This diploma thesis deals with the subject of Czech motives in the works of Enrique Vila-Matas, the famous Spanish writer. At the beginning, this work introduces the author to his readers and it also presents all his life´s work. The style of the author is defined on the grounds of this information. The thesis follows with the analysis of possible Czech motives appearing in his books. The motives are analysed individually and there is great emphasis put on the motive of Franz Kafka, Gustav Mayerink, the city of Prague and one of the Kafka´s main character ? Odradek. At the end, the thesis summarises the results of the studies and provides a comprehensive view of the Czech motives subject. Those motives which haven´ t been studied before.

Submitted by Cláudia Bueno (claudiamoura18@gmail.com) on 2016-07-20T16:54:28Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Willian Junio de Andrade - 2012.pdf: 1121883 bytes, checksum: 22ee1e6c8e5d0f0d79173f9e5ccb727a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-07-21T13:53:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Willian Junio de Andrade - 2012.pdf: 1121883 bytes, checksum: 22ee1e6c8e5d0f0d79173f9e5ccb727a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-21T13:53:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Willian Junio de Andrade - 2012.pdf: 1121883 bytes, checksum: 22ee1e6c8e5d0f0d79173f9e5ccb727a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-13 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924), considered by many as a prophet revealing the precarious condition of man in the early twentieth century, wrote fragmented works, concentrated in annihilating spaces, which represent much more than a simple backdrop. Both from the point of view of textual composition and under the symbolic and mythical bias, this narrative category plays a decisive role in the understanding of how many themes and characters are featured in the literary text. Thus, the main objective of the research is to analyze the spatial construction in the novel The castle, published in 1922, considering the fragmentation and the own world representation of the atomization the art of the early twentieth century. In addition to the work mentioned, they will also be used other texts in order to develop research with examples that prove the hypothesis of the fictional space of Kafkaesque work is created under a labyrinthine design. Thus, the labyrinth symbolism influences the thematic and formal aspects of the greatest novel of Kafka. With this in mind, our work triggers theories about the symbolic hermeneutics to better understand the value of the labyrinth myth in our culture and his appropriation as symbolic and artistic element. In this case, the studies of Peyronie André (1998), Gilbert Durand (2002), Carl Gustav Jung (2008) and Mircea Eliade (1878) to give theoretical support. Because it is a narrative category, the space must also be seen from theories that present as structural element, such as the concepts of 'narrative' and 'description' mentioned throughout the study. For this reason they will be given study Osman Lins (1976), Anatol Rosenfeld (1976) and George Lukacs (1968). Finally, the chapter with the final remarks, entitled "Bifurcation of the way," indicates the maze itself was the literary text, in which the individual is represented in multiple forms in a universe whose experienced situations are apparent and full of obstacles. / Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924), considerado por muitos como um profeta revelador da condição precária do homem no início do século XX, escreveu obras fragmentadas, concentradas em espaços aniquiladores, que representam muito mais do que um simples pano de fundo. Tanto sob o ponto de vista da composição textual, bem como sob o viés simbólico e mítico, essa categoria narrativa desempenha papel decisivo para a compreensão do modo como muitos temas e personagens são caracterizados no texto literário. Dessa forma, o objetivo central da pesquisa é analisar a construção espacial no romance O castelo, publicado em 1922, considerando a fragmentação e a atomização da representação do mundo próprias à arte do início do século XX. Além da obra mencionada, também serão usados outros textos a fim de desenvolver a pesquisa com exemplos que comprovem a hipótese do espaço ficcional da obra kafkiana ser criado sob uma concepção labiríntica. Assim, a simbologia do labirinto influencia os aspectos temáticos e formais do maior romance de Kafka. Tendo isso em vista, nosso trabalho aciona teorias a respeito da hermenêutica simbólica para melhor entender o valor do mito do labirinto em nossa cultura e a apropriação dele como elemento simbólico e artístico. Nesse caso, os estudos de André Peyronie (1998), Gilbert Durand (2002), Carl Gustav Jung (2008) e Mercia Eliade (1878) nos darão suporte teórico. Por se tratar de uma categoria narrativa, o espaço também deve ser visto a partir de teorias que o apresentam conforme elemento estrutural, como é o caso das concepções de ‘narração’ e ‘descrição’ mencionados ao longo da pesquisa. Ao considerar essa abordagem, serão indicados estudos de Osman Lins (1976), Anatol Rosenfeld (1976) e George Lukács (1968). Por fim, o capítulo com as considerações finais, cujo título é “Bifurcação das vias”, indica o labirinto como sendo o próprio texto literário, no qual o indivíduo é representado de forma múltipla em um universo cujas situações vividas são aparentes e repletas de obstáculos.

