, the main focus of this thesis is on the differences and similarities between the dynamics of Holub's oeuvre in the original and in English. The first part of the thesis introduces Holub's poetry from the Czech point of view. The genealogy of his work is outlined in its broader literary and social circumstances, especially within the context of the Poetry of the Everyday. To understand this context, a part of this chapter is dedicated to his biography. The core of the second chapter is the description of Holub's poetic language. This aims to determine whether such a language is suitable or...
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20th century haiku in English
Roubíček, Jan ; Quinn, Justin (advisor) ; Houskova, Mariana (referee)
For a reader or author residing in the West, the haiku journal scene is, owing to the Internet and to the many published printed journals, abundantly rich, and from the research we have done, we see that there is also a large number of authors in the English-speaking world who submit to these journals. The Internet also offers the option of blogspots, which some authors make use of; scholarly articles on haiku are readily accessible through journals and through other web pages. This situation allows for a dialogue, where the judgment about a haiku's quality is never simple. In the conclusion to this paper, we will sum up what we consider to be the important features of haiku, and we will discuss the prose-poetry dichotomy, as it seems to have relevance for haiku. The Japanese tradition still plays a crucial role in shaping modern haiku, as can be seen in the issues of Shamrock and elsewhere; there is a clear awareness, in the haiku community, that English is a different medium, with its rhythm and sound specifics, and that the same applies for other languages.
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The Fragmentation of Identity in the Work of Sylvia Plath: The (Im)possibility of Escaping the "Bell Jar"
Urbanová, Aneta ; Delbos, Stephan (advisor) ; Quinn, Justin (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the theme of women's identity crisis in Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar and the selected poems from her late poetry collection Ariel, focusing predominantly on the portrayal of lost and fragmented identity. It establishes Plath's work within the context of her time and argues that the depicted issue of fragmentation does not merely concern a crisis of the individual, rather, it reflects a general sentiment shared by women in the Cold War Era. The objective of the thesis is to determine some of the principal causes of identity disintegration and show its detrimental impact on women's psyche. The analysis further aims to unfold the ways in which Plath's work offers an escape from the inner turmoil, and thus identify the potential resolution to the identity crisis. The thesis is divided into three separate chapters followed by a conclusion. The introductory chapter provides a general overview of the Cold War era, focusing on the changing political and socio-cultural situation of the 1950s and its role in the disintegration of women's identity. The overall purpose of the chapter is to demonstrate how the identity crisis presented in Plath's work mirrors the life experience of women in the Cold War era. It attempts to outline the oppressive nature of the post-war...
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Edward Thomas as a Critic
Zikmund, Jan ; Quinn, Justin (advisor) ; Longley, Edna (referee)
1 Abstract Long overlooked, the poetry of Edward Thomas (1878-1917) has enjoyed wide recognition in the past few decades. The same cannot be said of Thomas's criticism. Though he worked as a literary journalist for almost a decade and a half, critics have mainly focused on the final years of his life when, after the outset of the First World War, he voluntarily enlisted in the Artist's Rifles and began writing poetry. He died in France, at the Battle of Arras. Since his youth, Thomas suffered from depression, possibly made worse by the demands of his profession (some years he reviewed over a hundred books). In contrast, the last stretch of his life seems to have been more fulfilling. Not only did military training prove beneficial for his mental health, but - encouraged by a number of his friends, including Robert Frost and W. H. Hudson - he metamorphosed from overworked hack-writer (as some still refer to him) to outstanding poet. As most of his criticism precedes his poetry, scholars usually look at Thomas's reviews, anthologies, and literary studies to better understand his 144 poems. While it is important to explore the links between his poetry and rest of his work, Thomas's criticism is strong and extensive enough to be considered independently of the poetry. His books and articles may illuminate his...
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A Curious Little Footnote": Footnotes as a Narrative Device in Contemporary American Fiction
Sirotenko, Alexandra ; Quinn, Justin (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
This thesis aims to explore how footnotes, used as a narrative device in contemporary US fiction, help address and challenge the global questions of authority, cultural power and historical narrative of the past. The work begins by outlining the footnotes' history of the use in academic writing and in 20th century fictional texts to examine their complex relationship with the main text and its authority in the past. It then establishes the context of globalization, within which the narrative of American cultural supremacy is the focal point, and maps some cultural shifts in the landscape within the country that were responsible for the changing perception of the historical narrative of the US. The last part examines the two works of fictions that are directly shaped by those cultural shifts - The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara - and analyzes the use of footnotes in those novels as instruments to destabilize narrative authority. The argument is made that through the use of footnotes these writers reflect on and challenge the historical power narrative of the US and its relationship to Others and othering.
