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Towards a new social media model: redistribution of power in the subscription-based creator economy
Markova, Snezhanna ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
This thesis evaluates the potential viability of the subscription-based creator economy by analysing three subscription creator platforms, Substack, Nebula and Patreon. Drawing on Bernard Stiegler's work in the sphere of digital technologies, this study argues that the alternative mode of information dissemination demonstrated by these platforms presents a more equal distribution of power between the players in the creator economy and a healthier, more thoughtful content creation and consumption, in contrast to the algorithmic distribution of information of the traditional advertiser-driven social media networks. The research focuses on delineating the circumstances which led to the political and spiritual malaise of modern online generations described by Stiegler and examines how subscription-based platforms attempt to combat the harmful effects of major social networks. The creator economy is an integral part of almost every online interaction, therefore evaluating alternative economic models can be the key to improving the declining quality of the online user experience. The use-case analysis will involve assessing the business model, as well as the impact on the relationship between the creator, consumer and the IT platform, employing the digital labour theory proposed by Christian Fuchs....
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Shades of Iconoclasm in Orson Welles' Film Noirs
Verma, Jyoti ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
This diploma thesis is an effort towards unfolding the various dimensions of Orson Welles' originality of expression in his film noirs. For this purpose the films in focus are not only the noir classics from Welles' oeuvre like The Lady From Shanghai, Touch of Evil, Mr. Arkadin, and The Trial but also Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons which were important for his complete maturity in the noir tradition. The critical positions of various critics, mainly James Naremore, Simon Callow, Clinton Heylin, and Erik S. Roraback have been studied and cited to develop my arguments. The first chapter will be a study of characters in his films and Welles' acting methodologies, along with the treatment of female agency. The second chapter will be a thematic study of Welles' critique of major social shifts and attitudes that prevailed in the US. Events like Spanish-American War, Operation Wetback, and concerns like Yellow Journalism, attitudes towards immigrants, and racism will be studied in how they materialized in his films. The last section of this study will be a renewed study of theories of film critics and philosophers, namely Andr'e Bazin, Gilles Deleuze, and Jacques Ranci`ere. It broaches how their respective theories about cinema apply to Welles' oeuvre of film noirs. The last section of this...
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"Legs apart as the tide came in": Fluid Sexual Personae of Ann Quin
Černá, Michaela ; Vichnar, David (advisor) ; Armand, Louis (referee)
This thesis focuses on the "sexual personae" in the oeuvre of the British novelist Ann Quin. The aim of the thesis is to map out a basic overview of the types of characters appearing throughout the author's work, point out the significant patterns involved in their construction and the approach to these figures. The analysis draws from the arguments maintained in the research regarding this author so far, and works of psychoanalysis, especially the oeuvre of Sigmund Freud since his works contain analyses of the phenomena discussed in relation to the characters observed in this thesis, and other texts influenced by psychoanalysis. The analysis follows four thematic spheres significant in the works of Ann Quin: the family environment, gender roles, triangular relationships and violence. These thematic circles significantly shape the archetypal nature of Quin's characters. The thesis indicates the resurfacing attributes "typifying" Quin's characters in the context of sexuality, and also attempts to provide a comparative reflection of these "personae." KEY WORDS Ann Quin, sexuality, persona, British literature, 1960s, experimental woman writer
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Notes from the House of Sleep: Reading the Hieroglyphs of Night-Language in Anais Nin, H.D., and Anna Kavan
Gezer, Yaren ; Vichnar, David (advisor) ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (referee)
English Abstract This thesis aims to explore the works of three writers and their relations to their nighttime dreams as well as daydreaming and how the combination of their sessions with their psychoanalysts, their parental traumas, and their close approach to their dreams affect their creativity in developing their writing. The first writer to be dealt with is Hilda Doolittle or H.D. The main point of examining H.D.'s work Tribute to Freud will be her close account of the sessions she had with Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalyst's approach to H.D.'s creative side as well as her dreams and "visions", and the clash between her womanhood and Freud's ideas on the female inferiority complex and on her relationship with her mother. His interpretation of her writer's block, the nature of inspiration, and her struggle with artistic creativity along with his uneasy paternal role vis-à-vis H.D. will be dealt with in detail. Carl Jung's focus on the symbols and their connection to one's nature will be discussed as well for Doolittle's interpretation of her own dreams and visions can be considered in relation to him. The second writer to be mentioned will be Anais Nin. Her work, House of Incest in which she collects her dreams. Mainly her nightmares will be taken as the main source of discussing her dreams and her...
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Forking the Path: A Study of Hypertext
Ismiyeva, Narmin ; Armand, Louis (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
Bc. Narmin Ismiyeva Diplomová práce Forking the Path: A Study of Hypertext/Rozvětvené cestičky: Studie hypertextu Vedoucí práce: Louis Armand, Ph.D. Praha 2022 Abstract The aim of the present thesis is to critically engage with the concept of hypertext and to outline various approaches to it. Hypertext will first be interpreted theoretically and will engage with the philosophical notions of logocentrism. It will be viewed as a process of non-sequential writing that is characteristic not only for electronic literatures but for writing in general. Second, hypertext will be approached as a system that allows one to create, read, perceive, store, and utilize information in a particular way. This system makes the patterns of non-sequentiality inherent in writing visible. Third, hypertext will be viewed as a technique, the implementation of which will be analyzed in relation to the concepts of the performativity of art and language. Key Words: hypertext, hypermedia studies, digital media, logocentrism, avant-garde, performativity
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On Animal Subjectivity in Contemporary US Cinema
Koilybayeva, Botagoz ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
With an aim to explore the possibility of depicting non-human subjectivity in film, the thesis centers on three contemporary American films that venture beyond the current state of human exceptionalism and bridge a caesura between humanity and animality. Therefore, the thesis puts forward a hypothesis whether film as a cultural and visual medium has an aesthetic, ontological and ethical potential to illustrate animal subjectivity. Terrence Malick's war film The Thin Red Line is an example of highlighting intersubjective experiences of human beings and non-human phenomena. Kevin Costner's western Dances with Wolves underscores reciprocity between humans and animals as well as animal agency and practical and spiritual engagement with animals. Okja, the Korean- American collaboration, is a dystopian satire that reveals the anxieties of the present state of farm animals. Applying an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis engages with philosophy, anthrozoology, animal studies, and critical theory, in an attempt to balance between examining visual representation of animals in film and deconstructing the state of dominant cultural and political ideologies that have locked actual animals within the ideological frameworks of anthropocentric status quo. These human-centered paradigms explicitly and implicitly...
