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Margaret Laurence's Women: Isolation and Survival in the Manawaka Sequence
Ondová, Zuzana ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the theme of isolation and survival in A Jest of God (1966) and The Fire-Dwellers (1969), the second and third novel in Margaret Laurence's Manawaka sequence, on the background of Margaret Atwood's book Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972). At a time when Canadian literature was a nebulous term, Atwood identified the notion of survival as the common, unifying theme in literary works produced by writers across the vast country, with victims, death, terror and isolation as the accompanying motifs. She defines the concept as multi-faceted, distinguishing the external/physical survival found in early Canadian explorer writing and the internal/psychological survival common in later fiction writers. Furthermore, based on the argument that as a colony, Canada is inherently victimized, she proposes a system of four Victim Positions into which we can categorize Canadian protagonists. Margaret Laurence (1926-1987) is considered one of the fundamental figures of the English- Canadian novel. In the Introduction I provide insight into the socio-cultural climate of the time period and the bleak state of Canadian publishing industry at the time. Since Laurence's works are tied to the Manitoba prairie, I touch on the significance of regionalism in understanding Canadian...
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Tenants in the House of Language: English Romantic Authorship
Flanderová, Veronika ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
The thesis examines the phenomenon of Romantic authorship as a conceptual tool of literary criticism. It compares the concept of Romantic authorship, in which the authorial personality plays a crucial role in determining the meaning of a literary work of art, and various positions of the author in relation to the meaning of their text in English Romantic literature itself. The introductory theoretical chapter develops the idea that the Romantic emphasis on the authorial subject and its primacy in interpretation of a work of art is, to a certain extent, a creation of late 19th - and 20th - century criticism. The thesis then examines the authorial position in Romantic thought and connects it with contemporary debates about language and the transfer of meaning between the subject and the outer world. The case study interprets selected poems by and the autobiography of Samuel T. Coleridge against the background of the debate on language and communication, presenting a number of authorial images in which centrality of the author's self for interpretation of a literary text is problematized.
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Journey Through Parallel Universes: The World of Portal Fantasy
Arzumanyan, Varditer ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the worlds of portal fantasy, a genre featuring travel between different realms, through the analysis of the selected novels. This subgenre of fantasy fiction enables a cultural and societal comparison between the character's world of origin and the newly discovered land. There is a process of habituation with the novel setting and one's self. The essay focuses on the worlds presented in the chosen literature, characters, and the role of the transitions through the universes. It facilitates a course of adjustment that inevitably leads to the development of the hero/heroine and offers an exploration of social issues. The thesis also examines the quest structure of the stories, as it is an element often present in the genre. Each book is summarized and examined within its respective chapter. The first segment deals with the definitions of the 'fantastic' and subsequently, portal fantasy. Consideration is given to the explanations of terms significant to the analysis as a frame of reference for the following chapters. It also discusses the process of building the Secondary universes. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is the subject of the second chapter. Gaiman's prominence within the field of fantasy and his genre-bending writing opens up the chapter. The concept...
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Ethics and Religion in George Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter
Vašendová, Petra ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
This thesis explores George Orwell's relationship to and critique of religion in his early novel A Clergyman's Daughter (1935). The main focus is the protagonist and her loss of faith and an explanation of the image of an ideal Christian she represents contrasted with the clergymen and other characters found in the story. Dorothy Hare is a decent young woman both before and after her loss of faith, meaning she does not need an external incentive for her behaviour. Orwell made a point of criticising the ecclesiastical system based upon contradictory instructions of the Bible and the lack of true Christian belief and kindness among the priests. The thesis first introduces the writer's early experience with religion at schools he attended and describes the effect the institutions had on Orwell in later life, followed by the analysis of the novel A Clergyman's Daughter. Each chapter of the novel is analysed separately, as each of the five chapters represents a different formative experience for the protagonist. The first chapter shows Dorothy's everyday hardships, as she is subject to the demands of her father, the Rector of an Anglican parish, as well as the requests of the other clergymen and the parishioners she visits every day, and shows Orwell's general criticism of the Church and its ritualistic...
