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Emerging Voices: The Portrayal of Minorities in the Work of Willa Cather
Plicková, Michaela ; Robbins, David Lee (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
The thesis seeks to explore the portrayal of the othered, marginalized individuals in the fictional work of Willa Cather. The primary focus of the text is the first-person narrative of My Ántonia (1917). Other complementary primary sources are Cather's remaining two prairie novels - O Pioneers! (1913) and The Song of the Lark (1915) - and two books of the author's later artistic creation - Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) and Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940). The former two books function as a preliminary mapping of Cather's concerns developed in My Ántonia, the latter two texts present Cather's later reflections of otherness. The thesis focuses on Cather's incessant examination of the workings of the white, male, heteronormative discourse in the context of modern American nationhood: by her "queer" writing, she aims to unearth and subvert the coercive social mechanisms, and give voice to those who were eclipsed from the project of the rising economic empire: ethnic others (African Americans, Native Americans, European immigrants), and gendered and sexual others (women, homosexuals and lesbians). The identity of modern American society reposes on the construction of the social other and the artificial category of normality. Cather, on the other hand, examines the difference - sexual, racial,...
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Spanish-Dutch relations in the New World during the existence of the West-Indische Compagnie
Kubátová, Eva ; Křížová, Markéta (advisor) ; Skřivan, Aleš (referee) ; Marek, Pavel (referee)
Spanish-Dutch Relations in the New World during the Existence of the West Indische Compagnie Eva Kubátová Abstract This dissertation is dedicated to the Spanish-Dutch relations in the New World during the existence of the first Dutch West India Company (1621-1674). On base of an imagological analysis, this thesis presents elements of mutual relations, reflected in hetero-images, together with self-representation of both analyzed parties (thus self-image) within the ongoing conflict of the Eighty Years' War. The imagological analysis is applied on archival material, chiefly the Dutch pamphlets and Spanish Relaciones de sucesos (which can be translated as "Treatises of Successes"). The result of this thesis is then an analysis of development and changes of mutual images, upon the historical events of the Spanish-Dutch war conflict: thus since the beginnings of the Dutch Revolt, passing through the Twelve Years' Truce, until the signature of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. A special emphasis is put to the final phase of the Eighty Years' War, in this thesis delimited by the years 1621-1648, which was marked by the official entrance of the West India Company into the Spanish waters of Greater Caribbean. An important watershed in mutual relations is afterwards represented by the Peace of Westphalia, which...
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George Gershwin: Concerto in F for piano and orchestra
Horejšová, Martina ; Gabrielová, Jarmila (advisor) ; Douša, Eduard (referee)
HOREJŠOVÁ, Martina: George Gershwin: Concerto in F for piano and orchestra [Diploma thesis]. Charles University in Prague. Faculty of Arts. Institute of Musicology. Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jarmila Gabrielová, CSc. Prague 2016. The main theme of the diploma thesis is a musical analysis of Concerto in F - the only Gershwin's piano concert from 1925. This diploma thesis also contains information about composer's life, contemporary historical context with relation to American cultural, social and political climate. As well text includes contemporary musical production, which influenced Gershwin's compositional technique. There will also be a comparison between George Gershwin and two other composers (Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel) who also created concert for piano and orchestra in the early 20th century.
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Requiem as a musical form and it's transformations in themusic of nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Gonata, Elena ; Pecháček, Stanislav (advisor) ; Holubec, Jiří (referee) ; Valášek, Marek (referee)
In this thesis, the evolution of the Requiem Mass throughout the centuries has been explored. The evidence provided clearly demonstrates the changes that the Requiem mass has gone through, from the first traditional Requiem mass all the way to the new Requiems of the Contemporary era. While early composers were inspired by religion, over time, a clear shift towards freedom of expression (war, human losses, tragic events) is evident. Requiems can be written for liturgical use and concert halls, and can be performed by choirs, soloists and orchestras (Acapella and Orchestral compositions). Requiems can have both short and long durations, and can have different textures (polyphonic style, homophonic style etc.). The traditional Latin language and religious texts are still widely used, however, there have been many changes throughout the centuries, such as the use of translations into different languages, the use of psalms, bible verses, poetry and famous speeches. Today, a large number of Requiems can be found from composers on a worldwide scale, including America, Europe and Great Britain.
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Genealogy of Liberalism in America.
