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Gender, Race, and Class: Intersectional Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
Salajová, Gabriela ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
The objective of this study is to ascertain whether the principles of recent intersectional analyses of Kate Chopin's seminal novel The Awakening may also be applied to Chopin's short fiction and what conclusions would be drawn from such an analysis regarding Chopin's stance on the oppression of minorities. The purpose of an intersectional analysis is to evaluate the specific type of oppression that arises on the intersection of various social categories - the categories considered here are gender, race, and class. Intersectional analysis represents one of the latest methodological approaches regarding the fiction of Kate Chopin, expanding upon the inferences formerly derived by the feminist scholars. The first chapter introduces the concept of intersectionality and describes the changes of Kate Chopin's position in the American literary canon together with the development of the methods employed by the scholarship in relation to Chopin's works through time. The second chapter is concerned with the demonstration of the main notions of five intersectional analyses of The Awakening carried out by Anna Elfenbein, Elizabeth Ammons, Joyce Dyer, Michele Birnbaum, and Dagmar Pegues. The first three studies are presented along with my additions to the arguments, and are concerned with the dichotomy between...
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Hidden Treason: Aspects of the Protagonist's Action in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Redchitc, Daria ; Robbins, David Lee (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
BA Thesis Abstract From the very moment of its publication in 1952 Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Ellison has been widely discussed by critics but, in my view, the Prologue did not receive due attention. In my thesis I am going to argue that it is exactly in the Prologue where the readers can see Invisible Man in full action, although he himself seems to overlook it even in the Epilogue, in which the protagonist is still uncertain about his future action. That is possible, for the tone of the whole novel suggests that the protagonist is not as insightful as he may think. Otherwise, if the Prologue is not there to show the readers that the protagonist is actually in full action, the purpose of the Prologue as a mere introductory piece seems to be redundant if one is to bear in mind that in the first paragraph of the first chapter the protagonist repeats the essential information of the Prologue, that is that he is invisible. In my thesis I am going to discuss the protagonist's action in the Prologue and how it serves the purpose of the entire novel, the key activity being the "fight against Monopolated Light & Power" which could be read on two levels: as straightforward civil disobedience and as symbolic artistic manifesto. The former concept is significant in the range of the whole novel and American...
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The Portrayal of Women and Men in Charles Bukowski's Fiction
Valdajeva, Božena ; Veselá, Pavla (advisor) ; Quinn, Justin (referee)
The subject of the present thesis is the author Charles Bukowski and as the title suggests his portrayal of women and men in the chosen works. This thesis strives to avoid presumption of Bukowski's personal sentiments and views, and instead focuses on the written word itself, namely on the Notes of a Dirty Old Man and Women. By choosing Notes of a Dirty Old Man and Women we will be able to discuss changes in Bukowski's attitudes throughout a set period of his life, during a time when attitudes towards women were changing. The pillars of the thesis are language and sexuality. Hence, this thesis challenges the image of crude and basic language not being worthy of literary acceptance. This thesis will show that such language was chosen deliberately. It will be explained, for example, that one of Bukowski's reasons for doing so, was to better reflect the minds of his protagonists. Similarly, sexuality, as one of the most discussed and criticised of Bukowski's themes will also be analysed. The object of this academic discussion is to show how Bukowski liberated the subject of sexuality by using humour and irony in his writing. Consequently, the thesis will also contextualise Bukowski in terms of time, place and personal development, in order to show progress and development in his work. It will be shown...
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Hybrid Bodies and Hybrid Identities in the Fiction of Octavia Butler
Korejtková, Adéla ; Veselá, Pavla (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee)
The thesis explores the theme of hybridity in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy and in her last novel, Fledgling, which both deal with complex relationships between humans and a different species. The main focus is on the characters of mixed origin - offspring of two distinct species and beings whose existence is a result of genetic experiments. These individuals occupy a metaphorical "in-between" space where cultural, racial, sexual and other boundaries meet and blur. The theoretical framework follows two sets of ideas - Homi Bhabha's notion of hybridity and the so-called Third Space, and Donna Haraway's cyborg figure. The second chapter of the thesis is centered on the origins and development of the concept of hybridity and its current use in postcolonial discourse. Furthermore, it introduces the most relevant ideas from Bhabha's The Location of Culture and Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" and compares them. The following two chapters are mainly devoted to Butler's hybrid characters, Akin and Jodahs from Xenogenesis and Shori, the protagonist of Fledgling. This section analyses, among other issues, their physical features and special skills connected with hybridity, the construction of their identity, their relationship with others and their relation to the clash between different species and...
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Deconstructing the Fantastic World of Wes Anderson - The Philosophy Behind the Artificial Surface of a Contemporary Director
Szemetová, Lucia ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
1 Abstract The subject of this thesis is Wes Anderson's cinematic world. The analysis draws an auteur study of this contemporary director in order to discover what sensibility his cinema demonstrates. Anderson's sentiment causes a reinterpretation of lost values and generates specific thinking, which allow it to be considered as a mediation of his own filmic "philosophy." The backbone theory consists of philosophy, in general, and of postmodernism and metamodernism, specifically. The three postmodern elements to be discussed are the meta-cinematic techniques, pastiche and nostalgia prevalent in Anderson's oeuvre. However, his unique employment of these features transgresses the anticipated postmodern tone and creates a new structure of feeling characterized by metamodern hopefulness. Therefore, Anderson uses postmodern means to create a metamodern sensibility that signalizes sincerity. Focusing on the three above-mentioned attributes of Anderson's filmography in both a postmodern and metamodern context helps to deconstruct his highly visual and thematically patterned cinema in order to reveal where the particular sensibility of the director stems from. The analysis of Anderson's eight features-Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited,...
