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The reconstruction of female sexuality in the Czech Republic between 1950-2022 against the background of the contemporary political context: biographical interviews
Šimková, Alžběta ; Hrůzová, Andrea (advisor) ; Frunc, Ondřej (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the influence of the apparatus of power on the perception of sexuality of women who grew up in socialist Czechoslovakia. This thesis is based on the premise of Michel Foucault's theory, according to which sexuality is permeated by a network of various power influences and relations (Foucault, 1999). It is by analysing this network of power that one can then come to identify the influences of the contemporary state mechanism. The theoretical section discusses the development of the women's question under socialism and subsequently after the coup. It then describes the main themes of the development of sexuality in the context of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. The research is based on the method of biographical interviews, through which women told their story by describing their sexual experiences and attitudes towards sexuality. Interviews were conducted with five women who became sexually active in the 1950s. The research findings were analysed using the grounded theory method, i.e. inductive coding, and then deductively linked to Simon and Gagnon's sexual script theory. Based on the identification of different levels of scenarios according to this theory, i.e. cultural, interpersonal and intrapsychic levels, the present power relations that shaped sexuality in...
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The thematization of the issue of surveillance and power in cinematography
Šára, Filip ; Fišerová, Michaela (advisor) ; Slavíček, Daniel (referee)
The goal of this thesis The thematization of the issue of surveillance and power in cinematography is to introduce Michael Focault's theory of power, and add to it with other theories of surveillance with regard to the electronic age (Surveillance studies). Subsequently these theories and hypothesis are applied to qualitative analysis of chosen films with the theme of surveillance. Findings should show the cinematographic reflection of the issue of surveillance and power, de facto depiction of theory and practice of surveillance studies (emphasising the use of power in institutions like prison, hospital, school or working environment, which are heterotopic "other spaces") in live-action movies. The thesis shows development within the past 30 years which took place also due to the existence of internet, which is a kind of institution too. Hypothesis: it is obvious in films with surveillance theme that the concept of the use of power is evolving from "body as a machine" (M. Foucault) to "disappearing bodies" (D. Lyon). The choice of films is analysed only with regard to their depiction of surveillance, is mainly based on the list of movies with surveillance theme constructed by a German theorist D. Kammerer. The goal is also to broaden this list with examples of other films since it should emphasise...
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Michel Foucault: The Term "Economy" in the Work The Order of Things
Mareš, Richard ; Marcelli, Miroslav (advisor) ; Švantner, Martin (referee)
The thesis interprets the development of Foucault's thinking and within The Order of Things it subjects the whole concept of economy to critical reflection and defines the structure and dynamics on which the term is built. My work progresses from the abstract issue of Foucault's thinking to specific theories related to the topic. The first part is focused on the key changes and breaks across the author's thinking and work and forms the basis for a comparison of The Order of Things with a broader view of Foucault's thinking. Then I follow with economic theory basis in The Order of Things and define terms such as monetary theory, value theory, wealth analysis and other that are directly connected with economic issues. I focus on authors of economic theories who have influenced Foucault's thinking or are differently connected with my explication, e.g. Adam Smith, David Ricardo or Karl Marx. In the final part of the thesis I compare Foucault's thoughts and conclusions with the philosophy of Louis Althusser in his book Reading Capital which is based on Karl Marx's theories. The focus is mainly on the interpretation of modern episteme which is in The Order of Things directly related to the term of economy. I introduce common and different attributes of Althusser's and Foucault's thinking and present my...
