My aim with this study has been to examine how the fashion is a leading component in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have studied the role fashion plays in the novel and in which way it can be seen as a way of letting the reader know the important role of fashion in 19tcentury England and the morals of Oscar Wilde. To prove my thesis I have used literature that shows how Oscar Wilde uses influences from his own life in his writing of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have also used Judith Butler's theory of performativity in analyzing the characters in ordet to display their way of staging themselves and their lifestyles and their dependence of that performativity in their interactions. Even though the theory of performativity often is used to hold the importance of the sexes, I have concluded that it has an important role in the novel when Dorian Gray interacts with the character Sibyl Vane who is an actress. My results have shown that fashion in the novel is often a way of letting the reader know important elements of a character in the way that certain fabrics and items are mentioned when Wilde writes about his characters. I have also found that fashion is an important factor when the characters judge each when they speak about the way they dress. The way fashion is presented in the novel is important to my thesis and has shown me how fashion can be used in literature as symbolic elements guiding the narrative. Keywords: Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Fashion in literature, Performativity. Judith Butler

Using a method of reflexive ethnography, this thesis deals with a question of masculinity performace in the Czech extreme metal milieu (to be specific I am concerned with the brutal death metal and related sub-genres). Participants of the brutal death metal subculture either in the position of performers or audience are with a very few exceptions men. Brutality, harshness, extremeness and other values are the main aesthetic criteria, which - as we can observe while doing the research - the participants connect with a coherent collection of ideas about a certain ideal of dominant manhood. To achieve these values to the greatest extent possible the musicians use particular musical features and topics of the compositions; and so does both the musicians and the audience via their visual image, with using specific kind of behaviour and having fixed movements and dancing during the music production. On the basis of an analysis of these values and means of their manifestation I am concerned with the question of what specific characteristics the masculine identity, which is performed in the given subculture, has. My research data show that these are: 1) mutual affinity with the other participants, 2) power as an ability of an aggressive attack as well as one's own endurance, and 3) coarseness, lack of...