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Early Modern Players of Folly
Pranič, Martina ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Pfister, Manfred (referee) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Early Modern Players of Folly Thesis Abstract This thesis examines the ways in which folly is used in early modern literature. It asks: how is it that such an ephemeral concept proliferated and endured in the culture of early modern Europe? My understanding of early modern folly as a discursive phenomenon that was used as a way of questioning the knowledge of the ostensibly reasonable world is illustrated by case studies of four characters-four players of folly. Dedicated a chapter each, they are Till Eulenspiegel, the great German jester; Pomet Trpeza, a typically Ragusan wit of Marin Držić's Dundo Maroje; Brother Jan Paleček, a Bohemian representative of holy folly; and Sir John Falstaff, the embodiment of folly in Shakespeare's 1 and 2 Henry IV. Although they emerge from different cultural, linguistic and generic traditions, they nonetheless share a propensity for employing folly in ways that uncover possibilities for new understandings and challenge rigid certainties of the world around them. Early modernity, the era that produced the works I explore, has become associated with shifts and instabilities. In this Age of Discovery, man was compelled to understand afresh a suddenly unfamiliar world. However, where man and his reason reign, folly gladly follows. I read each of my four players of folly as...
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Early Modern Players of Folly
Pranič, Martina ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Pfister, Manfred (referee) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Early Modern Players of Folly Thesis Abstract This thesis examines the ways in which folly is used in early modern literature. It asks: how is it that such an ephemeral concept proliferated and endured in the culture of early modern Europe? My understanding of early modern folly as a discursive phenomenon that was used as a way of questioning the knowledge of the ostensibly reasonable world is illustrated by case studies of four characters-four players of folly. Dedicated a chapter each, they are Till Eulenspiegel, the great German jester; Pomet Trpeza, a typically Ragusan wit of Marin Držić's Dundo Maroje; Brother Jan Paleček, a Bohemian representative of holy folly; and Sir John Falstaff, the embodiment of folly in Shakespeare's 1 and 2 Henry IV. Although they emerge from different cultural, linguistic and generic traditions, they nonetheless share a propensity for employing folly in ways that uncover possibilities for new understandings and challenge rigid certainties of the world around them. Early modernity, the era that produced the works I explore, has become associated with shifts and instabilities. In this Age of Discovery, man was compelled to understand afresh a suddenly unfamiliar world. However, where man and his reason reign, folly gladly follows. I read each of my four players of folly as...
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From Tom Thumb (Paleček) to Eulenspiegel or Prosopography in humanist entertainment prose
MELICHOVÁ, Petra
The thesis From Tom Thumb (Paleček) to Eulenspiegel or Prosopography in humanist entertainment prose is an analysis of main literary characters of selected Czech books of folk reading. Opening part is dedicated to the Renaissance and Renaissance culture in general. The periodization and brief characteristic of Czech humanist literature from the years between the half of the 15th century and the 1620?s is mentioned further. The thesis gives more detailed look at entertainment prose and primarily discusses books of folk literature which were integral part of Czech verbal culture. The analytic part is focused on prosopography in several books of folk reading ? Eulenspiegel, Tom Thumb (Paleček), Franta?s Law and Doctor Faust. The aim is to describe main characters, capture their artistic depiction and foremost to assess their moral code.
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