This thesis analyzes Brazilian Foreign Policy in the second half of twentieth century. The case study on relations between Czechoslovakia and Brazil during the Cold War is the core of the dissertation. The study is based on unpublished materials from Czech archives. The case study is preceded by two sections: first one deals with tradition and development of Brazilian foreign policy, describes the forming of Brazil-US special relationship and the positions of Brazil in the international politics. Second chapter defines key milestones of the Brazilian Foreign Policy in the second half of 20th century for the purposes of the case study and for better understanding of the context. It focuses on relationship with Eastern Bloc, United States and Western Europe. The chapter is divided into six periods. Same periodization is then used for the case study. A chapter on the tradition of relations between Czechoslovakia and Brazil before 1945 and a chapter on the Czechoslovak intelligence service activities in Brazil are added to the case study. The case study primarily deals with political and trade relations. The case study shows us that the trade was crucial for upholding the relations. Both countries not only stood against each other in the Cold War setting, but Czechoslovakia actively supported the opposition...

Leisure as a Cultural Phenomenon Věra Patočková: Obecná teorie a dějiny umění a kultury - kulturologie PhD Thesis Abstract The main aim of the PhD. thesis is to provide the complex view of leisure from the culture studies perspective. It is expected that leisure behaviour takes always place within the framework of the specific sociocultural system. In accordance with Kelly (1987) an attempt is made to prove that leisure is always in and of its particular culture. The thesis focuses on three main topics. After introductory explanation of the main terms "culture" and "leisure" attention is focused on discussion about their relation. This discussion is based on theoretical analysis of studies that concern of leisure and approach it from the perspective of cultural studies, sociology or anthropology. Value system is an important part of all cultures. Also leisure can be seen as a part of the value system of specific society. After brief introduction to approaches of leisure and work in historical perspective, attention is focused on the explanation of the position of leisure in the value system of the Czech society and its changes. The third part is devoted to leisure in the Czech society, while the Czech society is seen as a specific sociocultural system and attempt is made to explore leisure in a complex way...

The main goal of my dissertation is to analyze the personality of Engliš, who was an important representative of the scientific and financial elites during the period of the First Republic. I will venture to explain the causes of his rise during the First Republic and aim to characterize his relations with other elites. The term "elite" refers not only to representatives of the political and financial life of the First Republic, but also to the important leaders of its scientific and cultural scenes. In my dissertation I want to address the relationships between the elite of the First Republic and Karel Engliš. Public opinion played an important role in the relations between Engliš and the elite of the First Republic, in particular as Engliš was presented in the media and how the public perceived him. His family was supportive of Karel Engliš but also caused him many problems. I have found the main material for my thesis in the archive of the National Museum (Archiv Národního muzea), the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature (Literární archiv Památníku národního písemnictví), the archive of Charles University (Archiv Univerzity Karlovy), the archive of Masaryk University in Brno (Archiv Masarykovy univerzity v Brně) and the archive of the National Bank of the Czech Republic (Archiv...

The present study deals with the very difficult Czechoslovak-Yugoslav relations immediately before and at the beginning of WWII. At that time, an independent Czechoslovakia no longer existed, and Yugoslavia was forced to balance between the interests of stronger countries, mainly Germany and Great Britain, in order to save their territory and ensure for its citizens a future without a war. Yugoslavia's reserved attitude towards the happenings in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the establishment of rather formal than friendly and cordial Slovak-Yugoslav relations, the presence of Czechoslovak emigrants in Yugoslavia, the absence of any intervention by Yugoslav bodies against the activities of the members of Czech and Slovak minorities against the Protectorate, Slovakia, and Germany, and, finally, the negative Yugoslav attitude towards the state of Slovakia - this all constituted a complex and colourful world of Czechoslovak-Yugoslav relations in 1939-1941. An analysis of these relations was based primarily on an exhausting archival research as well as on a survey of relevant literature, memoirs, and the period press. This subject has not yet been studied in detail in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Dissertation "The Origins of the Mass Consumption Society in Czechoslovakia 1945-1970. Trade, Consumption and Advertising" deals with the process of establishing consumption as a new category of human life in the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. Through the analysis of the discourse the author shows how a network of specialized institutions and professionals producing thinking about consumption emerged in the milieu of the Ministry of Internal Trade. This network manifested itself in the planning of the trade infrastructure and in the adoption of a more subtle approach to the problem of consumption in an effort to maintain the legitimacy of the communist rule. The commerce as a sphere of economy was in the communist discourse initially reduced to the transmission lever between production and the consumer. This perception was accompanied by the pursuit of the social justice through the transformation of the consumer's experience, underpinned by a strong moral appeal. The key tools used in this process were the democratization of the access to the goods, the attempts to adapt the services to broad sections of the society, the chance given to the consumers to raise their own demands and also the "new language" of the trade practices. Political thaw after Stalin's death led to the...

My master thesis is capturing the reflection Czech translations from Scandinavian literatures in fifties and sixties 20th century in Czechoslovakia. Part of the thesis is going to be research, which creates the base for bibliographycal list of books translated to Czech language from various Scandinavian languages. Thesis also focuses on period reception of these books in the form of reviews or prefaces and afterwords. Last part is going to present three chosen titles.