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Neither Old, Nor New: The Southern Belle Archetype in Lillian Hellman's Birdie from The Little Foxes and Tennessee Williams's Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire
Soukupová, Markéta ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
The aim of the BA thesis is to describe the origins of the Old South's archetypal feminine ideals and how they were altered in the course of time. In what follows, I will attempt to explain how southern elite (re) defined, enacted and/or maintained the distinctive role of Southern Belle while others refused, modified or debunked these ideals. The thesis will be approached from an interdisciplinary point of view; it will encompass literary theory, namely in respect to relevant archetypal definitions that will be applied to the specific Southern Belle figures, as well as historical, social and cultural studies. Finally, feminist and gender theories will be employed in order to demonstrate how the cultural archetype of the Southern Belle served as a socially constructed norm enforcing women's passivity and submission to patriarchy. After the introductory chapter, which will present the American South and its inhabitants as a distinct entity, chapter two will comment on and explain the aims and methodology of the thesis and the key terminology that is essential for the Southern Belle concept. Chapter three shall provide a succinct socio-historical context of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes in relation to their particular Southern Belle constructs....
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Bernard Malamud's Selected Fiction in the Context of Black-Jewish Literary Relations
Simonová, Anna ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Veselá, Pavla (referee)
Although Bernard Malamud's fiction has been frequently regarded as allegorical and symbolic, Malamud did not avoid the period's social issues in his works, such as the racial question and the changing nature of relationship between American Jews and African Americans. The present thesis aims to discuss Malamud's selected fiction dealing with Black- Jewish relations, namely short stories "Angel Levine," (1955) "Black Is My Favorite Color" (1963) and the novel The Tenants, (1971) and to place them into the context of Black-Jewish relations in the United States and of Black-Jewish literary dialogues and the tensions they express. It thus seeks to evaluate Malamud's role in the discourse of Black-Jewish relations in America. Calling upon a theoretical framework, outlined in chapter 2, based on philosophical and sociological findings of Judith Butler, John Searle, and Michael Omi with Howard Winant, the study examines the role of language and literature in constructing the Self and the Other (understood both as individual and collective identities, including categories of race and ethnicity), suggesting thus that literary texts, such as Malamud's selected fiction, are a part of discursive dialogue through and against which American Jews and Blacks construct their identities. Apart from the approaches to...
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The African-American Slave Narrative in Context: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs
Chýlková, Jana ; Veselá, Pavla (advisor) ; Robbins, David Lee (referee)
in English The aim of this MA thesis is to bring new perspectives on the genre of the African-American slave narrative. Therefore, its wider historical, socio-political and gender contexts are considered and the circumstances surrounding its development and current criticism are briefly outlined. The point of departure is a discussion of definitions that vary among the scholars who select different criteria for the subject of definition. The existing diversity of the texts and voices is discussed in connection to Moses Grandy's Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America. Grandy's narrative, an account of the maritime slave life, is analyzed. Its traditional, uniform narrative structures are juxtaposed with passages where some aspects of his masculine identity, problematized by the institution of slavery, can be traced. Ultimately, the thesis attempts to show that while the conventionalized framework pre-defining the narrative outline and themes is delineated by James Olney, any generally recognized definition of the genre does not exist. As a result of that conclusion, the genre is defined in the scope of this thesis. After the major characteristics of the genre are discussed and the definition of the African- American slave narrative is put forward, more...
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The New York School Poets and Visual Arts: The Poetry of John Ashbery and Frank O'Hara
Žůrková, Michaela ; Veselá, Pavla (advisor) ; Robbins, David Lee (referee)
The New York School Poets and Visual Arts: The Poetry of John Ashbery and Frank O'Hara The poetry of the New York School poets is highly influenced by visual art; the poets, such as Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and John Schuyler, were affected mainly by Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism and Dada. The reason why visual art had such a strong effect on their poetry is that the painters of the New York School dominated the art world, they set the trends, and poets and musicians followed them. Also, visual art played a major role in the lives of the poets as many of them were art critics and they often collaborated with the artists. The thesis focuses on two of the New York School poets, O'Hara and Ashbery, as the influence of visual art in their poetry is most prominent in comparison to the other New York School poets. O'Hara mainly uses the techniques of Abstract Expressionism and he is mostly interested in the art of Jackson Pollock. O'Hara's poems carry immediacy and they are based on the expression of the present moment. The focus on the present parallels with the techniques of action painting which channels the artist's self and emotions. The use of such techniques as the "push" and "pull" theory, and the work with the surface and perspective are displayed within experimenting with the...
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African-American Mothers in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Toni Morrison's Beloved
Piňosová, Michaela ; Veselá, Pavla (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
This BA thesis examines the concept of a black mother as a key figure in the fight for freedom as depicted in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and further explored in Toni Morrison's Beloved. Stowe's novel presents the idealized concept of motherhood in characters such as Eliza Harris, Aunt Chloe, Mary Bird and Rachel Halliday. These characters represent Stowe's ideology of Christian motherhood, in which the mother acts as a mediator of moral and religious principles in her family and community. To enable the identification of white middle-class female readers with the African-American characters in her novel, Stowe employed a distinctive method of characterization in Uncle Tom's Cabin. One of the main characteristics of her female figures is their ability to perform a maternal role. Mother love is depicted as a universal force, which is common to both white and African-American mothers, and which is equivalent to the love of Christ. Stowe believed that motherhood based on Christian values would free the United States from slavery and rebuild her society. For these reasons, Stowe encouraged white middle-class wives and mothers to present their abolitionist stances in their families and mediate them to their husbands, whose opinions might have been influential in political development in...
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