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The Unconscious in Coleridge
Flanderová, Veronika ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
In the Romantic era, the concept of the Self changes its meaning. There is a shift from the traditional Cartesian consciousness towards perception of the Self as a complex structure including the unconscious. Conceiving of the Self anew struck not only philosophy but thinking about poetry and poetry as well. The thesis focuses on Samuel T. Coleridge, who is considered a major romantic poet and theoretician on the British Isles, and it illustrates the conceptual shift on two of his poems: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan". At the same time, the thesis attempts at an explication of two complex philosophical problems that widely influenced the debates around the concept of the Self, i.e. the problem of the unity of subject and object, and the epistemological problem of the means of knowledge acquisition. Foreshadowing of the philosophical context allows us to situate the chosen poems in the process of the aforementioned conceptual modification. Key words: S. T. Coleridge, the Self, imagination, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Kubla Khan"
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From Tales of Old Romance to Wormy Circumstance: Aesthetic Tradition, Metamorphosis and Legacy of Keats's Medievalism
Hupcejová, Anna ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
"From Tales of Old Romance to Wormy Circumstance: Aesthetic Tradition, Metamorphosis and Legacy of Keats's Medievalism" My thesis aims to provide an aesthetic reading of Keats's medieval poems and their visual legacy. The selected poems illustrate Keats's developing aesthetics, discussing first on "Calidore, A Fragment" and "Specimen of an Induction to a Poem" from his 1817 debut collection Poems and then the more widely known "Isabella, or A Pot of Basil", "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "The Eve of St. Agnes". This selection shows the direction of Keats's medievalism that reconsiders tales of "chivalry" ("Specimen", 1) and "Old Romance" ("Isabella", 387) as they become affected by "wormy circumstance" ("Isabella", 385). These later works are interpreted by the Pre-Raphaelites who contribute to the popularisation and eternalisation of Keats's poetry. The two research questions this thesis develops are 1. What is the aesthetic evolution of Keats's medievalism? and 2. How is Keats's later medievalism adapted in Pre- Raphaelite visual art, and to what extent these visual interpretations are loyal to their sources? The discussion is divided into five chapters. In the first I will outline the basic features of the Romantic medieval revival, Keats's early medievalism and the critical state of the art in this...
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The Development of Lord Byron's Satire
Kopečná, Alena ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
1 ABSTRACT As the aim of the thesis is to follow the development of Lord Byron's satirical voice, I have chosen to analyze three of his shorter satirical works (the analysis of Don Juan is omitted on purpose, since it has been thoroughly examined by many scholars) significantly different from each other both in form and content, and thus allowing me to map Byron's satirical technique and to contrast the texts. The following works will be analyzed: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Beppo: A Venetian Story (1817) and The Vision of Judgment (1822). To understand satire it is essential not only to analyze the texts, but also to put them into context, which will also be part of the discussion. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers - his first published satire - presents Byron's sharp opinion on his contemporaries (including the Lake poets) and serves as the poet's defence against literary reviewers. It follows the tradition of the Neo-Classical satire represented by e.g. Alexander Pope whose legacy is very apparent in English Bards. Beppo marks a new approach - it shows a strong Italian influence - not only is the anecdote set in Italy and thus allows the author to satirize both Italian and English society, but Byron also adopts the form of ottava rima typical of Italian literature. It is argued that the...
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"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me": Female Independence in the English Novel 1795 - 1820
Jiránková, Lucie ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
In the 1790s, the framework of women's protests against the injustice they faced underwent a distinctive change, which inevitably imprinted itself into contemporary literature. The period discussed in this thesis was chosen to exemplify the beginnings of feminist awakening present in the novels of three women writers: Mary Hays, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jane Austen. The aim of this thesis is to explore different attitudes towards attaining emotional, intellectual, social, and economic independence, while simultaneously discussing the period's construction of femininity, the discourse of natural rights, the issue of education, romantic love, and sensibility. The introductory chapter describes the historical background and looks closely on the position of women in contemporary society in terms of their familiar and social status, economic dependence, education, character shaping, and their objectification of the marriage market. It also presents the view of women as depicted in conduct manuals and the works of the Jacobin (and also Anti-Jacobin) novelists. Finally, it introduces the novelists in question and elaborates on the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women on the authors under analysis. The second chapter focuses its attention on the depiction of female independence in...
