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Ideological Appropriation: The Tragedy of Coriolanus
Moravec, Jaromír ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
This master's thesis is concerned with the appropriative and adaptational afterlife of William Shakespeare's play Coriolanus. Particularly with the reasons for and strategies behind appropriative efforts from contradicting ideological movements. Appropriative adaptations of the play appeared already within the first hundred years after Shakespeare's passing with the first being Nahum Tate's The Ingratitude of a Commonwealth which recontextualises Shakespeare's text to support the cause of the Abhorrers during the Exclusion Crisis. Then, less than forty years later, John Dennis wrote his adaptation The Invader of His Country which represents the adapted text as supporting the Whigs in opposition of the Stuarts, who threatened to return on the English Throne with the support of foreign armies. This chapter's analysis seeks to establish the appropriative strategies that allowed single text to be claimed by two opposing political camps. That knowledge is then applied in the next chapter which focuses on the interwar period during which was Shakespeare claimed by a number of contradicting ideologies making their way on the political spectrum in the wake of the fall of a number of Europe's monarchies. This chapter is primarily focused on interpretative texts rather than on dramatic rewrites. These...
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Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the Gender of Revenge
Garcia Priego, Analicia ; Poncarová, Petra Johana (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
This thesis analyses the differences and similarities in terms of gender in the revengers in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594), Othello (1604), and Hamlet (1602). The first part of this thesis focuses on the different types of traumatic injuries that Tamora, Lavinia, Othello, Iago, and Hamlet experience and the way gender and its social and political constraints affect their processing of trauma and the way through which this leads to vengeful violence. Additionally, this thesis explores the link between Shakespeare's revenge tragedies and modern cinematic revenge narratives by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. The female revengers in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Kill Bill, vol. 1 (2003), and Kill Bill, vol.2 (2004), Shosanna and Beatrix, share similarities with Shakespeare's female revengers in Titus Andronicus. This second part of the thesis is also concerned with the way in which gender continues to affect the revenger's response to traumatic injuries, and the changes in the resolution of these narratives when compared to Shakespeare's. Finally, this thesis provides suggestions for further research in the field of female revenge in modern revenge narratives. This thesis draws on trauma theory, gender studies, and revenge studies in order to analyse the role that gender plays in the processing of...
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The Monsters of Beowulf: Heroic and Christian Values
Howe, Patricia ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Markus, Radvan (referee)
This thesis deals with the Old English poem Beowulf, exploring the dichotomy between the Christian poet and the pre-Christian material he tackles. Beowulf was written at least a few hundred years after Christianity was already established in England, yet still had to reckon with the remnants of a culture that had radically different values. The attitude Christianity had to these was ambivalent, at times choosing to conform and integrate some aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture, and at others taking a confrontational approach and condemning them. This is reflected in Beowulf, which has both praise and censure for the society it depicts. The poem's overarching theme is community1 , and the fight against forces that would threaten to destroy it. These forces are personified by monsters, who are literal as well as metaphorical threats to social order. I argue that in Beowulf, by putting secular material in a Christian framework, the poet is able to explore which values are the most conducive to the fight against these threats. The monsters of Beowulf have long been recognized as "crucial to the very structure of the poem"2 . They are the point where the secular and the Christian world meet, as they are both material creatures and evil spirits. The Grendel-kin and the dragon are material monsters, analogous...
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Cognitive Literary Analysis of Neil Gaiman's Gothic Children's Novels
Mudrová, Kateřina ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Urban, Kamila (referee)
This thesis pursues a cognitive literary analysis of three works of Neil Gaiman's Gothic Children's Literature - Coraline (2002), The Wolves in the Walls (2003), and The Graveyard Book (2008), arguing for their positive psychological impact on selected areas that characterize the qualitative and quantitative psycho-social development during school-age. These areas include the development of an increasingly realistic sense of self, social development, and a general improvement in cognitive and metacognitive skills. Of primary concern to the thesis will be the age group between six and twelve years of age, for practical reasons limited solely to neurocognitively normatively functioning children of the Western cultural context. A cognitive literary approach allows us to view the text not as a means of single-directional transmission but as an active, multifaceted interaction between a sensitive reader and a text constructed to maximise their engagement, suggesting that it is not primarily the epistemic value of the text but the specific stage of the reader's cognitive development which determines their engagement with the text, enhances their understanding of fictionality and helps to stimulate their cognitive activity. As the foundation for the assessment of the cognitive abilities of the implied...
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The Role of Women in William Shakespeare's Roman Tragedies
Válková, Michaela ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT The thesis critically examines the historical and cultural circumstances of women in early modern England and the role of women in Shakespeare's Roman tragedies. In early modern England, men are said to have been participating in the public sphere of the political discourse and women were relegated to the domestic sphere; henceforth, the role of women in Shakespeare's Roman plays tends to be interpreted as supportive because of the plays' dominant political focus. To challenge the prevailing discourse, I consider female characters in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus and Antony and Cleopatra. My thesis argues that even though the Roman plays focus on the political, public sphere which tends to be the domain of men, women mostly actively participate, or express desire to actively participate, in the Roman plays' plots, philosophical contemplations, and political scheming. Cleopatra, Volumnia, Portia, Calpurnia, and Tamora are such characters. Only the less central female characters may embody the passive ideal of a woman confined in the domestic sphere, as exemplified by Lavinia, Virgilia, and Octavia. The findings show that women were recommended to stay in the domestic sphere, but many of them, especially upper-class ladies, participated actively in the political...
