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Identity and Displacement in Contemporary Postcolonial Fiction
Olehlová, Markéta ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Franková, Milada (referee) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
English summary The main objective of this thesis is to present some key issues relevant for postcolonial field of study with respect to two basic areas of interest: concepts of identity and place, respectively displacement in contemporary postcolonial discourse and their reflection in fiction, too. The thesis should provide the potential reader with basic theoretical background based on the most fundamental sources and by means of selected literary works it should support (or disclaim, if necessary) conclusions reached by the most notable theories. This dissertation work consists of three major parts. In the introduction, apart from providing the motivational, theoretical and literary objectives of the thesis, I cover some basic difficulties that may occur when dealing with the postcolonial field of study. The central part of the thesis can be divided into two parts, each of them consisting of two further sections. The first one, "Identity in Postcolonial Discourse", is focused on one of the key terms in all of postcolonial theory: identity and other concepts related with it. I cover the basic development of theoretical reflection concerning this concept, drawing primarily from secondary sources dealing with it. The theoretical part on identity is succeeded by a chapter "Reflections of Identity in the...
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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...
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Ancrene Wisse, Guide for Anchoresses, A Czech translation.
Petříková, Klára ; Čermák, Jan (advisor) ; Franková, Milada (referee) ; Malura, Jan (referee)
Abstract, Ancrene Wisse, "Guide for Anchoresses" A Czech Translation (2015) Klára Petříková Ancrene Wisse (Guide for Anchoresses) is a remarkable work of the Middle English literature dating back to the first half of the 13th century. Its author (presumably a Dominican) conceived it as "spiritual life guidelines" for three sisters of a noble origin who decided to renounce the world. Besides its didactic purpose, its character is meditative and contemplative. Riveting in its style, its rich metaphors and heightened sensibility link it with the later tradition of the English mystical writers (Julian of Norwich), The work abounds in quotations, paraphrases of the continental monastic authors (St. Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux). Surviving in seventeen manuscripts, it had been quoted till the Renaissance and its importance is further confirmed by a contemporaneous translation into Latin and French. Present translation aims to introduce this work to the Czech readers and to put it in its historical, social and literary context.
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Ancrene Wisse, Guide for Anchoresses, A Czech translation.
Petříková, Klára ; Čermák, Jan (advisor) ; Franková, Milada (referee) ; Malura, Jan (referee)
Abstract, Ancrene Wisse, "Guide for Anchoresses" A Czech Translation (2015) Klára Petříková Ancrene Wisse (Guide for Anchoresses) is a remarkable work of the Middle English literature dating back to the first half of the 13th century. Its author (presumably a Dominican) conceived it as "spiritual life guidelines" for three sisters of a noble origin who decided to renounce the world. Besides its didactic purpose, its character is meditative and contemplative. Riveting in its style, its rich metaphors and heightened sensibility link it with the later tradition of the English mystical writers (Julian of Norwich), The work abounds in quotations, paraphrases of the continental monastic authors (St. Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux). Surviving in seventeen manuscripts, it had been quoted till the Renaissance and its importance is further confirmed by a contemporaneous translation into Latin and French. Present translation aims to introduce this work to the Czech readers and to put it in its historical, social and literary context.
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The Country House Revisited: Variations on a Theme from Forster to Hollinghurst
Topolovská, Tereza ; Chalupský, Petr (advisor) ; Franková, Milada (referee) ; Nagy, Ladislav (referee)
This dissertation aims to provide an insight into English country house fiction by twentieth and twenty-first century authors, such as E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, Iris Murdoch, Alan Hollinghurst, and Sarah Waters. The variety of literary depictions of the country house reflects the physical diversification of the buildings in question, from smaller variants to formerly grand residences on the brink of physical collapse. The country house is explored within the wider social and cultural contexts of the period, including contemporary architectural development. Given the exceptionally evocative and integrating properties that the influential theories of Martin Heidegger and Gaston Bachelard attribute to a house in general, it is unsurprising that the concept of the country house has inspired discussion of such a wide spectrum of topics. Its unique centring quality is echoed in the dense intertextuality prominently marking its literary representations, and enables the successful implementation of various temporal idiosyncrasies, which often set the house apart from the habitual passing of time. Within the scope of contemporary fiction, architecture and poetics of space, the country house accentuates different conceptions of dwelling. Consequently, the literary portrayals of the country house can be...
