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Reading Faulkner's Minds
Krtička, Filip ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Arbeit, Marcel (referee) ; Bílek, Petr (referee)
The present dissertation focuses on the work of William Faulkner in relation to the concept of mind as conceived by the second wave cognitive sciences. This concept radically challenges previous notions such as cartesian dualism and physicalism which equates mind with the brain and puts forth the human mind as embodied, embedded in the environment, extended beyond the skin, enacted in a particular situation, and encultured, being both a product and a producer of culture. Such a vision changes the landscape of phenomena that fall under the label "mind" and has implications for the study of minds within literature as well. Literature and narrative art constitute a rich source of insights on the human mind and are treated here as an autonomous discourse on human cognition without necessarily seeking confirmation by the sciences. Since it represents a new discipline among approaches to Faulkner's oeuvre, I discuss cognitive literary studies and their relation to cognitive sciences as well as more traditional literary studies arguing for a cognitive approach to literature guided by the discipline's distinctive methods, goals and object of study. In his works, Faulkner narratively presents human cognition as transcending the boundaries of the skull, being formed by both natural and social spheres, by...
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"Písař Bartleby" v současné kultuře
Stejskalová, Tereza ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Robbins, David Lee (referee) ; Arbeit, Marcel (referee)
This dissertation is based on the observation that Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" has become a popular reference in contemporary culture. Not only in the field of literary scholarship but also in the realm of art, political theory and philosophy, it is employed as an example of authentic resistance to power, a counter-intuitive politics that finds its strength in withdrawal, inaction, and inscrutability. The thesis examines the reasons and motives that drive literary scholars, artists and philosophers to read, interpret and use the story in such a way. It does so by analyzing the nature of and reoccurring patterns in Bartleby Industry, the enormous bulk of academic scholarship devoted to the story. It observes how the story is made use of outside of literary scholarship by disciplines, such as art and philosophy, that are not primarily concerned with the literary complexity of the story but use it to work on their own problems of politics and ethics. It pays special attention to its popularity among influential Postmarxist philosophers, namely Slavoj Žižek, Giorgio Agamben and Gilles Deleuze. As the presence of "Bartleby" in the realm of philosophy has to do with a particular function literature performs in that field, in these chapters "Bartleby" becomes more of a guiding thread in order to...
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Narative and visual specifics in the work of Robert Lepage
Stuchlý, Aleš ; Arbeit, Marcel (advisor) ; Čeněk, David (referee)
This thesis deals with the work of the Canadian filmmaker, playwright, actor, scenographer and theatre director Robert Lepage, who has until now shot five films during the period of 1995-2003. Systematic and detailed analysis of the chosen topic is accompanied by excursions into the cultural and political context of the Québec province, as Lepage's films are inherently connected with it. Methodologically the thesis is based on formalist analysis and contextual interpretation of Lepage's films. To describe Lepage's narrative style, fragmental and complicated in organization of time and space, the author has come up with a few unorthodox terms (such as "cubist narrative"). The aim of each chapter is to point out that in Lepage's films formal techniques are closely bound with the very nature of his works: searching for Québec's identity and the desire to approach the truth about man in general. After having read this thesis, the reader should conceive Robert Lepage as an author who has gained worldwide popularity in the field of theatre and opera, whose films, however, are still waiting (especially in Europe) to be recognized.
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