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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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Fragmentation and Disjointedness in Samuel Beckett's Plays
Halášková, Lucie ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Armand, Louis (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to explore different levels of fragmentation and disjointedness in Samuel Beckett's Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Happy Days, and Play. Firstly, certain concepts are exposed as being fragmentary. The concepts which are examined in relation to fragmentation and disjointedness are language, time, identity, and reality. The motivation behind this part of the research was to expose the subjectivity and multiplicity of these concepts, and to examine how they function in the four treated plays. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to examine Beckett's use of fragmentation and disjointedness in correlation with incompleteness, examining the importance of what is present but also what is absent in the treated plays. In chapter 2, the relationship between the form and function of language is examined, exploring the different factors that affect one's perception towards language. Language is examined within a subjective, contextual, and social framework. The characters of the treated plays prove that language is a delicate method of expression, often resulting in rifts in communication. The third chapter deals with the fragmentation and subjectivity of time, identity, and reality. Time is examined in relation to the characters, delving into the problem of the characters' perception of the...
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Brian Friel's Conception of Forming History and Its Implications
Kantorová, Aneta ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
Thesis Abstract The aim of this thesis is to provide a thorough overview of Brian Friel's attitude to historical writing based on an analysis of three of his plays that directly deal with the themes of Irish history and heritage - Translations, The Communication Cord, and Making History. The plays are analyzed from different perspectives, applying various sources and influences shaping Friel's understanding of the concept of history as such and its fictional representation in art. Upon this careful examination, major tendencies in Friel's historical writing are revealed offering a concise characterization of not only the plays in question but also of the Irish historical consciousness in general. The thesis is divided into four major chapters - one providing a theoretical background which would be later applied to the other three parts that deal directly with Friel's works. The theoretical part is further divided into a brief summary of the philosophy of history and a short introduction of the Field Day Theatrical Company. The former segment is based on Hayden White's Metahistory for he treats historical writing as a narrative rather than a scientific objective report. This part follows the development of the concept of history, truth, and art, and is mainly focused on Friedrich Nietzsche as an ideological...
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The past as a leitmotif in Stewart Parker's dramatic work for stage
Raisová, Michaela ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the use of the past in Stewart Parker's dramatic work for the stage. A recent historian Hayden White formulated that the work of a historian is in fact similar to the work of a historical fiction writer - the difference lies mainly in the extent of their invention. In that respect, Parker's work can be regarded as a fictional alternative to the official depiction of history. In his plays, Stewart Parker often deals with the Troubles and Northern Irish history and politics. Apart from using real historical events around which Parker revolves the plot of his plays, he often explores the effects of personal pasts of his characters and uses it as leading dynamics in the plays. The main motto of his plays is 'coming to terms with the past'. His plays also often feature ghosts which can be regarded as a reflection of the past. In my thesis, I examine their role and Parker's use of the past in Spokesong, Catchpenny Twist, Nightshade, Pratt's Fall, Northern Star, Heavenly Bodies and Pentecost.
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Academic spectacle: commodification of knowledge in Pnin, The Breast and White Noise
Labanczová, Johana ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The thesis called Academic Spectacle: Commodification of Knowledge in Pnin, The Breast, and White Noise deals with the commodifying influence of the consumer society on education, knowledge and the perception of information, as it is reflected in the following American academic novels: Pnin (1957) by Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth's The Breast (1972) and White Noise (1985) by Don DeLillo. The thesis combines the approach of literary analysis with the use of cultural- theoretical terms and theories relating to the state of postmodern society from the texts of Waltr Benjamin, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Linda Hutcheon or Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer. In addition, it elaborates on sociological concepts, such as "the risk society" of Ulrich Beck, the "public arenas model" of approaching social problems of Stephen Hilgratner and Charles Bosk or "the hyperconsumer society", the term Gilles Lipovetsky applies to the state of present societies. Therefore, the thesis belongs to the area of cultural studies, which typically combine the approaches of sociology and literary studies. For the sake of analyzing the influence of the consumer society on the academic environment (as it is reflected in the given novels), we established four basic aspects of commodification: reification, banalization,...