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Political Rhetoric in Shakespeare's Drama
Malá, Anna ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Nováková, Soňa (referee)
Political Rhetoric in Shakespeare's Drama Bc. Anna Malá MA Thesis Abstract This thesis focuses on political rhetoric in William Shakespeare's plays. It approaches History plays, Roman plays, and Tragedies in order to compare whether the rhetoric used differs among the genre in connection to the state system which it presents - Republic or Monarchy, with the intention to describe the difference. The main criteria for this description are the imagery and rhetorical strategies used in specific situation both by the ruler and by some of the subjects concerning the ruler.
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Chivalry in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
Malá Štěpánková, Jana ; Znojemská, Helena (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
1 Thesis abstract The thesis is concerned with the reflection of chivalry and chivalric culture in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and with the relation of his testimony to the social reality of the late Middle Ages. Chapter 1 introduces the chosen topic in relation to the specific character of the Tales, of the context of the period, and of Chaucer's life. It specifies the aim of the thesis, deals with its limitations, and outlines the criteria and the structure of the analysis. Chapter 2 presents the origin and the development of the knight along with the formation of the code of chivalric virtues and the literary constituent of the phenomenon of chivalry until the end of the fourteenth century and identifies two fundamental chivalric archetypes in the characters of the Knight and the Squire from "The Prologue". Chapter 3 pursues manifestations of chivalry throughout the Tales across genres except romances and analyses their reflection with respect to the narrators of the tales. The analysis first focuses on the chivalrousness of the knightly characters (The Franklin's Tale, The Physician's Tale, The Manciple's Tale, The Monk's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, The Man of Law's Tale, The Merchant's Tale) and then on the signs of the influence of chivalric virtues and culture on the non-knightly characters (The Miller's...
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Myth and National Identity
Chytrý, Lukáš ; Procházka, Martin (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
The thesis aims to explore the relationship between national identity and the myth. Key to the analysis are the questions of the manner in which a collective identity becomes dependant on literary narrations as well as the particular motives that constitute these narrations. The analysis of the relationship is carried out in reference to particular literary texts. The discussion is based on the critical approach of literary theory and the analyses of relevant socio-political aspects. The discussion is based on a comparative approach to the chosen literary texts. The comparative method focuses on the socio-political and historical contexts of the literary works, as well as on the different concepts of communal identity portrayed. Key texts to the debate are the collection of poems of James Macpherson, Poems of Ossian, Sir Walter Scott's historical novel, Waverley, and the Czech Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora. This thesis commences the discussion with a theoretical approach to the relationship between myth and history. The discussion aims at the manner in which both the mentioned elements constitute collective identity. The thesis emphasises those aspects which give rose to manipulative statements and conceptions that shape the discourse. To the fore thus comes the question of...
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The role of text in grammar school ELT
Lojdová, Zuzana ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
The aim of this study is to examine students' opmwns and approaches to texts in the present-day textbooks of English. Special attention is paid to the contents of texts, length and language difficulty. Texts are closely connected with illustrational material and general attitudes towards textbooks. Following the above mentioned criteria, the students' ideas of modern English textbook were found out. The theoretical part offers a detailed insight into the subject matter whose components are textbook theory and the skill of reading. Texts, their types, functions and roles are viewed from pedagogy perspective as well as critical thinking in English language teaching. There is also a chapter on psychological characteristics of adolescents since the thesis focuses on this specific age group. The practical part deals with the data that were gathered by means of questionnaires. Their processing is preceded by general information on planning and carrying out the research. The results are summarized in the concluding part. The appendices provide text samples that are suggested for practical usage. The practical result of this thesis was replacement of textbooks at one of the grammar schools involved. Almost half-a-year practice has proved the change beneficial for the general improvement of English language teaching...
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Quod Christus cum Hinieldo: readings in the manuscript context of the Exeter Book
Znojemská, Helena ; Čermák, Jan (advisor) ; Procházka, Martin (referee) ; Franková, Milada (referee)
T HE problem I set out to tackle in this study is bound with what is perhaps the most intriguing paradox of Old English literary history. It is generally accepted that vernacular poetry depended for its preservation on the tolerance of the monastic environment that controlled the mechanisms of recording and transmission of texts. It is true that this monopoly was not absolute. Documents were also produced in centres associated with royal households, but these seem to have specialized in writings of administrative character and purpose: law-codes, charters, wills etc.; and even so, in many instances the task of recording such a text was likewise entrusted to monastic "professionals". Laymen could certainly own texts (as is clear from the anecdote narrated by Asser about young king Alfred and his love of vernacular poetry and the determined effort that had won him the book that belonged to his mother) and we know of rare cases when they composed them (again, we can name Alfred and in a later period, Ealdorman lEthelweard, founder of Cernel monastery and author of a Latin translation of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), though our knowledge does not extend to the manner in which these were written down. A document of substantiallength, showing an indisputable degree of craftsmanship in the quality of script, use of...
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