The diploma thesis deals with the philosophical basis of Čapek's prose. At the beginning of this work, the topic is concentrated around the personality of Čapek and his life influenced by the philosophical attitude of pragmatism. Further on in the study it has been dealt with the pragmatism itself. The work is focused on the prose such as "Boží muka" ,"Hordubal", "Povětroň", "Obyčejný život" and "Život a dílo skladatele Foltýna", where Čapek viewpoints of the truth and knowledge are being tried to search for. The influence of pragmatism on Čapek's personality along with his own conception of this philosophical theory is demonstrated on the excerpts. The work also shows humanistic values that Čapek advocated and subsequently applied into his work of art.

When Karel Čapek´s R.U.R. (the acronymic title is short for ??Rossum?s Universal Robots??) was first performed in 1921, it became a major international success and made Čapek an internationally known playwright. Although R.U.R. may appear slightly dated nearly hundred years later, the concerns expressed by the playwright are still interesting to modern audiences which explains why this play was chosen to be stage designed in the first place.

Submitted Thesis consists of two parts theoretical and practical. The theoretical part aims at the chronological mapping and analyzing of all available Czech editions of Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. from 1920 until 1989. It also deals with design-transformations of Čapek's Robot on the examples of selected theatre plays in Czech lands as well as in foreign countries performances. The Thesis pays attention to stage executions on the basis of period photographs, drawings and reviews. It is created a united survey of this Čapek's play in the Czech lands in the given time period from its origins until its theatre realizations and book publications. The practical part of the Thesis will then extend the historical play book covers given in the theoretical part by creating an original author book based on Čapek's play, which will be the visual interpretation of the text. By that will be produced a continuity between the theoretical and the practical part of the Thesis.

This thesis emphasize on the analysis of the Karel Čapek's novel "Krakatit" and its film adaptation directed by Otakar Vávra. The first part concentrates on some basic adaptation principals which comes from the relevant contemporary literature. In the next chapter the thesis focuses on problematics of the intermediary transcription and it highlights some issues of such adaptation (for example how to present an introspection). The theoretically oriented part of the thesis is completed by stating the difficulties with the evaluation of such adaptation from a diachronic point of view and by defining the elemental terms of the narrative theory (story, character, narrator). The practical part presents literary characteristics of the novel based on the appropriate literature. The next chapter is focused on the multi- genre characteristics and the story of the novel (according to the studies of Jan Mukařovský and Eva Strohsová). The analysis of the character focuses on the lead role and works with different motives, such as childhood, mystery and unknown. It also includes the list of relevant figures of speech and the role of the narrator in Krakatit. In the comparative analysis of the novel and the film adaptation there is described Vávra's attempt to bring the novel up to date. The film is being set in...

163 Abstract The paper is concerned with Karel Čapek's dramas, Loupežník, R.U.R., Věc Makropulos, Bílá nemoc and Matka. It analyzes systematically the structure of dramas, especially from the semiotic and stylistic point of view. Both disciplines are considered in quite a broad sense, hence at first we examined their basic characteristics, and then clarified how Čapek's dramas actually relate with them. First of all, we focused on the meaning and the function of sign and enquired specific features of a dramatic text. Furthermore, we dealt with dramatic elements, in particular with time, space, dramatic characters, and with each element, we examined its characteristics and functions in connection both with drama and theater. We presented main and significant theories and methods of scholars. Regarding the analysis of K. Čapek's dramas from the semiotic point of view, we clarified characteristics and syntactic structure of dramatic characters in connection with the theory of actants. Such syntactic structure makes it possible to clarify and understand the construction of a narrative and the function of characters. We explained the function of two elements, time and space that realize the hypothetical possible world of drama, we have shown that according to the construction of time drama can have a complex...

This thesis deals with literary work of Josef Čapek in relation to the concept of visual contrast. First, the historical background is set up, with highlights of then exposed interest in Baroque era on one hand, and increasing threat of World War II on the other. Both of these moments were relevant in connection with one of the most crucial cultural events in First Czechoslovak Republic: the exhibition of Pražské baroko 1600-1800. The essential hypothesis suggests that based on what has been indicated, some elements of the Baroque aesthetics appeared to be relevant for Josef Čapek's unique artisic expression as well, since they became subject of integration to his aesthetic frame. In this respect, the common ground between Čapek's modern artistic approach and Baroque aesthetics is believed to be shaped by the notion of visuality. Finally, these ideas are applicated on Čapek most prominently Baroque-influenced works, Kulhavý poutník and Psáno do mraků. Keywords: Josef Čapek, Baroque, exhibition, Pražské baroko 1600-1800, visuality, contrast, chiaroscuro, Kulhavý poutník, Psáno do mraků

Main aim of this diploma thesis is a comparison of K. M. Čapek-Chod's Turbina and The man of seven sisters by J. Havlíček with emphasis on comic in both works. Thesis is based on theoretical discourse about comic in general and on resulsts of existing evaluations of Turbina and The man of seven sisters. Comparison of the interpetation by itself, which is based on the comic in both works shows that comic is an integral part of both works and that both work express positively material bodily values of human life through the comic. Turbina does the work by showing invincibility of a man that resides in the immortality of mankind as a whole. The man of seven sisters nods in agreement to material bodily values by showing comical efforts to overcome this immortality of mankind.

We compare the features of drama and libretto, based on the text The Makropulos Affair by Karel Čapek (drama) and Leoš Janáček (libretto). We would like to show not only common dramatic features, but also the specific librettist features, which Janáček used by transformation Čapek's drama into opera libretto. We demonstrated, that dramatic features are in libretto at the level of structure and the specific librettist features are at the level of story, single figures and its constellation. The analysis confirmed the preliminary hypotheses.

The aim of this thesis is a translatological analysis of three major works of Czech literature: the play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek, the novel Babička (Grandmother) by Božena Němcová and the poems collection Maminka (Mother) by Jaroslav Seifert. The translations analyzed in this thesis were made by Kei Kurisu (one of the two R.U.R. translations, Babička), Chino Eiichi (the other R.U.R. translation) and Itaru Iijima (Maminka). I have based this analysis on two different concepts - one by Jiří Levý and the other by Peter Newmark. I focus on the translation phenomena typical for the individual literary forms (drama, prose and poetry) as well as on the phenomena that all three literary forms have in common (the instances of misunderstanding the original, the cases of interpretation (not) following the intention of the original author).

The subject of this thesis is an analysis of various stylistic aspects of Karel Čapek's Povídky z jedné a z druhé kapsy and Devatero pohádek. In the first part, the author deals with a distinctive feature of Čapek's works, which is an attempt to cause an impression of an oral narrative. At first, she studies an influence of this feature on general composition of the chosen writings. Then she analyses particular language means. The second part explores other stylistic and linguistic means, which are typical for chosen material. These are for example accumulations of synonymic expressions, playing with acoustic form of language or utilization of elements from foreign languages. Witnih each topic, the author compares the three texts. Key words Karel Čapek, short prose, literature for children, analysis of language