This thesis analyzes the historical novel The Doubts of Salaí in terms of purpose, which the authors have clearly declared in the study attached to the novel. This purpose is both to ridicule the excessive confidence in the pulp and obvious fakes, and literary demythologization of myths - associated primarily with the Pope Alexander VI., Leonardo da Vinci, renaissance humanists or Tacit's Germania - which have settled in the historical discourse. Thus the thesis, through the narratological analysis, examines the procedures that are used within these purposes, and notes the implications for theories of the historical and literary discourses relationship. It also shows that in the final study the authors perpetrate historical objectivism and do not reflect the literariness of their own text. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Selected fashion houses that exclusively offer luxurious goods use specific form of promotion of their products. Each house usually holds onto traditions of its country and features essential for its own brand while creating new collections. From the point of view of neo-rhetoric it would be appropriate to analyze visual advertisements of the houses (Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry) if they create certain models via them. The main advertising campaigns for the spring/summer 2011 season were chosen for this comparison. Under the terms of observation and semiotic analysis of the fashion advertisement focused on rhetoric figures it can be proved that individual fashion houses aim their attention to how their potential customers' thinking is influenced by their advertising. The model of Roland Barthes is used for the analysis of chosen visual advertisements. Out of all rhetorical tropes the attention is paid to main four - visual metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony. Fashion advertising meets unwritten norm that sets a target to convince the customer of suitability of the products for him.

This thesis deals with the current media communication, visual image of Barack Obama on the front pages of Time magazine, and the application methods of semiological analysis inspired by Roland Barthes. Semiological analysis is performed on selected front pages of Time magazine. There is always determined and described the method that is subsequently applied at the beginning of each analysis. Utilized concepts are reading the image, denotation, connotation and myth. Attention is also drawn to the concept of photography and the relationship between text and image. The work refers to the use of Barthes theoretical concepts in contemporary visual communication. I also focused on innovation methods semiological analysis using knowledge of social semiotics. The basic reference lines and hypotheses include: efforts to use concepts of denotation, connotation and myth in the analysis of visual images of the known politician, monitoring the relationship between text and image on the front pages. The analysis results are reviewed and supplemented by analysis of trends in the composition of politician image. The work examins the applicability of semiological methods in visual environment and also focuses on the results of the analysis. The image of Barack Obama is a sort of visual communication, where the...

Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov was a Russian novelist and playwright active in the first half of the twentieth century. The work of this author is unforgettable for the modern Russian literary art of the fist half of the twentieth century. Known by writings with very strong plots and engaging storyline, he did not fear confrontation or conflicts within individual works. His dialogs are masterfully constructed and his feel for humorous vision of life and description of the world is regarded as unreachable. A fascinating and almost unbelievably inspiring Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita has become the model for this diploma thesis. Due to its multi-layering, broad topical range, two intersecting storylines and the content, the thesis has been named The Novel "Universe". It contains everything that makes life life: love, death, betrayal, courage and cowardice, generosity and envy… Bulgakov's success received thanks to this work is rooted in the masterful connection of the two parallel stories (ongoing in Moscow in 1930 and in Jerusalem at the beginning of our era), in fantasticality and in the view of the contemporary social situation, which are depicted in the novel, and lastly in the description of the human characters constancy. Due to these arguments, the thesis focuses on the following...

Ukrainian state lacks an effective historical memory policy. For this reason, the Ukrainian nation- building project lacks ideological capabilities to consolidate Ukrainian society. The dilemma regarding the national myths is the main challenge of the Ukrainian nation-building project. The dilemma emerged in choosing between the myth of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the myth of the Great Patriotic War. Both myths are struggling for an important place in the pantheon of Ukrainian history, but fisrt of all for a recognition of Ukrainian society. This resulted in the creation of conflicting historical identities. Ukrainian elite have long time speculated on the differences in the historical identity, which largely contributed to social fragmentation. This thesis describes how national myths interact with nation-building project and also analyzes the content of the most crucial interpretations of the historical myths.