The thesis relates Coetzee’s focus on animals to his more familiar themes of the possibility of fiction as a vehicle for serious ethical issues, the interrogation of power and authority, a concern for the voiceless and the marginalised, a keen sense of justice and the question of secular salvation. The concepts developed in substantial analyses of The Lives of Animals and Disgrace are thereafter applied to several other works of Coetzee. The thesis attempts to position J.M. Coetzee within the animal rights debate and to assess his use of his problematic persona, Elizabeth Costello, who controversially uses reason to attack the rationalism of the Western philosophical tradition and who espouses the sympathetic imagination as a means of developing respect for animals. Costello’s challenge to the philosophers is problematised by being traced back to Plato’s original formulation of the opposition between philosophers and poets. It is argued that Costello represents a fallible Socratic figure who critiques not reason per se but an unqualified rationalism. This characterisation of Costello explains her preoccupation with raising the ethical awareness of her audience, as midwife to the birth of ideas, and perceptions of her as a wise fool, a characterisation that is confirmed by the use of Bakhtin’s notion of the Socratic dialogue as one of the precursors of the modern novel. Along with the Platonic/Socratic binary, Bakhtin’s concepts of polyphony, dialogism and monologism are applied to analyses of Coetzee’s fiction, which, in keeping with his anti-authoritarianism, is shown to be polyphonic. Costello’s apparently insensitive and repeated comparison of industrialised animal farms to Nazi concentration camps is likewise scrutinised. It is argued that the point of the comparison is to question the normality and humanity of societies that choose to ignore the suffering of animals in the animal exploitation industries. Her raising the question of this willed ignorance is related to Socrates’ maxim that evil is a result of ignorance, and Coetzee’s concern with the psychic cost to their humanity of those complicit in these industries is considered. David Lurie’s evocation of Holocaust imagery in Disgrace is also examined, as is the role of art and the sympathetic imagination in attaining a degree of grace. Platonic ideas on eros, beauty, art and immortality are found to be central to Coetzee’s fiction, not only to that relating to Costello but also to Disgrace and much of his other work. While acknowledging the importance of Plato, Coetzee continuously extends, tests and subverts his ideas, frequently subjecting them to carnivalistic play. Unexpected connections are made between Coetzee’s conception of the parent-child relationship, both biological and intellectual, and his notions of creativity, power and justice. Ideas of eating and fasting are explored in his fiction and related to the hunger-artistry of Franz Kafka. Coetzee’s ideas on animals, writing and diet are found to be essential to his notions of secular salvation and an ethical way of life. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / English / unrestricted

My PhD. thesis "Physiognomy of Writing: In the Folds of Literary Ornament" deals with the relation between literature and ornament. It interconnects the sphere of literary history and literary theory with that of visuality. Ornament is analyzed and interpreted as a theoretical figure which allows an examination of literature from the point of view of its visuality and its movement. This approach, elaborated and applied here, labeled "physiognomy of writing", offers a possibility of a visual reading of literature; it represents a way to read literary texts not only in terms of their meaning and message, but also from the point of view of their visual and figural performance. In the first part I outline the concept of ornament in its historical, esthetic and philosophical frames, and explain how to use it in order to interpret literature. The second part offers readings of several 20th century literary texts (Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Samuel Beckett, Louis Wolfson and Blanche T.) from the perspective of the affinity of their literary speech and particular ornamental manifestations.

