|
|
Music in Anthony Burgess' fiction
Kiszová, Tereza ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT Literature has been considered an ideal model for literature since Romanticism, however, some of the 20th -century authors have employed the analogy more precisely than the Romantics. Being a classical composer as well as an author of fiction, Anthony Burgess represents the perfect example of how the two arts influence each other. Music pervades a large portion of the author's prolific literary work, occurring in various forms. This thesis examines allusions to music, which offer insight into the psychology of characters in some texts and elucidates the context in others, as well as on the structural features of Burgess' works. Well acquainted with the technique of composing music, Burgess models some of his works on musical forms, or specific compositions and thus adds another layer to the connection between music and literature. Both of the aforementioned methods will be discussed first separately and then combined in a single novel. Burgess' short story "1889 and the Devil's Mode" (1989) will illustrate the use of music on a thematic level, the structural analogies to music will be examined in Burgess' experimental novel Napoleon Symphony: A Novel in Four Movements (1974) and finally, the interplay of both methods will be discussed in Burgess' most-recognized novel A Clockwork Orange...
|
|
|
Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the Gender of Revenge
Garcia Priego, Analicia ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
This thesis analyses the differences and similarities in terms of gender in the revengers in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594), Othello (1604), and Hamlet (1602). The first part of this thesis focuses on the different types of traumatic injuries that Tamora, Lavinia, Othello, Iago, and Hamlet experience and the way gender and its social and political constraints affect their processing of trauma and the way through which this leads to vengeful violence. Additionally, this thesis explores the link between Shakespeare's revenge tragedies and modern cinematic revenge narratives by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. The female revengers in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Kill Bill, vol. 1 (2003), and Kill Bill, vol.2 (2004), Shosanna and Beatrix, share similarities with Shakespeare's female revengers in Titus Andronicus. This second part of the thesis is also concerned with the way in which gender continues to affect the revenger's response to traumatic injuries, and the changes in the resolution of these narratives when compared to Shakespeare's. Finally, this thesis provides suggestions for further research in the field of female revenge in modern revenge narratives. This thesis draws on trauma theory, gender studies, and revenge studies in order to analyse the role that gender plays in the processing of...
|
|
|
From Ghostly Hooves to Phantom Voices: Sound as a Source of Anxiety in Selected British Ghost Stories
Fialová, Jana ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
The thesis discusses the use of sound as a means of inducing anxiety in four selected British ghost stories that were published either during or closely after the Victorian period. Each story was analyzed focusing on the kinds of sounds the author employs, the nature and cause of the haunting, the response of the characters, also with the references to the historical background and context. The primary texts were selected according to the diverse types of sounds that the authors use in them. The first chapter deals with "The Open Door" (1881) by Margaret Oliphant in which she employs a weeping child ghost looking for his mother, that haunts another child and his family. The following chapter comments on William Hope Hodgson's "The Horse of the Invisible" (1910) where an allegedly cursed family is haunted by the sounds of an evil horse galloping and neighing. The story, which is part of the series which features the occult investigator Thomas Carnacki, combines detective and ghost story elements. The third chapter analyses "The Mass for the Dead" (1893) by Edit Nesbit, which follows a couple being haunted by choral music, told from the point of view of one of the lovers. The fourth chapter reflects on "A Wicked Voice" (1890) by Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), in which the main character, an opera...
|
|
|
Magic in Christopher Whyte's Novels
Karlasová, Markéta ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Theinová, Daniela (referee)
Thesis Abstract While the Gaelic poetry of Scottish critic, translator, and novelist Christopher Whyte (1952) has received both critical attention and acclaim, his four English-language novels to date are generally less known and studied. All Whyte's novels deal with the themes of gender, queerness, and challenging heteronormativity, with magic also featuring prominently in three of his four works. The focus of this thesis is on the three novels that present magic and fantastic elements as an important part of their plot: Euphemia MacFarrigle and the Laughing Virgin, The Warlock of Strathearn and The Cloud Machinery. The objective of this work is to give an overview of the magical elements and their use in each of the novels with focus on the integral topics of identity, gender and sexuality, while also aiming to explore the theme of the fantastic in each of them. To examine the element of the fantastic in each novel and provide a theoretical framework for the research, this thesis employs the 1975 English edition of Tzvetan Todorov's survey The Fantastic: A Structuralist Approach to a Literary Genre. The thesis is structured into three integral chapters, each focusing on one of the chosen novels, exploring the origin, use and limitations of magic in the specific novel. The thesis presents an overview of...
|
|
|
Fiction and Truth in Jeanette Winterson's Novels
Zunová, Eliška ; Theinová, Daniela (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
(EN) Stories in Jeanette Winterson's novels have a dual function: on the one hand, canonical narratives can be agents of oppression, rigidity, and the perpetuation of norms and biases; on the other, storytelling can be a force of freedom, self-actualization, and agency. In this thesis, I have analysed three novels from different parts of the author's career - namely Sexing the Cherry (1989), The Stone Gods (2007), and Frankissstein (2019) - reading them alongside some of her other works, to explore how Winterson works with stories and storytelling both as a thematic and structural element, and how she uses them to comment on the relationship between what is invented and what is true. My main focus was on how the two key concepts of "fiction" and "truth" influence each other in Winterson's writing. I argue that these two categories are not contradictory in the author's conception; she repeatedly stresses not only that fiction has the capacity to express truths, but that it can do so more efficiently than rigid adherence to facts. In addition, the author draws a distinction between "the real" and "the true," where the former generally refers to the empirical reality, the outside world that we tend to mediate by discourses of realism and rationalism, and the latter can be understood as that which is...