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William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on Screen
Rösslerová, Eva ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT The aim of the thesis is to explore the film adaptations of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and to compare their thematic shifts of the adapted text. Primary focus will be put on Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and Carlo Carlei's Romeo & Juliet (2013). This choice does not entirely exclude other adaptations, as they will be alluded to whenever some of their features become relevant to the discussion at hand. The thesis is based on my reading of this tragedy and supplemented by secondary sources. It analyses three themes of the play, and subsequent adaptation issues, in order to introduce and compare the individual directors' readings of these particular instances and their overall narrative strategies applied in the films. The impact of the various renditions of the themes will be compared and examined in terms of its influence on the audience's perception of the plot. Currently, many people experience Shakespeare's plays trough film and it is productive to examine what perceptions of the plays they form when encountering the playwright in this re-created manner. Some of the questions that this analysis will address are: What visual means do the directors employ to establish new dimension to the adapted text? What is transmitted...
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New Mythology: The Redefinition of British Hellenism in Selected Poetry of Percy B. Shelley and John Keats
Neumannová, Edita ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
This bachelor thesis sets to examine Romantic Hellenism in selected works of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. During the Romantic era, Ancient Greece occupied a unique position, on the one hand it was admired and promoted as an ideal, on the other hand it was reduced to a very limited selection of texts even at university level. While the Romantic movement originally strived to liberate itself from the classical authorities and sought their own, new ways of poetic expression, the second generation of English Romantic poets made interesting attempts to appropriate the legacy of Ancient Greece, only this time (allegedly) independent of the established canonical views. In my thesis I examine the question of (both actual and perceived) authenticity, the influence of other interpretations, and the problem of authority in the selected works of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, two second-generation Romantic poets whose education pertaining to the classical world was substantially different. My goal is not to judge the appropriateness of the varying allusions to Ancient Greece in their work, but rather to examine the different relations of the authors to the different, insurmountably other and idolised world. The first chapter is concerned with the authors' different approaches to the original...
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The Ideal of Beauty in the Period of Romanticism
Páchová, Kateřina ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
(in English): The aim of the thesis is to study the ideal of beauty in the period of Romanticism. The study is based on a close analysis of one of the crucial texts of the Romantic period - the Lyrical Ballads written by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The thesis is concerned with the vision of the beautiful in relation to the aesthetics of the sublime. It focuses on the development of what was perceived as beautiful in the periods preceding Romanticism and how this vision changed for the Romantics. The question is what is the ideal of beauty in the period of Romanticism and how it is presented in the Lyrical Ballads? Is there a common ideal for Wordsworth and Coleridge, or do they differ in their notion of the beautiful? The main focus of the thesis is the discrepancy between the beautiful, on one hand, and the sublime or the grotesque, on the other, both in perceiving the nature and human beings. The Romantics have several similar features as well as the vision of the beautiful, whether they praise women or men or nature, whether they deal with the beauty inside or the surface. Similarities between those are considered as well. The reflexion of aesthetics of the beautiful and the sublime is drawn primarily from Edmund Burke's The Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas...
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History and Play in Lord Byron's Dramas
Horová, Miroslava ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee) ; Minta, Stephen (referee)
History is a major point of inquiry and exploration in all Byron's major, and many of his minor, works. Byron understands and conceptualizes history and its tight and troubled relationship with literature, drawing attention to the literariness of history and the historicity of literature in his wake. The aspiration to the 'truth' of history is, for Byron, a highly creative process, highlighting the cross-pollination of fact and fiction, and also exploring history's inherent theatricality. Historical writing shapes but, crucially, also distorts our understanding of history. The dramatic works of Lord Byron are, on the whole, traditionally the least critically explored territory of his oeuvre. Byron's singular understanding and conceptualization of history in his dramas is the focus of this study, comprising the seven dramatic works he wrote between 1820 and 1822. As this thesis shows, these dramas make up a dynamic dramatic project, creating a space of formal, discursive and thematic experimentation, which reveals not only Byron's intense involvement in matters of drama but also, in a wider perspective, his understanding and treatment of history. This study takes up Byron's treatment of history in his dramas and analyses it through the methodology of play laid out and adapted for use in literary...
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The Romantic Prometheus: Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", P. B. Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound" and Lord Byron's "Manfred".
Hupcejová, Anna ; Horová, Miroslava (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
Following the time of political turmoil and social change sweeping through Europe (the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the Industrial Revolution), the mythological figure of Prometheus was especially popular in English Romantic literature. The Promethean symbol and values of liberty and defiance were evident inspirations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound and George Gordon Byron's Manfred. Being generally interested in English Romantic literature, I seek to discuss in what ways and to what extent have the Romantics rewritten the themes associated with the Titan for the purposes of modernity. Prometheus' chief characteristics are his caring and self-sacrificing, yet rebellious and cunning nature - he is in short an individual that the Romantics could relate to, also because he suffered for his beliefs and was mentally strong enough to stand up against the Olympian authorities. His name translates as 'forethought' or 'foresight' and this is without doubt connected to why the Romantics found him relevant to their time. There are a few issues that will need to be confronted. First of all, there are countless versions of the ancient myth, so instead I will direct my attention to the values and symbols associated with Prometheus. Secondly, there are also other...
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