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The Ideal of the Knight in Old Bohemian texts Kronika o Štilfrídovi and Rada otce synovi
VACLÍK, Jan
The main goal of the thesis is to explore and describe the notion of ideal knighthood in particular works of the Czech High Middle Ages literature, a chivalric short story Kronika o Štilfrídovi and an educative versed composition Rada otce synovi. These works were written approximately during the same period. Subsequently, the analysis of the texts will uncover textual strategies defining the chivalric code connected with the ideal knighthood. Finally, the author is going to compare different genres and the effectivity of their textual strategy with depiction of knighthood.
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The Place of the Forest in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Literary Sources, a Czech-French-English Perspective
Turek, Matouš ; Nejedlý, Martin (advisor) ; Woitsch, Jiří (referee)
The master thesis presents and analyses a range of different ways in which the motif of the forest was treated in late-medieval literary sources as an element of thematic and compositional construction of the text. At the theoretical basis of the thesis is the concept of diachronic text reception and adaptations which bring along the transmission and simultaneous transformation of the use of topoi, while this process is being related to the development of the literary chronotopos signalizing a change in the public's horizon of expectation. The majority of sources for analysis are drawn from Czech sources of the long 14th century - courtly and chivalric romance, the Old Czech verse legend of St. Procopius and the Dalimil Chronicle - while a shorter part of the thesis is devoted to the presentation of individual tendencies in the development of the use of the forest topos in English and French literary allegory of the 14th and 15th centuries. In detailed comparison of specific passages from Old Czech texts with their actual models in other languages (Old Middle German, Latin), the thesis demonstrates, upon the example of the forest topos, that topoi do not represent fixed, inalterable clichés, but actually exhibit intense shifts in function, content and theme.
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Plague, massacre, Mary: Anti-Jewish Aspects of Late Medieval Piety
Soukup, Daniel
The so-called Plague persecutions from 1348 to 1350 affected a large majority of the Jewish communities in the Empire, who were accused of poisoning the wells. Though the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia were spared from these violent attacks, Czech medieval literature was mirroring contemporary events and anxiety. Along with economical as well as political reasons, the atmosphere created by the overwhelming threat of the Black Death was also shaped by specific aspects of late medieval piety - passion and Marian devotion, favoured by Emperor Charles IV himself. The paper focuses on mimetic passion piety, partly represented by the flagellant movement and officially expressed by devotional literature, and its influence on anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence. Analysis of vernacular prayers, poems and laments of the Virgin Mary (planctus Marie), the most powerful and emotional texts of spiritual edification modelled by the compassionate spectatorship, presents those anti-Jewish aspects which could pave the way for physical aggression against the Jewish community. Besides contemplative literature, timeless and universal Marian tales could echo actual massacres and legitimized anti-Jewish violence. This may be the case of a Bohemian version of the Marian miracle De Imagine S. Mariae in Lidda, preserved in the 14th century manuscript Liber depictus, which formulates the maxims of medieval society against the background of hagiographies that were updated for that time.
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Italian rhetoric and courtly love in the Formulary of Queen Kunhuta. A critical edition of the Collection of Magister Bohuslav with an English introduction (Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus 526)
Battista, Francesca ; Doležalová, Lucie (advisor) ; Grévin, Benoît (referee) ; Forrai, Réka (referee)
In Czech historiography Queen Kunhuta has been quite neglected. Her figure has not been investigated in monographs or specific studies. She can be somehow included within the group of defamed queens, which is especially rich in the Middle Ages. This negative image of the queen finds its origin in medieval chronicles, which blamed Kunhuta for her love affair with Záviš of Falkenštejn, who was accused of being one of the promoters of the defeat of Otakar II. Kunhuta's negative portrayal has been very stable and despite its rehabilitation in the most recent studies, it probably influenced scholars' disinterest in the part she performed as a political agent. The documentary material preserved shows that her active role in Bohemian society of the thirteenth century deserves more attention. She was involved in various administrative and political tasks. The first chapter of the thesis should provide an approach to the study of the queen, which mediates between a partial point of view and Kunhuta's multi-faceted image. It should introduce a figure to whom is linked a letter collection, which represents the main theme of the present dissertation (i.e. the letter collection of master Bohuslav, probably a chaplain and notary of the queen). The analysis and the critical edition of the source can be found in...
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The Place of the Forest in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Literary Sources, a Czech-French-English Perspective
Turek, Matouš ; Nejedlý, Martin (advisor) ; Woitsch, Jiří (referee)
The master thesis presents and analyses a range of different ways in which the motif of the forest was treated in late-medieval literary sources as an element of thematic and compositional construction of the text. At the theoretical basis of the thesis is the concept of diachronic text reception and adaptations which bring along the transmission and simultaneous transformation of the use of topoi, while this process is being related to the development of the literary chronotopos signalizing a change in the public's horizon of expectation. The majority of sources for analysis are drawn from Czech sources of the long 14th century - courtly and chivalric romance, the Old Czech verse legend of St. Procopius and the Dalimil Chronicle - while a shorter part of the thesis is devoted to the presentation of individual tendencies in the development of the use of the forest topos in English and French literary allegory of the 14th and 15th centuries. In detailed comparison of specific passages from Old Czech texts with their actual models in other languages (Old Middle German, Latin), the thesis demonstrates, upon the example of the forest topos, that topoi do not represent fixed, inalterable clichés, but actually exhibit intense shifts in function, content and theme.
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Intimacy and solitude in Chretien de Troyes' works and in the Czech courtly romance
Šorm, Martin ; Nejedlý, Martin (advisor) ; Jaluška, Matouš (referee)
(in English): Intimacy and solitude in Chrétien de Troyes' works and in the Czech courtly romance The thesis studies some literary images of interiority, profound emotions and thougts, solitude and the need for privacy as these are depicted in the romances of Chrétien de Troyes and in the works of his continuators (namely those connected with the Tristan romances). They are interpreted as an expression of the medieval poets' effort to influence their public, to cultivate and to present some interesting subjects and important questions in the guise of a fictional story. There are striking descriptions of the unbalance between solitude and social duties, positive or negative evaluation of human solitude (always depending on the narrator's intention), or symbolical objects from the intimate sphere used as manifest means of political representation. Martin Šorm
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