Váňa, Filip ; Klvaňa, Tomáš (advisor) ; Calda, Miloš (referee)
In this work I examine the notion that various, both past and present conceptions of liberalism in America share a commitment to identical fundamental values, as well as utilize a characteristic method of political philosophy, that can both be traced to the rationalist thought of the period known as the Enlightenment. However, because of its ever-changing constitutive setting and different understandings of the term, the meaning of liberalism can be often dark and its usage confusing. Therefore I find it necessary to approach this work as an investigation of a complex (and extremely influential) phenomenon in time. I argue that throughout most of the history of the American republic, it has been exactly this forward-looking, revolutionary, rationalist tradition of liberalism, that has gradually come to dominate not just American politics, but also the social and even the private lives of the American people. Based on the examinations of the different "genealogical branches" of liberalism, I make the case that even though we often imagine the prominent conflict between the American "conservatives" and "liberals" as a struggle of two categorically opposed worldviews, underneath their political agendas we find the same set of goals. And while both sides try to achieve them by their own, often...
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Spanish-Dutch relations in the New World during the existence of the West-Indische Compagnie
Kubátová, Eva ; Křížová, Markéta (advisor) ; Skřivan, Aleš (referee) ; Marek, Pavel (referee)
Spanish-Dutch Relations in the New World during the Existence of the West Indische Compagnie Eva Kubátová Abstract This dissertation is dedicated to the Spanish-Dutch relations in the New World during the existence of the first Dutch West India Company (1621-1674). On base of an imagological analysis, this thesis presents elements of mutual relations, reflected in hetero-images, together with self-representation of both analyzed parties (thus self-image) within the ongoing conflict of the Eighty Years' War. The imagological analysis is applied on archival material, chiefly the Dutch pamphlets and Spanish Relaciones de sucesos (which can be translated as "Treatises of Successes"). The result of this thesis is then an analysis of development and changes of mutual images, upon the historical events of the Spanish-Dutch war conflict: thus since the beginnings of the Dutch Revolt, passing through the Twelve Years' Truce, until the signature of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. A special emphasis is put to the final phase of the Eighty Years' War, in this thesis delimited by the years 1621-1648, which was marked by the official entrance of the West India Company into the Spanish waters of Greater Caribbean. An important watershed in mutual relations is afterwards represented by the Peace of Westphalia, which...
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George Gershwin: Concerto in F for piano and orchestra
Horejšová, Martina ; Gabrielová, Jarmila (advisor) ; Douša, Eduard (referee)
HOREJŠOVÁ, Martina: George Gershwin: Concerto in F for piano and orchestra [Diploma thesis]. Charles University in Prague. Faculty of Arts. Institute of Musicology. Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jarmila Gabrielová, CSc. Prague 2016. The main theme of the diploma thesis is a musical analysis of Concerto in F - the only Gershwin's piano concert from 1925. This diploma thesis also contains information about composer's life, contemporary historical context with relation to American cultural, social and political climate. As well text includes contemporary musical production, which influenced Gershwin's compositional technique. There will also be a comparison between George Gershwin and two other composers (Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel) who also created concert for piano and orchestra in the early 20th century.
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Bernard Malamud's Selected Fiction in the Context of Black-Jewish Literary Relations
Simonová, Anna ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
Although Bernard Malamud's fiction has been frequently regarded as allegorical and symbolic, Malamud did not avoid the period's social issues in his works, such as the racial question and the changing nature of relationship between American Jews and African Americans. The present thesis aims to discuss Malamud's selected fiction dealing with Black- Jewish relations, namely short stories "Angel Levine," (1955) "Black Is My Favorite Color" (1963) and the novel The Tenants, (1971) and to place them into the context of Black-Jewish relations in the United States and of Black-Jewish literary dialogues and the tensions they express. It thus seeks to evaluate Malamud's role in the discourse of Black-Jewish relations in America. Calling upon a theoretical framework, outlined in chapter 2, based on philosophical and sociological findings of Judith Butler, John Searle, and Michael Omi with Howard Winant, the study examines the role of language and literature in constructing the Self and the Other (understood both as individual and collective identities, including categories of race and ethnicity), suggesting thus that literary texts, such as Malamud's selected fiction, are a part of discursive dialogue through and against which American Jews and Blacks construct their identities. Apart from the approaches to...
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