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Mamet's men
Koranda, David ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
1 Summary This BA thesis, partly a work of sociological theory and partly of literary analysis, discusses the crisis of masculinity in the society, placing an emphasis on the American milieu. As a starting point it uses the dramatic pieces of the contemporary American playwright David Mamet. Mamet is in his works generally attracted to the world of men, and we can only find a handful of female characters in them. Additionally, he frequently places his men, who usually share the typically masculine characteristics and behavioral patterns, into traditionally male environments - for instance on a boat or into a ruthlessly competitive real estate agency. Thus he prepares his ground to be able to fully explore one of the most prominent American social myths - the myth of masculinity. The second chapter focuses in its sociological opening part on the concept of masculinity as such. In the beginning, a historical overview of the development of human understanding of masculinity is introduced. It is apparent that it was only with the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of feminism around the turn of the century that the society saw the drastic change which, as we may understand it, led to the crisis of masculinity. Later, Judith Butler's theory of the performativity of masculinity is discussed, and...
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Vertiginous relations in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms and Mourning Becomes Electra
Landerová, Petra ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
The recurrent theme of inter-human family relationships in a state of loss and decay in plays authored by Eugene O'Neill arises in part from the author's own traumatic relationship with his parents and with his brother James. Trying to deal with his torturous memories, O'Neill seeks answers through his cursed characters, who partly derive from the writer himself, yet also offer a universal portrayal of humankind as a victim of his own mental being and system. Given O'Neill's profound interest in psychoanalysis, the plays mostly take place in the life process of the individual minds of the protagonists and of the animating effect they have on others who populate the play-texts; therefore it is essential for the understanding of the play-works under critical consideration to look at the inner lives and worlds of these enigmatic characters, and to evaluate to what extent they act on their own will and where, conversely, unconscious forms of desire from other characters, memories, wishes, objects and so forth are instead determinant. The canonical plays Desire Under the Elms and Mourning Becomes Electra offer an intriguing blend of the forms and of the contents of the classical-traditional and of the modern stage play, as they extend the heritage and the lineage of ancient Greek tragedy, although situated in...
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Flannery O'Connor as satirical priest
Petrušová, Gabriela ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
49 Summary Although her literary career was short, Flannery O'Connor made a great impression with her peculiar characters which are probably the most unsympathetic ones in the world of fiction. These self-indulged, ignorant individuals remain in our minds long after we have finished our reading. This fact perhaps results from the notion that Flannery O'Connor herself did not have sympathy for them either. Despite her deeply religious point of view, her characters are not treated in the light of assumed Christian humanism. On the contrary, at the end they are facing violent deaths, they are robbed of their artificial limbs and every time when it is possible they are in the centre of her scornful satirical and acid humor. This thesis aims to discuss the specific role of the last mentioned phenomenon and that is O'Connor's acid and satirical humor which interwoven with religious concerns plays a specific role in her fiction. The primary aim of the first chapter is the introduction of the tradition of Southern literature and contextualization of Flannery O'Connor unique place within the Southern literary canon. The first chapter, in addition, discusses the role, history and use of humor in Southern literature. Chapter two then shifts the focus on the special quality of O'Connor's humor in particular; moreover...
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Topographies of Culture and Identity: The Role of Landscapes and Cityscapes in Selected Film Representations of Ireland
Pavlíčková, Tereza ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
1 Abstract The thesis focuses on the role of landscapes and cityscapes in selected film representations of Ireland. It is the discipline of cultural geography which serves as the primary theoretical basis for this analysis. Firstly, the general observations concerning the social elaboration of place are applied within the particular cultural context. Thus, it becomes revealed that these socio- cultural practices bear a special significance in Irish culture. Apart from that, the thesis also fully delineates the complex nature of both the concept of Irish identity and Irish cinema. This account provides the basis for to the primary assertion that film portrayals of Ireland require strongly a wide, non-linear analytical approach. Importantly, the thesis also draws attention to particular cultural dichotomies which prevail within most realms of Irish society, showing a tension between its relationship to the present and the past. Within the context of film representation, this binary cultural perspective is then presented as a phenomenon which has had a significant impact on both the process of filmmaking in Ireland, as well as on the perception of produced films. Especially in the second case, the effect can be perceived as rather negative, since it prevents the realization of a fully non-exclusionary...
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Poetika imanence: performance divadlo Forced Entertainment
Suk, Jan ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (referee) ; Voigts, Eckart (referee)
Jan Suk The Poetics of Immanence: Performance Theatre of Forced Entertainment Abstract The present dissertation thesis examines the multi-faceted nature of the devised as well as durational works of the British experimental theatre Forced Entertainment via the thought of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The aim of the thesis is to explore the transformation- potentiality of the territory between the actors and the spectators. The transformativity of this interspace, or the territory in-between, is decodable namely via Forced Entertainment's performances' structural patterns, sympathy fostering aesthetics, virtual audience integration and accentuated emphasis of the now. The application of Deleuze's philosophy, chiefly the phenomenon of immanence, results in the definition of the poetics of immanence, whose operation enables the transformativity of theatrical space to be terminologically embraced. After delineating crucial terms, such as performance and theatre, live art, or postdramatic theatre, the initial chapter contextualizes Forced Entertainment as the pivotal experimental theatre group; the chapter further conducts an analysis of relevant critical literature in performance and theatre theory discourse. Chapter two provides a deeper contextualising study of the most significant Deleuzoguattarian...