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The Right Guy World: The Analysis of Television Beer Commercial Discourse
Kroulík, Jiří ; Švantner, Martin (advisor) ; Kladný, Tomáš (referee)
This paper's aim is to critically describe and use Michel Foucault's method archaeology for discursive description of contemporary television beer advertisements broadcasted in the Czech Republic. Theoretical part tries to define terms as denounce, discursive formation and discourse and propose their possible usage in practical research. The paper supposes that television beer advertisements are governed by the same discourse which was used in other beer advertisement and all advertisements form a coherent whole. Analytical part's aim is to describe this coherent whole from the aim of discourse and specific chose of denounces that form picture of beer and its role in a men world. Key words: Foucault, discourse, archaeology, television advertisement, beer
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Authority and Authorship: James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as a Work of Fictocriticism
Childs, Morgan ; Armand, Louis (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
viii Abstract This thesis uses James Agee's 1941 book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to examine the role of so-called fictocriticism in emphasizing the immutability of an author from within a text. The thesis argues that the fictocritical text accounts for the impossibility of extricating the author from writing. Although its precursors date back several centuries- perhaps most notably to Michel de Montaigne-the term fictocriticism was coined in the mid- to late twentieth century to describe texts existing at the interstices of ostensibly fictional and factual genres of writing. Agee's text, borne out of a journalistic assignment for Fortune magazine, blends elements of long-form magazine journalism with lyric poetry with the author's famous sprawling, diaryesque prose, calling the reader to question which elements of the text are rooted in fact and which are simply the author's fabrications or, indeed, whether such a distinction can be drawn. The term can be applied only anachronistically to the 1941 book, yet as defined in these pages it is a befitting description of Agee's otherwise unclassifiable text. Fictocriticism lacks a singular definition, so the examination of Agee's Famous Men as a fictocritical work rests on a thorough revision of the term's history and its lexical implications, both of which...
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Examining Governmentality of the Fiscal Compact
Fukatsch, Pavol ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Karlas, Jan (referee)
Sovereign debt crisis is a major event in the history of European monetary and fiscal integration. On the one hand, the crisis has shown weak points of monetary and fiscal governance, but on the other it has proven to lead to more integration in this sector. One of the solutions which led to more integration and was meant to prevent another crisis is the Fiscal Compact. The goal of the Fiscal Compact was to update the "rules of the game" to better fit the reality of post-crisis Eurozone. Crises can unfold and uncover governmentality patterns; the goal of the diploma thesis is to reconstruct these patterns using Foucaldian governmentality conceptual toolbox. The thesis will use the concept of political technologies and techniques to interrogate speech by Mario Draghi that he delivered at the Ludwig Erhard lecture in 2011. Following the identification of political techniques and technologies reflecting ordoliberalism, the thesis will continue with an analysis of microsites of fiscal councils. The goal of the analysis of microsites is to trace the operation of governmentality in the fiscal domain. The overreaching goal of the analysis is to problematize a view, postulating that the solution to the sovereign debt crisis reflects sovereign power.
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Ethics and the Politics of Truth. Hito Steyerl and Michel Foucault
Bierhanzl, Jan
The documentarist turn in visual art reintroduces the question of the relationship between a work of art and truth. However, rather than the truth of the work in the sense of mimesis or authenticity, it is the politics of truth. In a double entendre: documentary forms express power relationships but being themselves a political act they may represent resistance against the power relationships. This generally political approach to truth in art falls, in our opinion, within at least two philosophical-political traditions. The first is Marx and Marxism and the question of the relationship of a work of art to social circumstances. Regarding that Hito Steyerl explicitly espouses Michel Foucault, in step two we will try to refer the issue of the relationship between a work of art and truth to the three fundamental axes of Foucault’s thought — power, knowledge and the subject.
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Confession as a Technique of Subjectification in the Political Thought of Michel Foucault
Doležal, Kryštof ; Franěk, Jakub (advisor) ; Salamon, Janusz (referee)
This thesis is focused on interpreting constitutive components of Michel Foucault's political thought (power, knowledge, subjectivity) from the viewpoint of the subjectification. The first goal of this work is to pursue the technique of confession as a crucial mechanism that participates on constructing the subjectivity in Foucault's work. To uncover in which connections it is usually pursued and what forms according to Foucault did it gain during history depending on various configurations of bonds between power and knowledge. The work's second goal is to substantiate a technique of confession defined by Foucault in contemporary human sciences, specifically in the foundations of the processes of data collection and then to demonstrate confession as a necessary element for creating an empirical type of knowledge.
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