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Apocalypse as revelation of truth in modern American fiction: Thomas Pynchon and post-9/11 novel
Olehla, Richard ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee) ; Kolinská, Klára (referee)
English summary This dissertation focuses on the apocalyptic fiction of Thomas Pynchon and analyses various representations of the apocalypse as "revelation" or "unveiling of truth" in its various aspects and manifestations (i.e. paranoia, angels, etc.) in the novels V., The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow. The theme of apocalypse as a revelation concerning the true nature of the world has a key role to play in the above mentioned novels as well as significance for Pynchon's protagonists. This is so despite the fact that such revelation is depicted as illusory and mostly unattainable, since these novels are all based on the premise that there is no ultimate truth, and therefore, there is nothing that can be revealed. Pynchon's characters get only a revelation of individual truth, and thus theirs is a private apocalypse. When analysing the role of the apocalypse in Western culture, it is also important to analyse the role of millenarian expectations as well as the supposed communication process between God and people, a process depicted as being mediated by angels. The interpretation of God's message can never be precise and perfect, since its meaning is distorted during the communication process. On the rhetorical level, this distortion is equal to metaphor, which in turn causes feelings of paranoia...
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Soluble form of the scavenger receptor for hemoglobin (sCD163) in pregnancies complicated by preterm prelabor rupture of membranes
Kacerovský, Marian ; Tošner, Jindřich (advisor) ; Calda, Pavel (referee) ; Procházka, Martin (referee)
Preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (PPROM) is responsible for approximately 30% of all preterm deliveries. Histological chorioamnionitis (HCA) has been found in 50-80% of PPROM cases and is associated with higher rates of adverse maternal and neonatal outcome. The scavenger receptor for hemoglobin (CD163) is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed almost exclusively on monocytes and macrophages. Its main function is the binding of hemoglobin-haptoglobin complexes. CD163 also serves as a surface receptor that recognizes intact bacteria and triggers cytokine production function. Moreover, it participates in the late down-regulatory phase of both acute and chronic inflammation. The soluble form of CD163 (sCD163) most likely represents the extracellular domain of CD163, which can be shed from the surface and released into the body fluid. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate sCD163 in pregnancy complicated by PPROM and relationships with HCA and funisitis. The first specific aim was to determine amniotic fluid sCD163 levels in uncomplicated pregnancies. Amniotic fluid samples were taken from 31 women who underwent amniocentesis for genetic testing in the second trimester, as well as from 32 women at term, 21 of whom had and 11 of whom did not have uterine contractions. The sCD163 levels in...
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Typology as Rhetoric: Reading Jonathan Edwards
Světlíková, Anna ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Fabiny, Tibor (referee) ; Robbins, David Lee (referee)
Anna Světlíková Typology as Rhetoric: Reading Jonathan Edwards Dissertation Abstract This work is a study of selected typological writings of the New England theologian, thinker and preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). Typology is primarily a Christian exegetical practice connecting the Old and the New Testament on the basis of prefigurative analogies. Edwards expands the typological principle to nature and argues that the world and general human experience contain types or images of divine things, that these typological connections are objectively existing and may be discovered by the believer. The dissertation examines the rhetorical aspect of Edwards' natural typology and the rhetorical form of the type in its connections to other tropes, particularly emblem, symbol and allegory. In doing so, it also addresses the issue of the connections of Edwards' texts to Romanticism and seeks to refine existing interpretations of these links. Edwards has been interpreted, in the tradition of Perry Miller, as anticipating Transcendentalism and Romanticism, one of the arguments being precisely that his natural types anticipate Romantic symbol. On a more general level, this work addresses and seeks to overcome some existing methodological limitations in the scholarship on Edwards, who is typically studied from the...