This master thesis deals with feminist literary analysis of the works of writer Michal Viewegh, specifically his two prose novels Román pro ženy and Román pro muže using a method called resistant reading with a critical gender analysis and subsequent final comparison. This thesis consists of two parts, from the theoretical - methodological, which outlines the theoretical basis for the next analytical part. The key concepts are in the first part the researches of literary critics on Michal Viewegh, theories of Judith Fetterley, Elaine Showalter and Janice A. Radway. Furthermore, there are the theoretical basis of gender, and how gender stereotypes are constructed. This section is mainly based on the theorists Blanka Knotková - Čapková, Annis Pratt, Claire M. Renzetti and Daniel J. Curran and founder of analytical psychology Carl Gustav Jung. In describing femininity and masculinity are central lines theories of Naomi Wolf, Simone de Beauvoir and Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Kimmel and Robert Bly. The analytical part is the critical uncovering of gender stereotypes and power discourse. The conclusion is made by the final critical comparison of both novels. Key words: resistant reading, literary canon, gender stereotypes, masculinity, femininity, beauty myth, male domination, power

Modern stories are the product of a recursive process influenced by elements of genre, outside content, medium, and more. These stories exist in a multitude of forms and are transmitted across multiple media. This article examines how those stories function as pieces of a broader narrative, as well as how that narrative acts as a world for the creation of stories. Through an examination of the polymediated nature of modern narratives, we explore the complicated nature of modern storytelling.

Jean Cousin a suscité différentes formes de réception, révélatrices des enjeux discursifs des historiographes. De même, l’analyse critique des textes qui ont été produits sur l’Eva prima Pandora a fait émerger plusieurs problématiques inhérentes au processus de l’interprétation des œuvres d’art, au discours produit sur la peinture. À partir d’un contexte documentaire lacunaire, qui concerne autant le peintre que son tableau, les auteurs ont crée des fictions révélatrices de leur orientation méthodologique et des attentes de leur époque d’expression.Nous porterons donc un regard critique sur la construction mythique de l’image de l’artiste qui s’est opérée dans les différents textes consacrés à la vie et à l’œuvre de Jean Cousin. De même, à travers les propositions sémantiques qui ont été faites de la peinture, nous mettrons en évidence les présupposés théoriques et méthodologiques du discours produit par les interprètes, afin de montrer les limites de leur démarche. Partant de ce constat, prenant en compte les différentes pistes de réflexion récemment ouvertes par l’histoire de l’art, nous étudierons l’Eva prima Pandora, en portant notre attention sur le VOIR, sur le processus de création picturale, sur la nature des intentions de Jean Cousin alors qu’il peignait l’Eva prima Pandora. / Jean Cousin has generated various forms of reception, reveling the discursive stakes in the historiographers. Also, the critical analysis of the texts which were produced on the Eva prima Pandora brings to the foreground several problematics inherent to the process of the interpretation of works of art, to the discourse produced on painting. From an incomplete documentary context, which concerns as much the painter as his painting, the authors created revealing fictions of their methodological orientation and of the expectation of their period of expression. We will thus wear a critical look at the mythical construction of the image of the artist that took place in the differents texts devoted to the life and the works of Jean Cousin. In the same way, through the semantic propositions that have been made on the painting, we will highlight the theoretical and the methodological presuppositions of the discurse produced by the interpreters, in order to show the limits of their approach.Leaving of this report, taking into account the differents tracks of reflexion recently opened by the history of art, we will study the Eva prima Pandora by paying our attention to de SEE, to the process of picturial creation, to the nature of intentions of Jean Cousin while painting the Eva prima Pandora.

This thesis studies the impact of the work of Elena Jordi during the first Spanish avant-garde period (1890-1920) and the relationship between the myth of Thaïs and her homonymous film released in 1918. Here I track the trajectory of her career from its beginnings to culmination, when she directed Thaïs while leading an innovative vaudeville theatre company. The first chapter discusses the activity of Jordi as a Catalan actress, and woman entrepreneur in vaudeville. It analyzes the effect of the introduction of foreign vaudevilles on the reception of her work by critics through the theorization of Herni Gidel´s on vaudeville as genre. The second chapter reviews the cinematographic work of Jordi and situates it within the context of Catalan cinema´s early development as Spain´s first woman film director. After reflecting about the possible cultural influences that informed Jordi’s Thaïs, I explore the literary origins of the Legend of the Saint, an hagiography of Greek origins, and review relevant literary, operatic, and cinematic productions that incorporated this myth during the early Spanish avant-garde period. My conclusion highlights the original and similar features of Elena Jordi and Thaïs in their respective fields and different manifestations, simultaneously placing Jordi’s Thaïs in dialogue with the myth´s resurrection and its impact on the avant-garde feminist milieu. This demonstrates the formative influence of both Jordi as a pioneering artist and the enduring cultural influence of the myth of Thais on twentieth-century cultural production.

