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The Medium of Artist's Book
Chaloupecká, Aneta ; Šebek, Josef (advisor) ; Činátlová, Blanka (referee)
(in English): The present diploma thesis aims to introduce the phenomenon of artist's book to comparative literature studies. It consists of a theoretical part and a literary analysis. The theoretical part begins by outlining the potential of the artist's book as an object of study of comparative literature, which stems mainly from its nature as a heterogeneous artistic genre straddling several artistic disciplines at once. The difficulty of classifying the author's book as part of art categories and the difficulty of applying traditional aesthetic schemes to its diverse forms are discussed. Furthermore, the characteristics of the author's book are presented, with emphasis on its hybridity, sequentiality, processuality and the internal interconnectedness of its meaning-carrying parts (text, image, material, space of the book). After a brief reflection on the socio-political and other contexts relevant to artist's book studies (curatorial, pedagogical, sociological), an assessment of the disposition of literary studies for research in the field of the artist's book follows, suggesting an initial position at the intersection of comparative literature, intermedia studies, and contemporary discussion about the artist's book. The last part of the present work attempts to apply the concepts discussed in...
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Theme of Memory in Julian Barnes' Later Works
Chaloupecká, Aneta ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
(in English): This thesis explores the theme of memory as seen in later works of Julian Barnes, namely Arthur & George (2005), Nothing to be Frightened of (2008) and The Sense of an Ending (2011). Barnes is part of the postwar generation of writers who have been highly influenced by the postmodern thought, specifically the problematisation of history. According to the postmodernists, there is no possible way to objectively learn about the historical reality, as all there is to give evidence are the unreliable testimonies of eye-witnesses and biased historical accounts. Historiographies are considered to be unreliable sources of information about the past since they employ the same narrative strategies as fictional texts do and they are often written from the position of power. Memory is a key concept in this discussion since apart from historical documents, it is the only way of knowing about the past. To Barnes, memory represents a complex mechanism which enables to recall the past, but also defines our entire understanding of the everyday reality. In the three books that this thesis discusses have chosen a different strategy to approach the problem of memory - Nothing to be Frightened of is a memoir which provides for the theoretical background of this thesis, as it presents Barnes understanding...
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