|
|
Chivalry in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
Malá Štěpánková, Jana ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
1 Thesis abstract The thesis is concerned with the reflection of chivalry and chivalric culture in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and with the relation of his testimony to the social reality of the late Middle Ages. Chapter 1 introduces the chosen topic in relation to the specific character of the Tales, of the context of the period, and of Chaucer's life. It specifies the aim of the thesis, deals with its limitations, and outlines the criteria and the structure of the analysis. Chapter 2 presents the origin and the development of the knight along with the formation of the code of chivalric virtues and the literary constituent of the phenomenon of chivalry until the end of the fourteenth century and identifies two fundamental chivalric archetypes in the characters of the Knight and the Squire from "The Prologue". Chapter 3 pursues manifestations of chivalry throughout the Tales across genres except romances and analyses their reflection with respect to the narrators of the tales. The analysis first focuses on the chivalrousness of the knightly characters (The Franklin's Tale, The Physician's Tale, The Manciple's Tale, The Monk's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, The Man of Law's Tale, The Merchant's Tale) and then on the signs of the influence of chivalric virtues and culture on the non-knightly characters (The Miller's...
|
|
|
The Motives of Separation and Solitude in Old English Lyrical Poetry
Klasnová, Lenka ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
This thesis is concerned with four Old English lyrical poems of the so-called elegiac group, i.e. The Wife's Lament, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wanderer and The Seafarer and their shared themes of separation and solitude. After a brief account of the few facts known about the poems, the appropriateness of the elegiac genre imposed upon them by scholarly tradition is addressed in the introduction. The first chapter gives a brief overview of the history of critical opinion on each of the poems. Since their simple unambiguous translation is impossible, given the cryptic nature of the narratives and numerous grammatically, syntactically, semantically or otherwise problematic points, the chapter also attempts the notoriously difficult task of their interpretation. While some solutions to the problematic aspects may be preferred in the course of the interpretation, a variety of potential possibilities is discussed in most cases. The resulting interpretations strive to present each poem as a unified and logical narrative. The second chapter addresses the themes of loneliness, alienation, isolation and separation in each of the four poems, their given reasons, manifestations, progress and the common elegiac imagery used to express them. The mood evoked by specific word meanings and employed rhetorical devices...
|
|
|
The language of war in "Sir Gawain and the Green knight" and "Beowulf"
Hajniková, Kristína ; Čermák, Jan (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
It is said that in times of war, the muses are silent. Yet extraordinary poetic voices can be heard from the past if we listen close enough; they tell the tales of glorious victories, woeful defeats, terrible monsters and heroes of old. Two such tales are the poems Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Both poems are separated by an abyss of time, yet there is something in the tone and manner of the yarn that unites the two. It may be the character of the hero, his adventures, his enemies or his ultimate downfall; but the tales are told in a language that has great dignity, capacity for expression and a slow sonority seems to echo the roar of the ancient battlefields. The language of war, then, is the topic of the present work. The ways of characterizing a man as a warrior in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will be subject to analysis that should reveal the cornerstones of poetic diction in both poems. In order to achieve this, we shall look at the lexical fields that denote 'warrior' in the poems. These lexical items will be subject to analysis from three points of view: (1) First, we shall investigate the structure of the lexical fields denoting 'warrior.' The items will be looked at from a morpho-semantic point of view. The description will contain morphological characterization of the...
|
|
|
Myth and National Identity
Chytrý, Lukáš ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
The thesis aims to explore the relationship between national identity and the myth. Key to the analysis are the questions of the manner in which a collective identity becomes dependant on literary narrations as well as the particular motives that constitute these narrations. The analysis of the relationship is carried out in reference to particular literary texts. The discussion is based on the critical approach of literary theory and the analyses of relevant socio-political aspects. The discussion is based on a comparative approach to the chosen literary texts. The comparative method focuses on the socio-political and historical contexts of the literary works, as well as on the different concepts of communal identity portrayed. Key texts to the debate are the collection of poems of James Macpherson, Poems of Ossian, Sir Walter Scott's historical novel, Waverley, and the Czech Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora. This thesis commences the discussion with a theoretical approach to the relationship between myth and history. The discussion aims at the manner in which both the mentioned elements constitute collective identity. The thesis emphasises those aspects which give rose to manipulative statements and conceptions that shape the discourse. To the fore thus comes the question of...