|
|
|
Violence, guilt and war in Ian McEwan's selected novels
Makovcová, Monika ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT Ian McEwan belongs to one of the prominent contemporary British authors. His work offers a wide range of unsettling themes, social and political commentary but also a remarkable literary experience. McEwan gains the attention of readers across the globe, making him an important international author as well. The success of his unsettling novels is a result of collective societal fascination with trauma, which is a phenomenon deserving attention in itself. This thesis focuses on three novels written within one decade, in the period when McEwan's work was highly academically acclaimed. These novels are Enduring Love (1997), Atonement (2001), and Saturday (2005). Attention is paid to the reappearing themes of violence, guilt, war and literature and their particular role in the narrative. While violence, guilt, and war are themes explicitly present in the novels, their function on the metaphorical, symbolic and implicit level is far more significant and offers a brand new level of understanding of McEwan's ideas and way of thinking about given issues. Additionally, literature is treated as a separate subject as it is precisely literature itself that McEwan comments on, through his complex narrative strategies. This thesis thus focuses also on these strategies, usage of the mentioned themes, and...
|
|
|
Comparative Analysis of the Portrayal of Frankenstein's Creature on Film
Alechina, Yana ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus was first published in 1818. Almost a century later, in 1910, in the early days of the cinematograph, Frankenstein's Creature appeared in black and white on the silver screen for the first time in Thomas Edison's experimental production directed by J. Searle Dawley. Since then, a plethora of film and television adaptations have been created. The goal of this thesis is to compare and analyse how Frankenstein's Creature, or, increasingly, the Frankenstein monster, was portrayed in these adaptations, paying attention primarily to the intelligence of the monster. The aim is to discover how and why the Creature, who is described in the book as an intelligent being capable of thinking, feeling, reading and speaking, is transformed in some adaptations into a senseless brutal monstrosity. The thesis will also discuss the effect of this transposition on the overall atmosphere, genre and meaning of the individual adaptations and the related problems of the novel's popular cultural legacy. The analysis of the adaptations which are closer to the original vision of the novel will serve as key material for comparison. The analysis of the different representations of the Creature throughout various adaptations will additionally allow to determine some of the...
|
|
|
Gender in Selected British Twentieth-Century Dystopian Novels
Čalkovská, Markéta ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
This thesis explores the topic of gender in selected British dystopian novels from first half and middle of the 20th century - Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding, Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley, and Swastika Night (1937) by Katharine Burdekin, through the lens of gender and feminist approaches. The theoretical part briefly summarizes the history of the dystopian and utopian genres as well as their connection to feminist critique. It also summarises the focus of feminist literary studies and gender studies lens and describes the main works of reference used in this thesis. The latter part focuses on the hierarchy and layout of dystopian societies described in the individual novels and analyses the established ideology and its values regarding gender roles and gender-coded behaviour. These values include the position and autonomy of women and their reproductive rights and duties in Brave New World and Swastika Night or the rejection of the feminine in Lord of the Flies and its impact on the outcome of the novel. It also examines individual characters and their acceptance of or disagreement with the values imposed by society and its influence on the plot. Concepts such as toxic masculinity, patriarchal society, objectification, and gender performativity are also examined.
|
|
|
Alternatives to the Married State in the Works of Margaret Oliphant
Pěkníková, Kristina ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Thesis Abstract This thesis focuses on the depictions of unmarried women in the works of Margaret Oliphant. One of the most prolific writers of the Victorian era, Oliphant has historically been neglected by scholars, omitted from the British literary canon and largely left out of the discourse surrounding the depiction of female independence in nineteenth-century fiction, in spite of her novels' featuring themes more radically feminist than those of many of her better-known contemporaries. Focusing on those of Oliphant's novels still in print, namely Miss Marjoribanks, Hester and Kirsteen, this thesis explores how the novelist approached the woman's position in Victorian society with regards to her participation in the institution of marriage and the labour market, paying special attention to Oliphant's treatment of the Victorian concept of the separate spheres in her work. The first chapter explains how Oliphant's own experiences of challenging Victorian gender roles contributed to her creation of subversive fictional heroines while simultaneously restricting her from openly proclaiming support for women's rights movements in her periodical writings. The following chapters take a close look at the three novels under analysis, examining the motivations of each of their protagonists in turn, with the...
|
|
|
"New Future Selves:" Gender Fluidity in the Short Stories of Jackie Kay and Ali Smith
Stehlíková, Anežka ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (referee)
1 Abstract This master's thesis examines and juxtaposes the portrayal and construction of gender fluidity in the short stories of two contemporary Scottish writers, Jackie Kay and Ali Smith, positing that it operates as an argument against, and subversion of, culturally and socially specific norms and standards. To be able to elaborate on this argument and accurately assess the examined works, the second chapter of the thesis delineates the theoretical framework through the lens of which the subsequent analysis is carried out. First, the juncture of postmodern feminism and queer theory is used to outline the germane theory of gender. Namely, the ideas of Judith Butler and Mimi Marinucci are drawn on to define gender, its discursive production, performativity, and sociocultural contingence; to explain how and why it may be understood as fluid and what the thesis signifies by the term fluidity, and to underline the means of subversion and effecting change as understood by the two theorists. Subsequently, the chapter maps the intersection of Scottishness and the Scottish sociocultural sphere with gender to elucidate why Kay and Smith's depictions are considered subversive. This section of the thesis summarises the contemporary political agenda regarding gender in Scotland, highlights the traditionally...
|
guest ::