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The development of the "game speed" in floorbal (manual)
Procházka, Martin ; Křiček, Jan (advisor) ; Vorálek, Rostislav (referee)
SUMMARY: Title: The development of the "game speed" in floorball (manual) Made by: Martin Procházka Supervisor: PhDr. Jan Křiček, CSc. Objectives: The purpose of this thesis is to make up the manual of exercises developing the game speed in floorball match surroundings and perspective efficiency verification of it. Methods: Searching and creation of efficient methods, the comparison of this methods and their efficiency. Results: The result of this thesis is the set of 20 exercises. The set consists of the basic exercises, which can be used in other sports games and the specific exercises in the context of the development of the "game speed". Keywords: Sports games, training in sport, speed, agility
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Reducing Automata and Syntactic Errors
Procházka, Martin ; Plátek, Martin (advisor) ; Pardubská, Dana (referee) ; Průša, Daniel (referee)
This thesis deals with reducing automata, their normalization, and their application for a (robust) reduction analysis and localization of syntactic errors for deterministic context-free languages (DCFL). A reducing automaton is similar to a restarting automaton with two subtle differences: an explicit marking of reduced symbols (which makes it possible to determine a position of an error accurately), and moving a lookahead window inside a control unit (which brings reducing automata closer to devices of classical automata and formal language theory). In case of reducing automata, it is easier to adopt and reuse notions and approaches developed within classical theory, e.g., prefix correctness or automata minimization. For any nonempty deterministic context-free language specified by a monotone reducing automaton, both prefix correct and minimal, we propose a method of robust analysis by reduction which ensures localization of formally defined types of (real) errors, correct subwords, and subwords causing reduction conflicts (i.e., subwords with ambiguous syntactic structure that can be reduced in different words in different ways). We implement the proposed method by a new type of device (called postprefix robust analyzer) and we briefly show how to implement this method by a deterministic pushdown...
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Spiritual anarchy in Emerson: the infinitude of the private man
Žižka - Marušiaková, Jana ; Robbins, David Lee (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee)
(EN) Spiritual Anarchy in Emerson: The Infinitude of the Private Man The central focus of the thesis is a critical study of anarchistic ideas vital and alive in the major literary works of R. W. Emerson. Included in the thesis is a general layout of the history and major figures of anarchism as well as its definitions, bearing in mind the fact that anarchy is indeed a broad river with as many diverse streams and currents as there are individuals striving for freedom. I explore the common ground between Emersonian ideas and Eastern mysticism and Greek thought to establish the central anarchistic themes present and their relevance thereof. Throughout the history of human kind individual needs, values and aspirations inevitably clash against the restrictive norms of the society and state. Yet, although the outcries defending freedom have been solitary, its energy and genius have aroused the appraisal of many whose longing for liberation has not been down-trodden with social estrangements; among such was Henry David Thoreau who in turn played out the intelectually and spiritually sophisticated insights of Emerson into the practical experience of everyday living and being. His insistence on a simple and fulfilling life, bereft of materialistic concerns and hindrances, in complete harmony with nature,...
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Women characters in Willa Cather's fiction as a reflection of U.S. women's rights history
Heck, Lucie ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
Willa Cather (1873-1947) is nowadays regarded as one of the most important U.S. writers, and the volume of critical works, articles and dissertations devoted to her as a person and an artist is immense. One of the problematic relationship has always been, as can be seen from a number of critical essays and books, between Cather and U.S. feminists. The feminists would have liked to include Cather, as an feminist writer, into their group of the first-rate, woman-authored "female canon", however, such intent brought about an important question. Is it possible to regard Willa Cather as a feminist, considering her attacks on other women-writers, and her negative attitude towards the organized women's rights movement? This work's objective is to explore the background of Cather and organized women's rights movement's bizarre relationship, and answer the question above. To find out if Cather's work with its strong heroines empowered or weakened women in general, her novels and stories, rather then facts and assumption about her personal life, are used. The relevant parts of the plots from Cather's fiction are put into the historical perspective of the contemporary U.S. laws, showing that although Cather created exceptional woman characters, she let them deal with the same conditions and problems other...
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The idealized portrayal of Indians in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of Mohicans and René Francois de Chateaubriand's Les Natchez
Brožová, Tereza ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is the depiction of the portrayal of Indians in two pieces of art, James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and René François de Chateaubriand's Les Natchez. Both authors depict the character of the Indian on the background of the emerging American states. The exotic setting, which fascinated a great number of artists, served as a device for the critique of the European society and civilization. The wilderness of the American continent was shrouded in mystery and thus stimulated the imagination of writers. Cooper and Chateaubriand were influenced by the reading of early reports of adventurers and ethnographers. These records were mingled with their own experience, traditions, myths, and the common presuppositions. Therefore, in both pieces of art, Indian characters bear idealized character features. Cooper and Chateaubriand both deal with the issue of mixing of races, gender and racial roles, and tension between civilization and savagery. Due to the problem of the blood- purity which would be destroyed by the interracial marriage, the main heroes of The Last of the Mohicans are sentenced to die. Chateaubriand, on the other hand, burdens his characters with Christian features and their lives are spent in brooding over the uneasiness of life and destiny. The thesis also...
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