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Ironic Myths and Broken Images: Reflections of the 1798 Rebellion in Twentieth-Century Irish Fiction and Drama
Markus, Radvan ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee) ; Mac Craith, Micheal (referee)
The 1798 Irish rebellion together with the preceding decade is justly regarded as a watershed event in the forming of Irish national identity. Therefore it is not surprising that it has inspired numerous, and often conflicting, interpretations in both historiography and literature. This study concentrates on both English- and Irish-language historical novels and plays written about the rebellion in the course of the twentieth century, especially after the year 1916. Attention is drawn to the interpretations of the event contained in these literary works, comparing them to the various views of 1798 as they have evolved in Irish historiography. As the rebellion, especially from the 1970s onward, has been increasingly seen in the light of the later conflict in Northern Ireland, this connection has an important place in the analysis. On the theoretical level, the thesis draws from the findings of Hayden White, who has famously questioned the border between historiographical and fictional treatments of historical events. At the same time, this relativism is complemented by selected features of the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, who highlighted the inevitable ethical questions connected to representations of history. In accordance with the theoretical preliminaries, the study explores the relative value of...
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Folklore and myth on stage: a comparison of their use in revival and contemporary Irish drama
Kurz, Matouš ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
of the Thesis The topic of this thesis is the use of mythology and folklore in Irish drama from the era of the Irish National Revival and the contemporary period. It focuses closely just on two plays, The Countess Cathleen by William Butler Yeats, representing the Revival period, and At the Black Pig's Dyke by Vincent Woods, representing the contemporary era. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The introductory chapter explains how the terms folklore and mythology are defined and used in the thesis. It also provides some basic background to Irish culture and literature. The second chapter presents the events that conditioned the development in Ireland until the end of the nineteenth century, describing the circumstances that led to the Irish National Revival. The third chapter is dealing with the life of W. B. Yeats, his involvement in the Revival, and also the sources of his inspiration and motivation for writing. Another focal point of this chapter is The Countess Cathleen, its background, origin, reception, and the folklore and mythological elements it contains. In the fourth chapter, a short account of the changes in Irish drama during the last hundred years is given. It focuses on some of the events that had a direct impact not only on the life in Ireland, but also on the modern Irish...
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"The Dead" - A critical compilation of existing interpretations
Fíl, Lukáš ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Armand, Louis (referee)
The essay collects and discusses several reading perspectives of 'The Dead,' a short-story by James Joyce from his collection Dubliners (1914). It contends that the story is very much open to creative reading and subjective interpretation, as it may be seen as a platform for various discourses, hidden and unfinished stories, themes, historical testimonies, etc. It argues that 'The Dead' even successfully dramatizes the very event of interpreting a literary text. At the same time, the paper pays attention to how the story is closely tied to its author's personality, life history, and how the whole collection to great extent derives from Joyce's overall scepticism held towards his countrymen in Dublin. The chapter "A Biographical Reading" discusses James Joyce as an interpretive principle for the story. It reflects on Richard Ellmann's essay "The Backgrounds of 'The Dead'" and notes its positive aspects, but it also acknowledges drawbacks of what is called a biographical method of reading 'The Dead.' The next chapter, "The Dubliners Project," starts by outlining two reading perspectives that don't defy one another, but may rather be seen as mutually enriching. The first sees 'The Dead' as an individual piece of writing, whereas the second as an integral part of the collection. The chapter then...
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Topographies of Culture and Identity: The Role of Landscapes and Cityscapes in Selected Film Representations of Ireland
Pavlíčková, Tereza ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
1 Abstract The thesis focuses on the role of landscapes and cityscapes in selected film representations of Ireland. It is the discipline of cultural geography which serves as the primary theoretical basis for this analysis. Firstly, the general observations concerning the social elaboration of place are applied within the particular cultural context. Thus, it becomes revealed that these socio- cultural practices bear a special significance in Irish culture. Apart from that, the thesis also fully delineates the complex nature of both the concept of Irish identity and Irish cinema. This account provides the basis for to the primary assertion that film portrayals of Ireland require strongly a wide, non-linear analytical approach. Importantly, the thesis also draws attention to particular cultural dichotomies which prevail within most realms of Irish society, showing a tension between its relationship to the present and the past. Within the context of film representation, this binary cultural perspective is then presented as a phenomenon which has had a significant impact on both the process of filmmaking in Ireland, as well as on the perception of produced films. Especially in the second case, the effect can be perceived as rather negative, since it prevents the realization of a fully non-exclusionary...
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