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'But it's only a children's book' - children's literature as a vehicle of manipulative ideological dissemination
Moravčíková, Hana ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
The historical era between 1850 and 1950 is known to be a turbulent period reflected not only in adult literature but also in the texts written for children. This unusually rich period in terms of political, social and ideological development certainly influenced most parts of the world. However, it was particularly important for England mainly for the transition of the Victorian era and Edwardian period to the modern history initiated by the WW I. Throughout this period many new ideologies arose and scientific discoveries were more numerous than ever. In 1859, for instance, Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published and initiated the still on-going war period between Christianity and science. At the same time, the concept of childhood started to be understood in a different way and books written for children became a common commodity converting the end of 18th century in the Golden Age of children's literature. However, according to Peter Hunt's publication Understanding Children's Literature, 'all texts are inevitably infused by ideologies'. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is firstly, to study the way in which ideologies are incorporated in the texts for children (overt or covert) and secondly, the extent to which the texts for children become a vehicle of...
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Madness of Love, Love and Madness: A survey of the Works of Rose Tremain in the 1980s and 1990s
Koucká, Anna ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
Rose Tremain, a contemporary British author born in 1943, belongs among the most talented writers of her generation. Nonetheless, her works are not as successful as she would deserve. The two historical novels that she has written, Restoration and Music and Silence, have brought her a remarkable popularity. As for her other works, however, she has not been given adequate attention. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the reader to some of her novels and characterize her work. A major theme in her prose is the madness of love that she examines basically in all her texts. For the purpose of this thesis, four novels have been chosen as representative of her work: The Swimming Pool Season, Restoration, Sacred Country and Music and Silence. In the search for the meaning of life, Tremain's characters often concentrate on romantic love as the only reason for living. Tremain emphasizes the foolishness of this, showing that romantic relationship itself can never fulfil one's life. The happiness in a fruitful relationship is possible, but one always has to start with one's own personal development in order to achieve it. Tremain points out that we cannot look for self-realization in romantic relationships; otherwise, our sense of inferiority and insufficiency will probably have a catastrophic effect on...
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Depiction of Media in British Dystopian Fiction
Bakič, Pavel ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
The thesis aims to give an overview of the treatment of media in texts that have formed modern dystopian writing and to which new additions in the genre necessarily relate. This set of texts consists of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and When the Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells; first chapter substantiates this selection and proceeds to define the concepts of "media" and "dystopia". Second chapter is concerned with the understanding of history in dystopian societies and shows that the very concept of historicity is undesirable for a totalitarian state, which seeks to blur history and reduce it to a three-point schema "before the Event - the Event (revolution) - after the Event". Closer analysis then shows that the Event itself can be divided into a further triad that has to be completed in order to pass into eternal post-Event society. Third chapter describes the use of citizens as media and shows that while Huxley's society uses what Michel Foucault calls "biopower" to achieve this goal, Orwell's society rather uses the concept of "discipline". Fourth chapter turns to printed media a the privileged role they are ascribed in the novels: The authors see literature as an embodiment of individuality and, at the same time, as a guarantee of tradition established by an...
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The Mighty Boosh: theatrical and narrative sspects of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding's epic comedy
Šímová, Martina ; Christov, Petr (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
This thesis is concerned with a detailed analysis of the work of the British comedic troupe The Mighty Boosh created by actors and comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. The Boosh phenomenon is relatively unknown in our cultural environment. Accordingly, the first part of the thesis aims to serve partly as an introduction: it presents the authors' cultural background and the origins of the project itself. Subsequently, technical and physical aspects of the show as well as the acting/theatrical methods used are inquired into. The second part is more practical as it focuses on the narrative framework and strategies, which tend to be highly repetitive and make Barratt and Fielding's project an epic (heroic) comedy. The analysis seeks to explain these narrative strategies by referring to authors such as Vladimir Propp, Joseph Campbell and others, and to reveal The Mighty Boosh in its entirety and complexness.
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Manipulation of children in the prose of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell
Linhart, Marek ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
The focus of this thesis are two of the most prominent specimen of utopian literature, namely George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Despite the fact that Brave New World, which was published in 1932, predates Nineteen Eighty-Four by seventeen years and was written in a quite different social and political climate, both these books share many important elements. While depicting vastly different societies with diverse structures of power distribution, they both express certain fears and worries that their respective authors had about the future of civilisation, which is why they were chosen as primary texts for this thesis. More specifically, the main area of discourse is going to be the treatment of children and their relation to the state as depicted in these books. In this field, both Orwell's Oceania and Huxley's World State share the same objective, which is to turn children and the young generation in general into an obedient tool to be at the system's disposal. This aim is very prominent for many reasons in both books, but the results are the same; children willingly submit themselves fully to the state and become one of the major means the state possesses to achieve its goals. The degree of control over children both in Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty- Four is...