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Experiment and Narrative Strategies in Selected Novels by B. S. Johnson
Kostohryz, Jan ; Vichnar, David (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
This thesis explores the experimental elements and narrative techniques in selected novels by B. S. Johnson. It deals with his work inductively by observing the connections between the selected novels and their interaction with the theory presented in the "Introduction" to Aren't You Rather Young to be Writing Your Memoirs? (1973) and in the novels themselves. These contradictions are not treated as the author's shortcomings, but rather conceived as essential principles of Johnson's fiction. The aim of this thesis is to outline Johnson's deliberately contradictory theory, focus on the changing strategies employed in his fiction, examine how the selected novels resolve the particular writing problems they set for themselves, and prove that his fiction is in constant dialogue with its own theory. The three novels discussed are Albert Angelo (1964), The Unfortunates (1969) and Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (1973). The introduction presents Johnson as a writer, discusses his changing position within the literary canon and describes the aim and structure of the thesis. The first chapter outlines Johnson's theory presented in the "Introduction" and the text's deliberate contradictions. The second chapter focuses on Albert Angelo, contrasting its aims and strategies with Johnson's theory. The third...
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Between Mainstream and Avant-Garde Filmmaking: The French New Wave and the Illusion of Realism
Ilić, Dunja ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
The thesis explores the French New Wave as a film school which made a break with classical filmmaking and became influential worldwide, but was then discarded as ideologically naïve in the politicized atmosphere before and after the year 1968. It aims to demonstrate that what allowed the New Wave to make groundbreaking changes in filmmaking, that is, what makes it avant-garde, is also what ultimately denies it this attribute: its concern for realism, an issue at the center of inquiries into the nature of film. The first chapter analyses the Wave's stylistic and ideological opposition to the Tradition of Quality in relation to the theory of André Bazin, the Wave's ideologue. The example of Chabrol's The Cousins shows the influence of Orson Welles's long takes and deep focuses which urge the spectator to judge him/herself, as in real life, the relations among characters, as opposed to the paternalizing editing devices of classical Hollywood and the Tradition of Quality. The second chapter analyses the Wave's most famous films, Truffaut's 400 Blows and Godard's Breathless, with the emphasis on the shift from Chabrol's formal realism to a psychological realism based in ambiguity, Bazin's key term. Breathless is understood as the Wave's avant-garde and a realist film which goes beyond realism. The third...
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The Afterlife in Samuel Beckett, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, and Flann O'Brien
Doleček, Jan ; Markus, Radvan (advisor) ; Vichnar, David (referee)
This thesis aims to examine and compare the use of afterlife motif in Samuel Beckett's late drama, Máirtín Ó Cadhain's experimental novel Cré na Cille (1949), and Flann O'Brien's absurdist novel The Third Policeman (published posthumously in 1967). As all three are considered to be one the most prominent authors of late Irish modernism, their work is thus placed within this cultural context. The introductory chapter provides this necessary background to outline the major aspects of this particular literary tradition as well as present possible socio-cultural influences, which may have informed these seminal writers of highly experimental texts: the turbulent history of post-World War I Ireland, its political stasis during World War II, and the general pessimism emerging in this period in Europe all have considerable influence on the works examined. The first main chapter focuses on Beckett's plays Play (1963), Not I (1973), Footfalls (1976), and A Piece of Monologue (1979) and on their treatment of the afterlife motif, which is distinguishable even despite the ambiguity and minimalism of these dramatic pieces. Through the examination of Dantesque elements, Beckett's manipulation of temporality, and the fragmentary narratives of his ghastly characters, it is argued that Beckett's major theme was the...
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(In)Sincere Authorship - Three Novels of Jeffrey Eugenides
Rydlová, Daniela ; Vichnar, David (advisor) ; Roraback, Erik Sherman (referee)
Above anything else, New Sincerity is characterized by responding to postmodern irony, not in the form of its abandonment, but rather in its unmasking, critique, redeployment and transcendence. What Jeffrey Eugenides shares with New Sincerity authors is a critical treatment of the heritage of postmodernism. Balancing between postmodernist techniques and their transcendence, Eugenides writes about contemporary issues plaguing the American society (gender identity, mental health, the American dream, migration) and addresses the literary tradition of American fiction. However, his response to the literary tradition of postmodernism differs from the majority of New Sincerity writers. The New Sincerity's "manifesto," David Foster Wallace's "E Unibus Pluram," is an essay about fiction, but it is also a text about American television and culture. Eugenides' books by and large avoid commentary on popular culture, and their socio-political commentary is often found inadequate: their reflection of the legacy of Reaganomics within the Bush and Clinton administrations is oblique, as is their treatment of the many other issues symptomatic of the 1980s and 1990s: the spread of HIV/AIDS, the ubiquitous television culture and its gradual replacement in the digital age, information oversaturation and the looming...
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