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T. S. Eliot and William Shakespeare: The Dynamics of Influence
Lakhno, Maryna ; Quinn, Justin (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
4 ABSTRACT T. S. Eliot once remarked: "I have tried to point out the importance of the relation of the poem with other poems by other authors and suggested the conception of poetry as a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been written."1 The interpretation of his poetry depends on literary tradition and its understanding. By alluding to dead authors, Eliot created an oeuvre that can be fully understood only through research. He also contrasts the contexts of the past and present, and reinforces the importance of borrowing in the creative process. One of the authors that recurs in Eliot's writing is William Shakespeare. Eliot paid tribute to the Elizabethan playwright through the use of dramatic monologue, quotations and allusions to his themes and motifs. In this way, he expresses his longing for English cultural heritage, as Shakespeare is a symbol of Englishness. This bachelor thesis explores the influence that Shakespeare had on both Eliot's literary criticism and poetry, primarily in the period from the 1910s to the 1930s. With especial emphasis on Hamlet and Coriolanus, the thesis explores those qualities which Eliot emphasized and which would prove important for his own work, above all "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock," The Waste Land and Four Quartets, as well as minor poems such as...
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Early Modern Players of Folly
Pranič, Martina ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Pfister, Manfred (referee) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Early Modern Players of Folly Thesis Abstract This thesis examines the ways in which folly is used in early modern literature. It asks: how is it that such an ephemeral concept proliferated and endured in the culture of early modern Europe? My understanding of early modern folly as a discursive phenomenon that was used as a way of questioning the knowledge of the ostensibly reasonable world is illustrated by case studies of four characters-four players of folly. Dedicated a chapter each, they are Till Eulenspiegel, the great German jester; Pomet Trpeza, a typically Ragusan wit of Marin Držić's Dundo Maroje; Brother Jan Paleček, a Bohemian representative of holy folly; and Sir John Falstaff, the embodiment of folly in Shakespeare's 1 and 2 Henry IV. Although they emerge from different cultural, linguistic and generic traditions, they nonetheless share a propensity for employing folly in ways that uncover possibilities for new understandings and challenge rigid certainties of the world around them. Early modernity, the era that produced the works I explore, has become associated with shifts and instabilities. In this Age of Discovery, man was compelled to understand afresh a suddenly unfamiliar world. However, where man and his reason reign, folly gladly follows. I read each of my four players of folly as...
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"My fearefull shadow that still followes me": Literary and Artistic Representations of Richard III before Shakespeare
Štollová, Jitka ; Hilský, Martin (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT This MA thesis examines the portrayal of King Richard III (1452-1485) in texts preceding William Shakespeare's canonical play on this subject. By analyzing a wide range of sources written between the 1480s and the 1590s, it traces how the reputation of Richard III as an epitome of a tyrant, a usurper and a royal murderer was created and consolidated. At the same time, special attention is paid to innovations and deviations from this interpretation that contributed to the diversification of the King's image. The first chapter covers some of the most significant historiographic works of the Tudor era: The Second Continuation of The Crowland Chronicle, chronicles by Polydore Vergil, Edward Hall, and Raphael Holinshed, Thomas More's historical narrative, as well as a less-known manuscript by Dominic Mancini who described the early months of the reign of Richard III. The second chapter examines the transformation of the historical topic into poetry. The image of Richard III is analyzed in as diverse sources as, on the one hand, a popular ballad and, on the other hand, a prominent poetically-didactic work A Mirror for Magistrates. The representation of Richard III on the English stage is discussed in the third chapter in connection with Thomas Legge's university drama Richardus Tertius and the...
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Shakespearean Minorities: Myth, Prejudice and Transformation
Bielková, Andrea ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
The thesis is concerned with the portrayal of the minorities in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Othello, the Moor of Venice. By means of close reading and the compare-and-contrast approach, the two main minority representatives - Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Othello in Othello - are analysed from various perspectives. A special attention is paid to the comparison of the way they are presented to the audiences and the way they present themselves; how do they operate in the majority society and how their identities transform throughout the plays. The introductory chapter defines the key terms relevant for the thesis, the structure of the thesis and its main goals. Chapter 1 provides an insight into the perception of Jews and Moors in the European context from the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern period. Special attention is paid to the variety of popular stereotypes, prejudices and myths circulating in England and how are these reflected in the portrayal of the two minorities in the literature of the period. The main focus in Chapter 2 is on the analysis of the mutual relationship between the majority and the Other in the two plays, on the respects in which the Other is differentiated from and distanced by the majority and how these two groups coexist in the given context....
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Anatomy of villainy: the concept of an antagonist in tragedies and histories of William Shakespeare
Štollová, Jitka ; Hilský, Martin (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT The thesis is concerned with the analysis and comparison of the villain characters from William Shakespeare's plays Othello and Richard III. The basis for the examination is the polemics with F. R. Leavis's essay "Diabolic Intellect and the Noble Hero: or The Sentimentalist's Othello", the main ideas of which are summarised and critically assessed in Chapter 2. The conclusions arising from the evaluation become the impulses for the analysis of Iago and Richard III which aims to highlight some aspects of Shakespeare's method of portrayal of villains. Special attention is paid to the issue of the contrast between the true villainous self and the pretended virtuous semblance which is considered vital for the whole concept of Shakespearean villainy. In Chapter 3, the characters' individual strategies of concealing their actual "being" with their internally created and controlled "seeming" identity are explored. Special attention is paid to their relation to the language as a tool which serves these strategies and, simultaneously, reveals them. Chapter 4 proceeds from a detailed and focused analysis to a general overview of the characters. It approaches the theme of the creation of Iago's and Richard III's identities as a complex process in which both the villains and other characters...
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Representations of "great" (canonically authoritative) texts in contemporary popular culture
PECHOLTOVÁ, Lucie
The thesis focuses on how literary texts of the so called "great tradition" can become parts of contemporary pop culture based on intertextual connections (a wide variety of them from explicit quotation to loose inspiration by the original) with the historical canonical texts, and especially on the changes occurring during such actualization in the narrative categories (storyline, space, time, characters, narrator). The theoretical part defines the concept of adaptation and related terms of intertextuality and intermediality and specifies relevant narrative categories. The analytic part focuses on two literary "giants", William Shakespeare to represent male literary oeuvre and Jane Austen as a representative of female writers' tradition, to show particular narrative modifications by comparing the original versions with their modernized adaptations that function as their pop cultural counterparts.
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Romeo and Juliet. Context and inspiration.
PFEIFEROVÁ, Tereza
This bachelor thesis is focudes on the analyse of Shakespeare´s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The goal is to describe features which influenced him the most, so the period of time which he lived in, his education and literary works of the other authors.
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