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Rude Awakening: The Collapse of the American Dream in the Death of a Salesman and Streetcar Named Desire
Šáralová, Karolína ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
The American Dream is a fundamental aspect of the American cultural paradigm, and its forms can be found in many essential literary works of American authors. The objective of this thesis is to examine this phenomenon in the context of the American theatre of the middle of the twentieth century, specifically in the plays Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. These plays share a tragic ending for the protagonists who fail to achieve their own American Dreams. This thesis examines the evolution and significance of the American Dream in American history and distinguishes three forms of the concept: the Dream of Independence, the Dream of Ownership, and the Dream of Personality. These forms are subsequently described and put into context of the discussed plays. This creates a concise survey of the American Dream as a social concept and identifies its significance in the plays. These forms of the American Dream are explored further in A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman. The motivations of the protagonists are connected to the American Dream through character analysis. This thesis demonstrates that their collapse is caused by their loss of faith in the ideals of the American Dream which provided identity, hope, and security. Without these...
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Cinema, Television and Conceptual Transmutations in Samuel Beckett's 1960s Prose
Nixon Kiryushina, Galina ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee) ; Weller, Shane (referee)
This dissertation examines the impact of Samuel Beckett's close personal and professional engagement with film and television technologies on the form and content of his prose works of the 1960s. It begins by charting Beckett's interest in cinematography and its complex but key role in the development of his aesthetics during the 1930s, the formative and intellectually rich period to which he kept returning throughout his life and writing career. Drawing on letters, unpublished manuscript material, critical and creative writings as well as numerous contemporary resources, the dissertation traces the evolution of Beckett's thinking about the practice and theory of cinema across the decade, including documentary film, montage editing, and the decline of silent black-and-white cinema, and sets this into a context of the wider cultural debates in modernist Europe around the significance of film as an art form. The dissertation then argues that this experience comes to inform his practical encounters with the media of film and television during the 1960s and beyond, starting with Beckett's work on Film in 1963, and considers the ways in which these modes of expression and their specifics in turn prompted creative impulses for the development of an entirely new conception of Beckett's fiction. It does so...
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Cultural Identity and Gender Stereotypes in Christina Reid's plays Joyriders and Clowns
Vašková, Petra ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
Thesis abstract The thirty-year conflict in Northern Ireland, also known as the Troubles, has inspired many works written and set in this period. The Northern Irish playwright Christina Reid wrote several plays depicting life in the centre of the Troubles. However, contrary to the trend in Northern Irish literature, she focused on characters who lived on the margins of the historical narrative. She regularly portrayed characters who broke cultural and gender stereotypes, thus created a space for cultivating equality in Northern Ireland. This thesis examines two of her plays, Joyriders and its sequel Clowns, in a socio-cultural context. These two plays were chosen because they have not received as much attention in the critical conversation as her other plays, and they provide a clear insight into many aspects of cultural conflict and gender issues. This thesis focuses on arguing that Christina Reid breaks gender and cultural stereotypes in her plays through the addition of characters, that were not common in the Northern Irish literary canon, to the historical narratives, showing the real representation of the area. Structurally, the thesis has five chapters including the introduction and conclusion. The second chapter examines the socio-cultural context of Northern Ireland, traditional cultural identities...
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Anna Burns's No Bones and Milkman: Bildungsroman and Trauma
Klečanská, Štěpánka ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
Despite the term Bildungsroman being associated mainly with novels of the 18th and 19th century, this genre, or at least its features, persists in contemporary literature. Manfred Engel defines three main assumptions for the definition of the Bildungsroman: one central figure who undergoes development, which usually commences in childhood and ultimately reaches maturity, with Bildung referring to the formation of identity. The Bildungsroman is intertwined with society since it features rebelling or conforming to it. The genre, which originated thanks to the changes in society, developed with societal changes and several variants of the genre appeared. Critics eventually began to recognize female and feminist Bildungsroman that introduced a female protagonist, which was not usual in the earlier novels of the genre. The rise of new female protagonists in the twentieth century was partly caused by the fact that women were able to gradually obtain the same opportunities formerly available exclusively to their male counterparts. The Bildungsroman in Irish literature follows the general tradition of the genre in many aspects. Nevertheless, there are some recurring features typical of the Irish tradition. One of the frequent themes is leaving as a means of finding one's identity or potential. Unlike in...
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Haunted by the New Woman
Farniková, Hana ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
(EN) The transformation of gender is one of the fundamental topics of the late Victorian Gothic. While the earlier Gothic contended with representing a woman as either a victim or a monster, the appearance of the ambiguous New Woman, the journalistic phenomenon that became both the proto-feministic ideal and the conservative counter-ideal, prompted the creation of sympathetic monsters desiring independence. The Gothic alters the strategies of survival, punishing those who stray from social, political, and moral norms. In this way, the Gothic genre not only reacts to cultural ideals and counter-ideals, but it also arouses feelings and challenges readers' preconceptions. The thesis explores relations between figures of monstrous women and the gender ideal dominant at the fin-de-siècle. The female vampire is connected to the qualities commonly associated with the New Woman like promiscuity, hateful behaviour towards children, and yearning for freedom from the shackles of patriarchal society. Though these uncontrollable female fiends are then reduced to the ideal of a dead woman who no longer has any control over her narrative, they return as ghosts, further muddling the lines between traditional feminine and masculine qualities. A possessed woman may behave in a masculine way; a man tortured by a...
