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Image of religion in Bioshock. Infinite computer game
Kothera, Jiří ; Kostičová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Martínková, Libuše (referee)
Image of religion in Bioshock: Infinite computer game Master's thesis - Bc.Jiří Kothera Few mainstream computer games have caused such controversy as Bioshock: Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013). The third installment of the Bioshock series is set in the fictional city of Columbia in an alternate history of early twentieth century, which at first glance appears to be a perfect social utopia. After a while, however, the narrative begins to uncover the multilayered problems of society oppressed by a fraction of the white elite and religious fanaticism embodied by the character of Z.H.Comstock, the charismatic leader of the whole community. The popularity of the game and its stable position at the top of the various popularity charts are not only due to the attractive audiovisual processing and complex game mechanics. It is primarily a story that uses (for a mass audience product) an unprecedented amount of religious symbolism - especially Christian, historical references, polysemic story elements and the story based on the concepts of Frontier myth and American exceptionalism. This work deals with the analysis of narrative and religious-social phenomena appearing in the game, especially those that are directly related to the religious and nationalistic topics in the United States.
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The notion of American patriotism as deployed in the US political arena
Mukařovský, David ; Ženíšek, Jakub (advisor) ; Topolovská, Tereza (referee)
This thesis aims to explore the rich meaning of patriotism in the US politics. The theoretical part focuses on the facets of patriotism specific to the USA-American exceptionalism and the Pledge of Allegiance-and on types of patriotism in general. The practical part is devoted to delineating the notions of patriotism of three prominent American politicians among whom there are significant ideological differences: President Donald Trump, late Senator John McCain, and former President Barack Obama. Their opinions on patriotism are uncovered mostly by analyzing their speeches, but in some cases also by reading their tweets, listening to interviews with them, and reading articles about them. My hypothesis was that when we compare their views of patriotism, we will find that not all three men advance a similar kind of patriotism. I believe this hypothesis to be definitively confirmed in the conclusion where the final comparison highlights many differences, including essential ones, between the patriotism of Trump and that of the other two politicians. Keywords: American patriotism, American exceptionalism, Donald Trump, John McCain, Barack Obama
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