Cette thèse se propose d’étudier les transferts entre France et Pays tchèques dans le domaine de la photographie de l’entre-deux-guerres. Fondée sur une approche matérielle des circulations de personnes, d’images et de concepts, elle vise à définir la scène photographique tchèque en fonction de son rapport à la France et de ses métissages. L’enquête a porté sur les flux photographiques – reproductions photomécaniques et catalogues d’exposition – et les activités des médiateurs et photographes à l’intersection entre les deux pays. Elle a montré, d’une part, que les Pays tchèques furent non seulement un lieu de passage d’apports français, particulièrement marquants au regard des impulsions allemandes et russes, mais aussi un centre d’exportation d’une production photographique locale. Elle a révélé, d’autre part, les hybridations auxquelles a donné lieu l’accueil de la scène photographique française. Le courant surréaliste tchèque en fut l’exemple le marquant : dépassant le simple geste d’adhésion, cette production originale s’est à son tour exportée, à la faveur d’un processus de circulation et de transformation réciproques caractéristique du phénomène de transfert. Les séjours et expériences photographiques des Tchèques en France et leur contribution à l’ « école de Paris de la photographie » complètent ce panorama des interactions entre les deux pays. Le prisme des transferts culturels adopté dans notre étude a agi comme un révélateur d’acteurs, d’images et de concepts ignorés jusque-là des histoires nationales de la photographie. Il a également montré comment la réceptivité des photographes tchèques vis-à-vis de la France a pu, en retour, favoriser l’émergence du modernisme photographique dans leur pays. / This dissertation sets forth to explicate the transfers that occurred in photography between France and the Czech Lands during the interwar period. Rooted in a material approach towards the various circulations of individuals, images and concepts, this study considers the Czech photographic scene in light of its specific relation to France and analyzes the resulting hybridizations. The research focuses on photographic vectors such as photomechanical reproductions, exhibition catalogues and the activities of mediators and photographers working between the two countries. It illuminates a network of relations between French, German and Russian impulses and describes also the export of a local photographic production. The Czech surrealist current is a prominent hybridization that resulted from the strong reception of the French photographic scene. It was exported again as an original Czech production, and as such exemplifies the process of mutual circulation and transformation that describes the concept of transfer. An expansive study of Czech journeys to France, their photographic experience of the country and their subsequent contribution to the “Paris school of photography” complete this overview of the interactions and transfers between both countries.By situating Czech photography within the discourse of cultural transfers, this dissertation reveals actors, images, concepts and developments that until now have been critically absent from national photography histories. It also demonstrates how the receptivity of Czech photographers to France in return favored the emergence of photographic modernism in their country.

The diploma thesis focuses on didactic and historical analysis of history textbooks used during the Communist totalitarian regime at secondary schools in Czechoslovakia republic between 1948-1989. Goal of this thesis was to find out if there were any changes of historical events interpretation of Classical antiquity in consideration of political development in the country. The theoretical part consists of brief political development and development of education in Czechoslovakia in observed period. The practical part deals with the analysis and the comparison of textbooks from totalitarian and present era with emphasis on didactics and content. I concluded that interpretative texts influenced by the communist ideology were more focused on social problems in contemporary society. Textbooks were also focused on slavery issue, especially their hard life and described passed slave rebellions. This is most obvious in textbooks published in the 1950s. Keywords: history textbooks, antiquity, secondary school, communism, Czechoslovakia, education, 20th century

The aim of this thesis is to examine the foreign relations between Czechoslovakia and the United States of America during the second decade of the twentieth century. Particular attention is focused on the Czechoslovak effort to build a close relationship with the United States, an endeavor which resulted from the previous generous support, as many contemporaries believed, the United States provided to the Czechoslovak movement for independency during the World War I. The major objective of this study is thus to present evidence that Czechoslovak diplomacy intentionally pursued the vision of a stronger, above average bond with the United States. Furthermore, it attempts to assess to which extent was the Czechoslovak policy successful and which limitations it had to face. In this effort, the thesis mainly draws on extensive study of the archive materials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This thesis focuses mainly on transformation policy of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and the Czechoslovak People's Party (ČSL) between 1990 and 1992, in the times of ongoing public discussions on Czechoslovakia abandoning the socialist command economy. It sums up the political development of both parties (focusing on changes in their ideology) and then concentrates on the way each of them attempted to form its own project of economic transformation. These alternative projects are analyzed through the underlying ideological concepts that reflect the values with which both parties associated the transformation process. For each of these concepts, the political and ideological struggles between party's fractions that affected its final form are examined. This method is loosely inspired by the so-called conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte), as it was used in Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe (written by Reinhart Koselleck et al.), while paying attention to certain limitations of applicability of this approach in the field of contemporary history. The thesis is based on analyses of the parties' political texts, of both public and internal character, and of various other archive materials. The political texts and programmes are regarded as a space in which the ideas compete wtih each...