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An analysis of representation of significant events and personalities of Irish history in the period from 1916-1923 in Irish film
Kejmar, Tomáš ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta Ústav anglistiky a amerikanistiky Tomáš Kejmar Abstrakt bakalářské práce THE ROAD NOT TAKEN Analýza reprezentace významných událostí a osobností irských dějin v období 1916-1923 v irském filmu Abstract of BA Thesis An analysis of representation of significant events and personalities of Irish history in the period from 1916-1923 in Irish film. Praha, květen 2011 vedoucí práce: Clare Wallace, Ph.D. 2 Thesis abstract This thesis focuses on the period of Irish history from 1916 to 1923, i.e. the period commencing with the Easter Rising and concluding with the end of the Irish Civil War, as it was captured in three feature historical films shot in the last two decades: Jonathan Lewis' The Treaty (1992), Neil Jordan's Michael Collins (1996) and Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006). The main interest of the thesis is the way the historical events and the main characters of the films are represented. The implications of such representations are analyzed and possible explanations offered. Selection, misrepresentation, falsification and invention of historical material by the authors of the films is scrutinized and pointed out. The contrast between historical and biographical accounts of the characters and their filmic portrayals is considered and...
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John Millington Synge and Irish mythology - Deirdre of the sorrows
Pecovová, Petra ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
This thesis is focused on the relationship between the mythological tale of Deirdre and John Millington Synge's play Deirdre of the Sorrows. It concentrates primarily on features, such as characters, themes and motives, which distinguish Synge's Deirdre from the previous versions of the tale. The first part lists all the versions that are echoed in Synge's play, which include the 12th century version from the Book of Leinster, the medieval version from the Glenmasan Manuscript and the versions by Synge's fellow writers and dramatists from the Abbey Theatre. It briefly outlines similarities and contradictions between the earlier versions and Synge's approach. The second chapter deals with the role of fate, its representation in the different texts, and how it affects the central themes and motives in the tale. The last part of the thesis analyzes female protagonist and questions her role as a heroine. The aim of this work is primarily to show that portraying realism was essential to Synge, even when dealing with a legend that is comprised of the exact opposite. The most important passages of the thesis are those which uncover the conflicting representations of characters and motives, because they indicate that Synge's fusion of the heroic and peasant world was not successful. Even though he managed to...
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The Organs of Perception and Expression in Samuel Beckett's Dramatic Works
Parin, Giulia ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
This thesis focuses on three plays written by Samuel Beckett: Play, Not I and Footfalls. Corporeality is the central theme of these works, which also connects them to an important and celebrated source of study and inspiration for the dramatist, The Comedy of Dante Alighieri. The influence played by Dante's descriptions of the body, particularly in the cantica of Inferno, is visible in Beckett's works for the ways in which the organs of perception and expression are treated at both textual and theatrical level. In the three plays the activities of mouth, eyes, ears (and less relevantly, nose) constitute the narrative focus of the text, while the sensorial aspects derived by their presence on stage determine the kind of exchange at play between actors and spectators. Staging immobilized, constricted and barely visible characters who, narrating obscure, uncertain stories, obsessively try to make a sense of their existential and physical conditions, the author gives life to a metatheatrical language rooted on instability and doubt. After the introductory opening chapter, the second chapter looks at the language of Dante's Inferno and at its thematization of corporeality, introducing the continuities between the poem and Beckett's drama. The third chapter juxtaposes the characters and the uncertain...
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Vertiginous relations in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms and Mourning Becomes Electra
Landerová, Petra ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
The recurrent theme of inter-human family relationships in a state of loss and decay in plays authored by Eugene O'Neill arises in part from the author's own traumatic relationship with his parents and with his brother James. Trying to deal with his torturous memories, O'Neill seeks answers through his cursed characters, who partly derive from the writer himself, yet also offer a universal portrayal of humankind as a victim of his own mental being and system. Given O'Neill's profound interest in psychoanalysis, the plays mostly take place in the life process of the individual minds of the protagonists and of the animating effect they have on others who populate the play-texts; therefore it is essential for the understanding of the play-works under critical consideration to look at the inner lives and worlds of these enigmatic characters, and to evaluate to what extent they act on their own will and where, conversely, unconscious forms of desire from other characters, memories, wishes, objects and so forth are instead determinant. The canonical plays Desire Under the Elms and Mourning Becomes Electra offer an intriguing blend of the forms and of the contents of the classical-traditional and of the modern stage play, as they extend the heritage and the lineage of ancient Greek tragedy, although situated in...
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