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Expats and the "Wall of Czechness": An Ethnography of Expat Spaces in Prague
Turek, Veronika ; Verbuč, David (advisor) ; Jurková, Zuzana (referee)
This research project explores the notion of spaces and place-making of expat women living in Prague. Using the metaphor of a "wall of Czechness", this paper identifies why perceptions of living in a given space matter, as these perceptions affect how one interacts with the spaces around them. This metaphorical "wall" thus identifies why expat women find and create their own expat communities for socialization in Prague. As such, online platforms, such as Facebook, aid in creating designated women-only spaces, that facilitate both online and offline interactions. This helps in the creation of place-belongingness, especially for expat women who move to Prague on their own account. This work calls attention to the importance of various spaces associated with place-making in this context: safe spaces, private and public spaces, counter-public spaces and gendered spaces. It also highlights the importance of community- creation, and how communities can be understood and created for these expat women living abroad. The term "expat" itself has specific connotations, and whilst they fall under the category of migrants, the two terms hold very different meanings. This paper adds to existing research on expatriates, as a migrant group, to better understand how they create places, and places of belonging, in...
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From the Woods of Raasay to Glasgow Streets: Poetry of Place in the Works of Sorley MacLean and Derick Thomson
Poncarová, Petra Johana ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Markus, Radvan (referee)
This thesis focuses on the poetry of place in the works of the two most important figures of modern Scottish Gaelic verse: Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain, 1911-1996) and Derick Thomson (Ruaraidh MacThòmais, 1921-2012). Both poets exhibited a keen interest in poetry of place, although each one approached it from a very different angle: MacLean's poetry is proudly local and audaciously universal at the same time, moving from the Cuillin of Skye to Spain and Russia in the space of one stanza, while Thomson inquires in the ways in which the island environment, in terms of nature, language and religion, shapes the individual psyche, memory and creative abilities, and he is also a significant poet of the city. The opening chapter gives reasons for the choice of these two authors, introduces the structure and method of the thesis, and outlines what is meant by "poetry of place." It also sums up different theoretical approaches to places and discusses important features of Scottish Gaelic poetry of place of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as both poets employed, altered and contradicted certain traditional patterns and motifs. The second chapter provides a context for the subsequent discussion by explaining the basic facts about the linguistic, social and cultural conditions of Gaelic...
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The Poetics of Space in Ota Filip's Novels
Hozman, Václav ; Holý, Jiří (advisor) ; Bílek, Petr (referee)
This thesis is focused on poetics of places and space in the novels of Czech author Ota Filip (*1930). The analysis of individual spaces displayed in Filip's work wants to demonstrate the importance of these places for the narrative construction of the autor's novels. This thesis aims to show the importance of displayed space and individual spaces for the overall sense of the fictional world in the Filip's work. The methodological basis of the thesis is the study of the Polisch scientist Janusz Sławiński: Space in Literature: Basic Division and Introductory Commonplace (2002 [1978]). Research of space displayed in the literary work based on the text of a particular novel.
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