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The Reflection of the Exclusion Crisis (1678-1683) in Contemporary Literature
Hoblová, Kristýna ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
The Reflection of the Exclusion Crisis (1678-1683) in Contemporary Literature Kristýna Hoblová abstract This work of literary history analyses the reflection of the Exclusion Crisis (1678-1683) in contemporary literature across genres. It is based on the theory of the rise of the public sphere by Jürgen Habermas and on the theory of Michael McKeon, understanding the ideology of the late Stuarts as a last remnant of aristocratic ideology. The Exclusion Crisis is presented here as a period of unsettling negotiations between the declining Stuart ethos and the Whig ideology of the rising mercantile classes. The interpretation of chosen texts serves to discover creative transformations of the political discourse of the newly emerging political parties of Whigs and Tories, stressing the negotiations between genres, individual authors and political ideologies. The first chapter offers a brief overview of the socio-historical context, Habermas's theory of the rise of the public sphere and Michael McKeon's conception of aristocratic ideology. It also introduces the Tory political theory defending the Stuart divine right of kings on the basis of Robert Filmer's patriarchal household-state analogy and the Whig defence against absolutist tendencies of the Stuarts through asserting the priority of Law over the Royal...
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Heritage and Innovation II - Polynesian Literature in English - F. J. Frisbie, Patricia Grace and Sia Figiel: three generations of authors
Binarová, Teata ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
The three Polynesian women writers - Florence (Johnny) Frisbie (b. 1932, Cook Islands), Patricia Grace (b. 1937, New Zealand) and Sia Figiel (b. 1967, Samoa) - represent three key stages in the development of Polynesian literature in English that are intrinsically linked to the transforming post-colonial context. Miss Ulysses from Puka-Puka: The Autobiography of a South Sea Trader's Daughter by F. J. Frisbie, published in 1948, is being defined as the founding text of this new literature. The autobiographical work is set in the Polynesian colonial background. Patricia Grace belongs to the first generation of Polynesian authors writing in English. She participates with them in the so-called "Maori Renaissance" that is embedded in the larger pan-Polynesian movement of resistance against British colonial hegemony and of indigenous cultural revivals started in the 1960's. Sia Figiel is a leading writer in the already established Polynesian contemporary literary scene of the 1990's. The region is almost entirely independent by now. The privileged literary themes and the linguistic choices of these three indigenous authors, together with their selected narrative techniques, reflect the on-going political and cultural emancipation of the autochthones. The writers increasingly liberate themselves from the...
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Women in the English Drama of the Orient
Němcová, Nikol ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
The subject of this BA thesis are plays set in the Orient, a new genre that started to gain popularity in the Restoration period. These plays, commonly inspired by the popular travelogues to the Orient and historical accounts, are characterised by their collection of stock characters, repeating topoi and orientalised images that represent the Orient more as a conception created by the West than an actual place. Nevertheless, in analysis of some of the plays I shall argue that these works also offer possible commentaries on the British society of the time and that they can be used as arguments criticizing or reinforcing the contemporary perception of women by dealing with such otherwise rather inaccessible themes as women stepping out of their social boundaries, femininity or female sexuality. In order to advocate my thesis I plan to use four different tragedies with Middle-Eastern settings, specifically Rhodes, Morocco, Turkey and Colchis (located mostly in present-day Georgia and Turkey). All these plays were written between 1663 and 1696 and might be considered some of the most representative examples of the genre. They include William Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes (1663), Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco (1673), Mary Pix's Ibrahim, the Thirteenth Emperour of the Turks (1696) and...
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Healing the Wounds of the Colonised Body: Writing Back in 21st-century Works by British Caribbean Women Writers
Vítková, Veronika ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
Healing the Wounds of the Colonised Body: Writing Back in Twenty-first-century Works by British Caribbean Women Writers Thesis abstract Veronika Vítková Black women`s position within the world of male superiority and white supremacy came to be characterised by the term "double colonisation". Both patriarchal and imperial social order focused on their corporeality to justify their subjugation. Accordingly, black women writers came to conceptualise their experience of colonisation and slavery as wounds suffered by the black female body. They thereby use the master`s tools to dismantle the master`s house. Their "writing back" - a means of healing the body - constitutes a multi-level response to both sets of mythologies as well as other types of marginalisation and othering, which the two involved, such as sexual, territorial or discursive. It results in the construction of a complex space - a healing vision - which is not dissimilar to Homi Bhabha`s empowering theoretical concepts. However, while providing such progressive literary vision, black women writers also maintain connection with reality, where, as Gayatri Spivak argued, there is no space from where the subaltern sexed subject can speak. Their broad historical and geographical perspective, which is a product of the multi-levelness of their oppression,...
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Sikh Religious Symbols in Contemporary Canada
Sládečka, Dušan ; Kolinská, Klára (advisor) ; Jindra, Miroslav (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to discuss the place of visible Sikh religious symbols in Canadian public life, and their ensuing controversies. These will illustrate the complexity of resolving the issues of cultural and religious conflict in the Canadian multicultural society. The analysis of the lines of argument behind the chosen court decisions will be central for the purposes of this paper. The debate offers valuable insight into the political process of policy- making and accommodating diversity in Canada. The Sikh articles of faith, commonly referred to as the "5Ks" are an indispensable part of life for the people practicing the Sikh religion. However, by applying these religious beliefs in their everyday life, the Sikh Canadians often find themselves in conflict with some of the Canadian laws and regulations The most problematic articles are the kesh (unshorn hair covered at all times by a specific kind of turban or cloth) and the kirpan (a stylized representation of a sword, which must be enclosed in a protective covering and worn next to the body). These will be in the centre of focus of this thesis. The thesis is divided into four main chapters. The first chapter will give the contextual framework of the thesis. Its basic notions will be introduced. The chapter will briefly overview the...