The thesis provides an overview of the life and work of Pavel/Paul Eisner (1889-1958), a Czech translator of Jewish-German origin, focusing on his translation activities and "marginal" cultural identity, which served as the basis of his triple ghetto theory and "Prague interpretation" of the works of Franz Kafka. Eisner's translations of the novels The Castle and The Trial are examined using Gideon Toury's descriptive model of translation analysis, with the aim to determine their most prominent features and asses them in terms of their acceptability/adequacy in the target literature. The selected excerpts are subsequently compared with the source text to reconstruct the translator's method and find out in what way it was influenced by Eisner's theories on Kafka, stemming from his own life experience of a Prague German Jew. Key words: Pavel Eisner, Paul Eisner, Franz Kafka, triple ghetto, The Castle, The Trial, translation analysis, Gideon Toury

This master's thesis introduces the essential biographical sources for the research of the great personality of European German studies, journalism and politics, Prof. Eduard Goldstücker (1913- 2000): Prozesse: Erfahrungen eines Mitteleuropäers (1989), Vzpomínky 1913-1945 (2003), Vzpomínky 1945-1968 (2005) and Von der Stunde der Hoffnung zur Stunde des Nichts: Gespräche (2009). As the coordinate axis for understanding of the development and extensive areas of operation of this unique type of germanist serve the massive social and historical transformations in the 20th century Europe: The Great Depression, the World Wars, anti-Semitism, fascism, the Cold War, Stalinism, the Prague Spring and the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The focus of this thesis are Goldstücker's professional, editorial and journalistic activities and interconnected efforts in the field of diplomacy, politics and current affairs, which make him a scientific and social personality of exceptional importance.

6 Abstract The diploma thesis concerns the topic of nautical metaphorics in modern literature in a broad sense of the term as defined by Silvio Vietta. Thus besides the topic itself and its main focus on the work of Franz Kafka it also covers the process of evolution of its attributes, which led to the specific imagery of modernism on the brink of the 20th century. The work as a whole derives from the conception of the nautical space as a smooth space of nomadism as proposed by Deleuze and Guattari. The first part is based on the propositions of Bachelard's theory of material imagination. It deals with the characteristics of the literary space shaped by the sea element and the possibility of alogorical reading of such images. The hydraulics of the sea provides the nautical space with its unique qualities: shapelessness, flexibility and ambivalence. These enable to percieve the nautical space not only as the space of happenings, but also as the happenings of the space. Thus it puts emphasis on the activity and dynamic plasticity of the substance. The second part reveals the ancient and Christian roots of nautical imagery and its tradition in the European literature. The work of Comenius exemplifies the change in the symbolism of the ship with the arrival of the Age of Exploration which rendered the ship a...

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka’s ”The Metamorphosis” can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler’s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis’s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional. From this vantage point ”The Metamorphosis” can be seen as an allegory of Dismodernity and the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, can be seen as a political figure of Dismodernity. Therefore, I have tried to draw a feminist insect politics out of his metamorphosis from (hu)man into insect. By doing a close reading, through the theoretical lenses of Judith Butler, Lennard J. Davis and Donna Haraway, Gregor Samsa can be read as an abject non-masculinity which is both produced and made impossible by a heterosexual matrix’s need of intelligible genders and a capitalist system’s need of functional workers. As an abject non-masculinity Gregor Samsa works as a queer (unintelligible) and dismodern (dysfunctional) trickster that both disturbs and makes visible the established gendered norms of (un)intelligibility and (dis)ability through a blurring of the boundaries between human/animal, public/private and masculinity/femininity. As an involuntary trickster he also challenges gender studies and its seeking for ultimate representations for oppositional consciousness pure in their radical potential.

The diploma thesis Milan Kundera and Intertextuality deals with aspects of relations between the texts in his novels. The first part outlines the intertextuality, theory of the novel and the approaches of some literary theorists towards this issue. The second half of the thesis analyzes the intertextuality in Kundera's works in various forms, mainly based on the themes of dreams and physicality. The greatest emphasis is placed on examining the legacy of Kafka in the context of Kundera's works, particularly in the novels The Joke and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

In the first phase of my thesis I seek to explore how novelist use the fictional architectural environments in order to propel narrative and create an immersive experience for a reader, using the well-known 1984 by George Orwell and The Castle by Franz Kafka as the primary vehicle for investigation. The thesis studies the narrative and architectural typologies, physical settings and imagined spaces used to connect the viewer to the narrative’s highly detailed world. In the second phase of my thesis, I used elements learned from this two novels and applied them to propose a building in Midtown Manhattan in New York. I chose misinformation and fake news as the my main theme in order to design a mixed use proposal as it is one of the biggest challenges of our era. I end my thesis with a comic-style story using my proposal building as the main key in the comic-strips. If the first phase is about how architecture is used in fiction, the second phase is about creating a fictional story using architecture.