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Outsiders in the Works of Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard
Kecerová, Martina ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
This thesis analyzes characters - outsiders that appear in the plays The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams and True West and Fool for Love by Sam Shepard. These outsiders are always singled out from somewhere and they have difficulties to fit in a relationship, society or the physical environment in which they are found. They have been outsiders their entire lives, thus the past is as important as the present. These characters were classified as outsiders because they cannot or do not want to fit in a majority, belong to one specific place and adjust to environment. Consequently, they often use various means to fight against the reality that they are not part of instead of accepting it. In the introduction of the thesis I explain that even though there is a gap of several decades between the works of both authors and their style of writing is considerably different, we can still find the similar characters that are lost in reality. In this section of the thesis I also discuss the fact that the way authors describe the characters can be related to their own lives and experiences that formed them. Tennessee Williams, since a child, was very sensitive and different from other children and later-confessed homosexuality also made him an outsider. This can be later...
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An analysis of representation of significant events and personalities of Irish history in the period from 1916-1923 in Irish film
Kejmar, Tomáš ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta Ústav anglistiky a amerikanistiky Tomáš Kejmar Abstrakt bakalářské práce THE ROAD NOT TAKEN Analýza reprezentace významných událostí a osobností irských dějin v období 1916-1923 v irském filmu Abstract of BA Thesis An analysis of representation of significant events and personalities of Irish history in the period from 1916-1923 in Irish film. Praha, květen 2011 vedoucí práce: Clare Wallace, Ph.D. 2 Thesis abstract This thesis focuses on the period of Irish history from 1916 to 1923, i.e. the period commencing with the Easter Rising and concluding with the end of the Irish Civil War, as it was captured in three feature historical films shot in the last two decades: Jonathan Lewis' The Treaty (1992), Neil Jordan's Michael Collins (1996) and Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006). The main interest of the thesis is the way the historical events and the main characters of the films are represented. The implications of such representations are analyzed and possible explanations offered. Selection, misrepresentation, falsification and invention of historical material by the authors of the films is scrutinized and pointed out. The contrast between historical and biographical accounts of the characters and their filmic portrayals is considered and...
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Contemporary culture vs. Irishness in the plays of Martin McDonagh
Pichrtová, Lenka ; Pilný, Ondřej (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
Thirteen years ago, in 1997, the theatrical community around the world was for the first time amazed by the new emerging persona of European drama, Martin McDonagh (1970), who made a spectacular debut by his play The Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1996. This work was followed by three more pieces in quick succession, further confirming McDonagh's status as a rising star. The author has to date publicly produced seven plays which quickly found their way from Great Britain and Ireland into the whole world and enjoyed tremendous success everywhere they were performed. The appearance of a new persona naturally invited a large amount of attention and sometimes very heated criticism; the core debate focuses mainly on the most prominent and shocking aspects of McDonagh's plays - namely violence, emotional vacuum, authenticity and alleged misrepresentation of Irishness. In its introductory contextual part, this thesis would like to illuminate McDonagh's status as an Irish writer, try to place him within the Irish dramatic tradition and provide a comparison with some of his predecessors, namely J. M. Synge and his Playboy of the Western World. This chapter of the thesis will equally concentrate on major themes and means of representing Irishness in the plays and on features connecting McDonagh to other Irish...
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"Within un-, sub- or supernatural forces": establishing the world of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Krtička, Filip ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
The atmosphere of Stoppard's tour de force is one of confusion from the beginning to end. Guildenstern is confused about the outcome of the coin tossing and, thus, about the ruling principle of the world, Rosencrantz is confused about Guildenstern's role-playing practice of questioning Hamlet, everyone is confused about which one of the pair is Rosencrantz and which one is Guildenstern, and they are in turn confused about everyone else. Determinism is confused with absurdity, fate is confused with chance, reality is confused with fiction, and art with life. All this is because of the coin, because of all the duality and duplicity of and in the play. When it is announced at the end that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet, all are dead, the reader or the audience are confused about what they have read and seen. "Clearly, Stoppard is transgressing well-defined literary boundaries, and doing so in such a way that his own characters suffer the consequences of his manipulations."287 Stoppard's drama, a hypertext, is situated at the fringes of texts. He thematizes the textual relationships of Rosencrantz's hypotexts. By doing so, the confusion of his protagonists is brought about by the (con)fusion of texts: "That duplicity of the object, in the sphere of textual relations, can be represented by the old analogy...
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Family in modern American drama
Hovorka, Jan ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
This work analyses the American family in context of society and its demands. It focuses on the cannonical works of the Modern American drama, namely plays of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard and David Mamet. The playwrights are analysed in two distinctive groups according to similar themes they share. Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller depict the family under increasing pressure from the outside as well from the inside. The unit disintegrates, members of the family escape and thus the unit loses its funtions. The pressure is imposed by the tenets of the American mythology that governs the society, which, in turn, influences the family. The common theme of the first group of playwrights is the feeling of loss. This comprises of two dimensions - spatial and tempoval. The second group of playwrights share the same theme of loss with its spatial and temporal implications. They are characteristic by their distinctive use of language that depicts the prevalent sense of doom, apocalypse, futility and sterility. The search for identity is also implied by the restlessness of characters. The detrimental effect of harsh business environment on the family is explored with regards to masculinity. The work shows the family in the context of the 1950s, an era when the family was elevated to...
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