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Political tendencies in Carl Sandburg's poetry
Dragounová, Jolana ; Quinn, Justin (advisor) ; Delbos, Stephan (referee)
1 Abstract Behind the poetry of Carl Sandburg, a poet often underestimated and perceived as insignificant, hides a strong political voice that raises various questions due to its directness and straightforwardness with focus on plain style and everyday imagery. Though at first glance, Sandburg's poetry may seem transparent and frank, critics debate over his true intent. On that account, it is necessary not to disregard his personal life and political beliefs in the analysis of his work for it had a significant impact. The aim of this thesis is to analyze Carl Sandburg's poetry during the period of the 1920s and 1930s and describe the influence and reflection of his political views on his work. His political life provides quite a colorful picture. In the beginnings of his early career, we could notice his leftist tendencies in his poetry, which peaked in his adulthood, particularly when Sandburg became a member of the Social-Democratic Party. During his life as a journalist, he paid attention to the injustice inflicted on working-class men, women and even children, and he was concerned about their insufficient working conditions. Apart from contributing to socialist newspaper the International Socialist Review, he was also working on political campaigns of socialist leaders. In his essay "You and Your Job,"...
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Incest in the Nineteenth Century American Literature
Gudkov, Danila ; Robbins, David Lee (advisor) ; Quinn, Justin (referee)
The subject of this BA thesis is social and political reasons behind the incest fascination in 19th century America. My aim is to investigate the surprisingly common details prevalent in this area of American literature and to find and explain reasons behind their presence. In such stories, due to the fathers' infidelity a young man or women eventually end up in a situation of nearly committing incest with either their father or their own half sibling. Afterwards, the realization of said fact causes misery and often death to both parties involved. The mother's presence plays no role in this kind of novels, as she is either narratively absent or outright dead. This thesis will attempt to prove that abovementioned scenario is not merely a way to attract fame and riches but the representation of fears that plagued the population of New World. The works which will be discussed are Alice Doane's Appeal by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Marian and Lydia, Mentoria; or The young lady's friend by Mrs. Rowson, Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, Pierre, or the Ambiguities, Herman Melville, The Power of Sympathy:or, the Triumph of Nature by William Hill Brown and Louisa May Alcott's The Marble Woman, or the Mysterious Model. The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction in which I...
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Elizabeth Bishop: The Map of Her Life and Work
Nováková, Lucie ; Veselá, Pavla (advisor) ; Quinn, Justin (referee)
The aim of the thesis is straightforward: to provide readers with a glimpse into the life of Elizabeth Bishop but not to put emphasis on biographical details. The focus lies on her two most formative relationships with her fellow poets, namely Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell. The thesis aims to present five selected poems and to read them with acknowledging the mutual influences and, at the same time, it strives to provide specific instances of such influences. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the relationship with Marianne Moore. The two poets met during Bishop's Vassar years and their friendship lasted until Moore's death in 1972. From the teacher - mentored paradigm, their friendship evolved into an affectionate companionship. The thesis introduces their relationship while using selected letters, interviews and, to illustrate the matters more clearly, two of Bishop's poems, "The Roosters" and "Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore." The first poem captures the breaking free from Moore's direct influence and additionally serves as a link to the second part of the thesis. The later poem is used to illustrate their reconciliation and to present the milestone that marks the shift of paradigms. The second part of the thesis presents Robert Lowell, who is the already mentioned link between...
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American Postwar Pilgrimage: The Beats in Paris
Kirlan, Margarita ; Delbos, Stephan (advisor) ; Quinn, Justin (referee)
The main objective of this thesis is to study the high point of the Beat Generation's production in Paris between 1957 and 1960 and to determine why it encouraged their major contribution to literature, art and criticism worldwide in the last quarter of the 20th century and today. Though most were born and educated in the United States, many of the most important Beat writers journeyed across the world in search of artistic recognition and determined to perform literary experiments they had failed to execute back home. This thesis will provide an overview of the Beat pilgrimage to Paris, a city which has been coined "an arbiter of cultural value in the postwar era." The thesis also attempts to examine the1 ways the Beats' time in Paris was invaluable for their influence on literature beyond American borders and how their writing was shaped by the oeuvres of such French writers as Rimbaud, Proust, Gide, Apollinaire, St.-John Perse, Céline, Cocteau, Genet, Michaux and others. This thesis2 will survey the intersection between French and American culture and the influence of both on Beat authors and the list of works to be analysed includes but is not limited to Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems (1956), and "Kaddish" (1959); William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959), The Soft Machine; Jack...
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