Die Nibelungen – Eine mythische Erzählung, die viele Generationen immer wieder fasziniert und bewegt. Seit dem Mittelalter und seit der Wiederentdeckung im 18. Jahrhundert wird das Epos als herausragende literarische Schöpfung angesehen und dient als Vorlage für zahlreiche künstlerische Adaptionen für das Theater, den Film oder das Fernsehen. Erstmals in dieser Forschungsarbeit werden die kulturgeschichtlich wichtigsten Nibelungen-Werke der verschiedenen Epochen miteinander verglichen (von den mittelalterlichen Handschriften über Friedrich Hebbels Drama, Fritz Langs Verfilmung bis hin zu Moritz Rinkes zeitgenössischer Fassung) und mit der Fokussierung auf die Schlagworte „Mythos – Geschlecht – Medien“ analysiert. Wandel ist ein charakteristisches Merkmal von Mythen und die Untersuchung zeigt, dass auch die jahrhundertealte Dichtung kontinuierlich variiert wird und damit bis in die Gegenwart neue Interpretationsmöglichkeiten und Identifikationsangebote bietet. Die verschiedenen Werke integrieren zeitspezifische Einstellungen, ihre Figuren und Motive verändern sich innerhalb bestimmter Erzählkoordinaten und finden immer wieder Anschluss zu unterschiedlichen Wertekategorien auch hinsichtlich der Geschlechterbilder. So beschreiben und vermitteln die mythischen Erzählungen der Nibelungen Geschlechteridentitäten. Die Mechanismen der geschlechtlichen Bedeutungszuschreibung werden in dieser Forschung vorwiegend dargelegt und dadurch deutlich gemacht, wie bestimmte gesellschaftliche Hierarchien organisiert sowie durch die Texte legitimiert werden. Es wird erkennbar, auf welche Weise die bestehenden Geschlechterordnungen durch Normen fortgeführt werden sollen und was passiert, wenn die Gesetze gebrochen werden. Die Analyse legt auch dar, dass die Nibelungen oft in den populären Medien der jeweiligen Epoche abgebildet werden. Dadurch wird ein massenwirksamer Zugang zu der Geschichte ermöglicht und ihr Bekanntheitsgrad weiter gesteigert. Die untersuchten Fassungen veranschaulichen, wie sich mit den unterschiedlichen Mediengattungen die narrativen Formen ändern, was wiederum Auswirkungen auf die Körper- und Geschlechteraussagen hat, und wie sich die geschlechtsspezifischen verbalen und nonverbalen Interaktionsmuster sowie die Rede- und Handlungsebenen neu gestalten. Diese Forschungsarbeit macht verständlich, auf welche Art und Weise sich die Nibelungen im Lauf der Zeit wandeln und sie somit im kulturellen Gedächtnis mit ihren Geschlechterbildern bestehen bleiben konnten. / The Nibelungen: a mythical epic that has been fascinating and moving generations. Since the Middle Ages and its rediscovery in the 18th century, the epic has been viewed as an outstanding piece of literature and has ever since served as a model for adaptations for theatre, cinema or TV. In this research paper, the most important works of the cultural history of the Nibelungen are compared for the first time in the light of the keywords ‘myth – gender – media’. Change is a characteristic of myths, and this paper shows that there has been continuous variation in the Nibelungen epic throughout the centuries, offering new ways of interpretation and identification to our days. The works dealt with reflect the attitudes of their time, so while their characters and motives are changing within certain narrative coordinates, they are seen in different categories of values with regard to ideas of gender. The mythical narrations of the Nibelungen describe and impart gender identities. The paper focuses on expounding the mechanisms attributing specific meanings to the genders, revealing how certain social hierarchies are organised and legitimised by the texts. This will expose the way norms continue existing gender systems and the consequences ensuing from the violation of these laws. The analysis also exposes that the frequent appearance of the Nibelungen in the popular media of the respective era has always facilitated for the masses an approach to the story and increased their familiarity with it. The versions examined exemplify how different media influence forms of narration—which again impacts the conceptions of body and gender—and how verbal and non-verbal patterns of interaction as well as levels of speech and action are re-arranged. This research paper explains the way the Nibelungen change in the course of time, while staying present with their concepts of gender of in the collective cultural memory.