Mikhail Bakhtin’s philosophical thought is largely focused on the interconnectivity of human discourse, privileging literary genres (i.e. the novel). Language comprises of both the structural components of linguistics and a non-verbal component that corresponds to the context of the enunciation. Therefore, the social situation that creates an utterance cannot be diminished. This thesis examines the social history of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago (1958), both realist novels that have faced censorship, using Bakhtin’s theories of dialogics and centripetal and centrifugal forces. The Grapes of Wrath and Doctor Zhivago came out in different epochs and were products of the two conflicting ideologies of the 20th century – liberal capitalism and communism. These distinctions provide an interesting forum for comparing the legitimacy of Bakhtin’s theories with regard to censorship across societies.

(in English): This thesis deals with a version of Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago, translated into Czech by Jan Zábrana and Jiří Kovtun. The aims of the thesis are: (1) to follow the journey of the original exile edition from Italy to communist Czechoslovakia, (2) to clarify how both translators contributed to the poetry part of the novel, (3) to outline Zábrana's translation method a comparison of chosen typewritten versions of the translation from various phases of its creation. The primary source of material for all the individual objectives is Zábrana's inheritance, which answers the question why Jiří Kovtun's name does not appear in the first Czech edition of Doctor Zhivago (1990), although he is listed along with Zábrana as the translator of the poetry part in the remaining three editions (2003, 2005, 2011). The original material from the inheritance as well as Marie Zábranová's testimony emphasize the sequence of events that influenced the creation of Zábrana's translation. The final analysis compares chosen typewritten versions of the novel's eighth chapter with the first Czech edition and describes how Zábrana worked. The thesis aims to be beneficial for the Czech history of translation and contribute to the current knowledge about the translation method of Jan Zábrana. Keywords Jan...