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Topophilia and Escapism: W.H.Auden's Interwar Poetics of Place (1927-1938)
Vít, Ladislav ; Mánek, Bohuslav (advisor) ; Sukdolová, Alice (referee) ; Franková, Milada (referee)
This work focuses on Wystan Hugh Auden's (1907-1973) early poetry (1927-1938) and analyzes its engagement with places, landscapes and local cultures. The scope is limited to the interwar years, when Auden started to write poetry, entered the literary stage and formed his ethical stances, poetics and a personal voice within one of the most socially arduous and aesthetically innovative periods of recent history. This turns his 1920s and 1930s work into a fertile ground for research, which is evidenced by the large body of extant criticism scrutinizing the technical aspects of Auden's interwar poetry as well as its reflection of the poet's affinity with Marxism and the politically conscious intelligentsia of his generation. While sharing the same historical focus, this dissertation diverges from existing scholarship and traces the character of Auden's imaginative dynamic, which renders an inscription of the physical world into art. Auden was highly emotionally and intellectually responsive to particular places, environmental types, human spatial experience and their embedment in arts. This work examines his engagement with Alston Moor in the Northern Pennines, Iceland and England. In his prose, the former two are constructed as sacred places and asylums for his imaginative and physical escapism. The...
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Identity and Displacement in Contemporary Postcolonial Fiction
Olehlová, Markéta ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Franková, Milada (referee) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
English summary The main objective of this thesis is to present some key issues relevant for postcolonial field of study with respect to two basic areas of interest: concepts of identity and place, respectively displacement in contemporary postcolonial discourse and their reflection in fiction, too. The thesis should provide the potential reader with basic theoretical background based on the most fundamental sources and by means of selected literary works it should support (or disclaim, if necessary) conclusions reached by the most notable theories. This dissertation work consists of three major parts. In the introduction, apart from providing the motivational, theoretical and literary objectives of the thesis, I cover some basic difficulties that may occur when dealing with the postcolonial field of study. The central part of the thesis can be divided into two parts, each of them consisting of two further sections. The first one, "Identity in Postcolonial Discourse", is focused on one of the key terms in all of postcolonial theory: identity and other concepts related with it. I cover the basic development of theoretical reflection concerning this concept, drawing primarily from secondary sources dealing with it. The theoretical part on identity is succeeded by a chapter "Reflections of Identity in the...
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Subverting Scotland: cultural identities in contemporary Scottish fiction
Roebuck, Olga ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee) ; Franková, Milada (referee)
This dissertation deals with the possibility of expressing cultural identities in contemporary literature. Scottish literature was chosen as it stands for a country which has been undergoing significant changes in its self-definition. The Scottish nation is still searching for its position within larger European or global structures. Thus, it provides an interesting basis for examining the validity of such concepts as nation, state or national culture during a period of time which has tended to abandon these traditional structures under the influence of globalisation. This cultural process of re-definition fuels an outburst of literary creativity and since the beginning of the 1980s, Scottish literature has been experiencing an incredible boom aiming mainly to get rid of traditional and limiting cultural representations. The dissertation is based on cultural and literary analysis. Cultural analysis starts with characterising the contemporary Scottish cultural context, typical mainly for its traditional dualities and internal oppositions, such as nation and region, coloniser and colonised, Highland and Lowland, Scottish and British, male and female. Most of these dualities have historical roots and the task of this text is also to find out to what extent these are valid today and how they influence...
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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...
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