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Cultural Conflicts in the Writing of Hanif Kureishi
Dongresová, Marta ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
The situation of immigrants in Britain has been inspiring writers for several decades and Hanif Kureishi is no exception. His own background allows him to describe the immigrant experience from the realistic perspective of an insider and his characters reflect the conflicts that immigrants have to deal with during their life among the members of the dominant culture of the state. The thesis focuses on The Buddha of Suburbia, while it also makes short digressions and touches upon a number of other works which were published by Kureishi from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s, such as The Black Album, My Son the Fanatic, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Rainbow Sign and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. The whole discussion consists of three parts and begins with a chapter which primarily concentrates on important theoretical terms and their definitions that are necessary for all analyses of diasporic literatures; the terms and concepts are then applied to Kureishi's books and scripts. The second chapter deals with the conflicts experienced by the first generation immigrants who try to find out who they are as people as they oscillate between the culture of their country or origin and England, while the third chapter focuses on the second generation immigrants born in Britain who want to gain an identity in England...
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Representing Slavery in Black British Writing
Bartová, Nikola ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
This thesis is concerned with black British literature which deals with the issue of slavery. The chosen authors are of a Caribbean or an Afro-Indian (though, an American novelist was used for needs of comparison) origin and belong to the black diaspora in Britain. The issue of slavery in the Caribbean is central to the forming of and creating an identity and defining the concept of home in the works debated. The aim of this thesis is to determine the impact of the past of slavery on the identity of people in the black British diaspora as well as to determine the approach and aesthetic choice most appropriate for representation of such traumatic past. The first part of this thesis concentrates on theoretical background of the topic of slavery in the Caribbean in order to define terms such as diaspora, cultural identity, memory and the difficulty of not only artistic representation of slavery but also its remembering. It also includes the historical background of slavery and slave trade in Britain and the Caribbean in the eighteenth and the nineteenth century in order to be able to judge the accuracy of the works and to comprehend the cruel reality of slavery. In the following chapters, the authors are introduced individually and their background information serves to determine their standpoint and...
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Neo-Pagan Features in Boyden's "Three Day Road"
Bohal, Vít ; Kolinská, Klára (advisor) ; Jindra, Miroslav (referee)
In the thesis for my upcoming bachelor's paper I aim to analyze the topic of religion in Joseph Boyden's novel Three Day Road (2005). More specifically, I aim to defend the hypothesis that within the spectrum of religious dialogue present within the novel, there is an overwhelming undertone of neo-pagan ideals. These ideals are presented as being positive, in the sense that they are life-supporting, rather than life-hindering. The main contention that I will draw will deal with the aspect of taboo, and how it is adressed throughout the novel. Contrary to Sigmund Freud's ideas (Freud's book Totem and Taboo will serve as the basis for my arguments) of taboo being a life-hindering, neurotic framework of belief, the views expressed by the two main narrators of the novel are in favor of taboo, and the narration itself draws a tragic end for the character who consistently defies these taboos. There is a moral aspect to the story expressed within the relationship of the two main characters, Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack, and is based on this very adherence, or lack thereof, to taboos. The main taboo consistently appears to be that of cannibalism associated with the infamous Algonquin mythological figure of the windigo, which is the most frequent metaphor used within the narrtaive and is the most productive...
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The victimization of women by men - "hunters" and "consumers" - in Margaret Atwood's novels The Edible Woman and Surfacing
Skřivanová, Martina ; Kolinská, Klára (advisor) ; Jindra, Miroslav (referee)
The thesis deals with the early works of the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood - novels The Edible Woman (1969) and Surfacing (1972). The thesis focuses on victimization and objectification of the female characters through photography and consumption. The two topics are crucial for the two "body" chapters of the thesis. The first chapter deals with Susan Sontag's and Roland Barthes' theory of photography, and applies it to both novels. With the help of a camera, the man takes control over the woman. Similarly to a gun, it is a device with a release one can easily press to overpower its subject and turn it into a trophy - an object in its unalterable position one can manipulate with easily. Therefore, the thesis also explores the parallels between female and animal victims and hunting. Roland Barthes in his Camera Lucida (1980) analyses posing in front of the photographer. He is convinced that at the moment of picture taking the person waiting for the pull of the trigger transforms themselves into an object and thus loses their real self - with this version of the portrayed person, the photographer can manipulate according to his will. The gaze of the camera is unscrupulous and predatory; the thesis elaborates on it by the feminist theory of Laura Mulvey, who in her anthology Visual and Other...
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Putting Chopin and the Rez together: multicultural features of Tomson Highway's work
Marešová, Jana ; Kolinská, Klára (advisor) ; Jindra, Miroslav (referee)
The thesis titled Putting Chopin and the Rez Together: Multicultural Features in Tomson Highway's Work focuses on the work of renowned Native Canadian playwright, novelist, and musician Tomson Highway. The paper analyses those features of his writing and music that express the idea of multiculturalism and hybridity. It discusses the nature of the characters in his work and the image of the central character of Native mythology, the trickster. The analysis of dramatic techniques and music shows the way Highway combines his Euro-Canadian education and Native sensibility. Highway supports and promotes the notion of multiculturalism by his work. It has helped him to find personal as well as creative independence.
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