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Political voice of Aphra Behn
Hoblová, Kristýna ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
The Political Voice of Aphra Behn Kristýna Hoblová, 2013 Abstract This work of literary history analyses the relationship between the fiction of Aphra Behn and the developing partisan politics of the Restoration period, focusing on Behn's use of set tropes of political rhetoric of both Whig and Tory supporters and on the influence of her feminist views on her political writing. It rests on the assumption that in the Restoration period the public and private spheres were still closely interlinked and thus almost any kind of literature engaged in politics, ranging from formal treatises to drama and amatory fiction. The thesis opens with a chapter setting up the historical background and the literary context of the reign of Charles II and James II, which offers a brief overview of the main rhetorical strategies of all kinds of political writing - the household analogy of formal treatises, the Cavalier libertine culture of the Restoration comedy, the relationship between romance and allegory, Tory feminism developed by Margaret Cavendish and methods of political rhetoric employed by John Dryden, the author closest to Behn in political and religious adherence. The third chapter uses this context to sum up Behn's approach to politics in the whole of her work, employing some of her pindarics to prove her...
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Journey Through Parallel Universes: The World of Portal Fantasy
Arzumanyan, Varditer ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the worlds of portal fantasy, a genre featuring travel between different realms, through the analysis of the selected novels. This subgenre of fantasy fiction enables a cultural and societal comparison between the character's world of origin and the newly discovered land. There is a process of habituation with the novel setting and one's self. The essay focuses on the worlds presented in the chosen literature, characters, and the role of the transitions through the universes. It facilitates a course of adjustment that inevitably leads to the development of the hero/heroine and offers an exploration of social issues. The thesis also examines the quest structure of the stories, as it is an element often present in the genre. Each book is summarized and examined within its respective chapter. The first segment deals with the definitions of the 'fantastic' and subsequently, portal fantasy. Consideration is given to the explanations of terms significant to the analysis as a frame of reference for the following chapters. It also discusses the process of building the Secondary universes. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is the subject of the second chapter. Gaiman's prominence within the field of fantasy and his genre-bending writing opens up the chapter. The concept...
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Fantastic Society: Social Themes in Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Hájek, Jáchym ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
Terry Pratchett is best known as the author of Discworld, a series of more than forty books and several short stories set in a world that is often described as humorous fantasy. Pratchett, however, uses this genre and its imaginative and satiric opportunities not only to tell stories, but also to mediate his own views on some of the major social themes such as feminism, religion, or racism. He uses the stereotypical fantasy roles and settings and subverts them to point out real world problems and issues. The rise of popularity of the fantasy genre, especially satirical or humorous enables Pratchett to present his views to a broader audience, and to create a world mirroring and distorting the real one as to show the importance and impact of these issues on society. The fantasy setting also gives Pratchett the opportunity to create a world in which these themes can be illustrated and discussed freely. The first chapter sets up Discworld as a Secondary World and presents the topics that will be discussed. The second chapter deals with the many forms of racism in Discworld. The first part of the chapter discusses the standard, human-human type of racism, which is illustrated in the book Jingo. A subchapter is then dedicated to human-nonhuman and dwarf-troll racism, illustrated in Thud!, where Pratchett...
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Heroin / Heroine: Addiction as Narrative and Transgression in Junky and Trainspotting
Roušová, Helena ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to conduct a comparative analysis of two novels representing transgressive fiction and literature of addiction. These two novels, Junky (1977) (first published as Junkie in 1953) by William Burroughs and Trainspotting (1993) by Irvine Welsh, deal with drug addicts and their transgressive behaviour. They describe the choices the main characters make when they try to break free from the confines of society and their search for identity. The protagonists of both texts try to escape from the rules and expectations society imposes on them, they cross the boundaries of law, morals, and ethics; they transgress. The origins of the term "transgressive fiction" are explained and transgressive techniques and transgressive features in both texts are analysed. The transgressive potential of the subtitle of the first edition of Junkie is explained and moments of undermining middle- class identity and mocking American lifestyle are discussed. In Trainspotting, the transgressive elements involve, among others, the psychological effect of humour in grave and/or graphic transgressive situations and the manipulation of others using intellectual superiority. In both texts, channelling of transgression through violence plays an important part. Violence is seen as the only avenue for...
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