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Shelley's Negotiation of Metaphysics
Balvín, Tomáš ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
This thesis aims to understand Percy Bysshe Shelley's attitude towards the role of the poet in society as an usher of progressive change. To do this, it examines his metaphysics, chiefly his contact with the doctrines of idealism, which crystallised at the dawn of his life through his intimate relationship with the works of Plato, the early engagement with French materialists, English philosophers like Priestley and Hume & a later one with Lucretian materialism, and his deep entanglement with the first modern proponent of anarchism, William Godwin - who could be described as a perfectionist by some or as utilitarianist by others. By doing that the thesis seeks to shed light on how these doctrines influenced Shelley and how he conversed with and critiqued them, revealing the intricacies of his work because, in Shelley's philosophy, the nature of differentiation between the two, that is between materialism and idealism, is notoriously problematic. The beginning of the thesis serves to engage with Shelley's early contact with materialist doctrines, their fast repudiation in their pure form and his later critique in "Cloud" and response to them. The materialist influences of Shelley are pondered, as well as some of the possibilities of interpreting Shelley in a materialist way. Next, Shelley's...
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Fantastic Society: Social Themes in Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Hájek, Jáchym ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
Terry Pratchett is best known as the author of Discworld, a series of more than forty books and several short stories set in a world that is often described as humorous fantasy. Pratchett, however, uses this genre and its imaginative and satiric opportunities not only to tell stories, but also to mediate his own views on some of the major social themes such as feminism, religion, or racism. He uses the stereotypical fantasy roles and settings and subverts them to point out real world problems and issues. The rise of popularity of the fantasy genre, especially satirical or humorous enables Pratchett to present his views to a broader audience, and to create a world mirroring and distorting the real one as to show the importance and impact of these issues on society. The fantasy setting also gives Pratchett the opportunity to create a world in which these themes can be illustrated and discussed freely. The first chapter sets up Discworld as a Secondary World and presents the topics that will be discussed. The second chapter deals with the many forms of racism in Discworld. The first part of the chapter discusses the standard, human-human type of racism, which is illustrated in the book Jingo. A subchapter is then dedicated to human-nonhuman and dwarf-troll racism, illustrated in Thud!, where Pratchett...
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Perception of Time in the Novels of Virginia Woolf
Byrtusová, Klára ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
The predominant objective of this thesis is an analysis of the representation of time in three novels written by a modernist writer Virginia Woolf. This thesis studies dichotomy between a psychological, inner time and time imposed on characters by the external world. It is claimed that the juxtaposition of these concepts in the novels Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and To the Lighthouse can be compared with notions of l'étendu and durée, represented by a French philosopher Henri Bergson. The notion of the subjective nature of durée is based on its quality of existing internally, while being independent of the external time. This characteristics is contrasted with the notion of l'étendu that can be described as the external time, enforced by its mechanical division of time into units. The juxtaposition between the two types of time are evident in the studied novels, nevertheless, each discussed novel employs time in a different manner, providing multiple points of view on the same problem. The introductory part of the thesis outlines possible roots of Woolf's occupation with the concept of time, claiming that the accurate representation of time was not only a literary concern but also a philosophical one. Besides Henri Bergson, key ideas of Paul Ricoeur and William James are mentioned as well. The thesis...
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Heroin / Heroine: Addiction as Narrative and Transgression in Junky and Trainspotting
Roušová, Helena ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to conduct a comparative analysis of two novels representing transgressive fiction and literature of addiction. These two novels, Junky (1977) (first published as Junkie in 1953) by William Burroughs and Trainspotting (1993) by Irvine Welsh, deal with drug addicts and their transgressive behaviour. They describe the choices the main characters make when they try to break free from the confines of society and their search for identity. The protagonists of both texts try to escape from the rules and expectations society imposes on them, they cross the boundaries of law, morals, and ethics; they transgress. The origins of the term "transgressive fiction" are explained and transgressive techniques and transgressive features in both texts are analysed. The transgressive potential of the subtitle of the first edition of Junkie is explained and moments of undermining middle- class identity and mocking American lifestyle are discussed. In Trainspotting, the transgressive elements involve, among others, the psychological effect of humour in grave and/or graphic transgressive situations and the manipulation of others using intellectual superiority. In both texts, channelling of transgression through violence plays an important part. Violence is seen as the only avenue for...
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Symbolism of the Vampire in English Romanticism
Sůvová, Jaroslava ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
The character of the vampire was popularized especially by Bram Stoker's Dracula. However, Dracula was not the first vampire in British literature and his origins can be traced back to Romanticism. This bachelor thesis will look into the issue of symbolism of vampires in the selected works of English Romanticism from the end of the 18th century to the first decades of the 19th century. The main focus will be on the works of Samuel T. Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron and John William Polidori and their approach towards the characters of vampires. The aim of this thesis is to determine what is the function of these characters in the works, what exactly they symbolize, and whether they represent something deeper than "the other", "the abject" and "the damned".
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