|
|
|
Contextualizing the Vikings in Anglo-Saxon History and Literature
Gigov, Jana ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
"Contextualizing the Vikings in Anglo-Saxon History and Literature" examines the Scandinavian impact of Viking presence in Anglo-Saxon England during the so-called First and Second Viking Age, concentrating on the portrayals of the Viking activity in Anglo-Saxon chronicles and annals, as well as Scandinavian (chiefly Icelandic and Danish) sources. It aims to identify the patterns of representation in those portrayals and their development relative to the historical events of the period, the political situation in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the state and progress of the Church, and contemporary literary tendencies, including the influence of heroic literature and the development of the Anglo-Saxon kingship. Three distinct accounts that came into existence as a result of the Viking invasion of England in 866 are examined. Three main traditions can be discerned - the Scandinavian tradition, reflecting the battle of York, the slaying of king Ella and king Edmund, the East Anglian tradition, reflecting the slaying of king Edmund, and the Wessex tradition, reflecting king Alfred's struggle with the Danes. The thesis proposes to trace the historical origins and development of these traditions, attempting to discern their historical and fictional elements by comparing them with the record of the historical...
|
|
|
"Sonne, this sall be oure takynnyng…" Sir Percyvell of Gales and Chrétien de Troyes's Conte du Graal: narrative strategies in a Middle English romance
Zátka, Ondřej ; Čermák, Jan (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
The Middle English verse romance Sir Percyvell of Gales was preserved in a unique copy in the Thornton manuscript held by the Lincoln Cathedral Library as MS 91. Altogether the manuscript contains sixty-four texts of various genres ranging from saints' lives to medical treatises as well as eight romances, including Sir Percyvell. Although the manuscript was written around the half of the 15th century, the date of composition of the poem was set early in the 14th century.1 The foolish, blundering, and unmannerly knight Perceval made his first appearance on the stage of medieval European literature in Chrétien de Troyes's twelfth-century Le Conte du Graal, or Le Roman de Perceval, an unfinished masterpiece of 9234 lines, which turned out to be one of the founding texts of the genre of Arthurian verse romance2 not only in French, but also in all the other vigorously developing national literary languages of Western Europe of that time. Chrétien's Perceval is a prime example of the refined courtly mode of chivalric romance. It is embroidered with subtle love-talk and ritualized courtly manners. It features long psychologizing sketches of the heroes, a composition which is far from linear and in which events are often presented not in chronological order, but rather in a changed succession subjected to the...
|
|
|
The role of text in grammar school ELT
Lojdová, Zuzana ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
The aim of this study is to examine students' opmwns and approaches to texts in the present-day textbooks of English. Special attention is paid to the contents of texts, length and language difficulty. Texts are closely connected with illustrational material and general attitudes towards textbooks. Following the above mentioned criteria, the students' ideas of modern English textbook were found out. The theoretical part offers a detailed insight into the subject matter whose components are textbook theory and the skill of reading. Texts, their types, functions and roles are viewed from pedagogy perspective as well as critical thinking in English language teaching. There is also a chapter on psychological characteristics of adolescents since the thesis focuses on this specific age group. The practical part deals with the data that were gathered by means of questionnaires. Their processing is preceded by general information on planning and carrying out the research. The results are summarized in the concluding part. The appendices provide text samples that are suggested for practical usage. The practical result of this thesis was replacement of textbooks at one of the grammar schools involved. Almost half-a-year practice has proved the change beneficial for the general improvement of English language teaching...
|
|
|
Quod Christus cum Hinieldo: readings in the manuscript context of the Exeter Book
Znojemská, Helena ; Čermák, Jan (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee) ; Franková, Milada (referee)
T HE problem I set out to tackle in this study is bound with what is perhaps the most intriguing paradox of Old English literary history. It is generally accepted that vernacular poetry depended for its preservation on the tolerance of the monastic environment that controlled the mechanisms of recording and transmission of texts. It is true that this monopoly was not absolute. Documents were also produced in centres associated with royal households, but these seem to have specialized in writings of administrative character and purpose: law-codes, charters, wills etc.; and even so, in many instances the task of recording such a text was likewise entrusted to monastic "professionals". Laymen could certainly own texts (as is clear from the anecdote narrated by Asser about young king Alfred and his love of vernacular poetry and the determined effort that had won him the book that belonged to his mother) and we know of rare cases when they composed them (again, we can name Alfred and in a later period, Ealdorman lEthelweard, founder of Cernel monastery and author of a Latin translation of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), though our knowledge does not extend to the manner in which these were written down. A document of substantiallength, showing an indisputable degree of craftsmanship in the quality of script, use of...
|
guest ::
