The topic of this thesis (as its subtitle says) deals with the cultural and historical context of Jakub Deml's Image of Slovakia. In the first part, the author attempts to find his "own way" to Jakub Deml. In the second part, "Šlépěje" from the "Czechoslovakian era" are interpreted, i.e. IV.- VIII. These fall into the time period after the establishment of the Czechoslovakian Republic, Deml's meeting with Pavla Kytlicová, and his eventual settlement in his native city of Tasov (1919- 21). The third part offers a brief sketch of the cultural and historical context of the Czech-Slovak relationship, later also perceived from the Central European perspective. The fourth part initially uses two different examples to introduce the Image of Slovakia in Czech literature (Němcová, Kálal), and afterwards it turns to the literary analysis of Jakub Deml's Image of Slovakia. In the concluding chapter, this piece is set into the cultural and historical context and compared to other authors.

This thesis is about How the presence of the Palestinians is described through their absence in The Book of Disappearance. The analysis emphasizes the image of the other for both (Palestinians and Israelis). In addition to discussing the image of the other in both Hebrew and Arabic literature, the thesis uses narratology to study the polyphony and specificity of time and place in the text. The analysis section is divided into two main chapters. Chapter One: The Image of the Palestinians in the past: it shows a positive image of Palestinians in Jaffa. The second chapter: The Image of Palestinian in the present: It focuses on The Israelis' view of the absence of the Palestinians. This view is reflected through multiple voices. Ariel, the main Israeli character similar to the Palestinian Alaa, appears with a somewhat neutral opinion of the Palestinians. Alaa describes in his diary the situation of the Palestinians in the present. The analysis shows that the absence of Palestinians has made a significant impact on the lives of Israelis. Their reactions to that absence vary between fear, joy, and indifference. Finally, in this novel, Azem has been able through the multiplicity of Israeli characters, to give an objective view of the Jews in the modern Arab novel.

in English The master thesis is concerned with the analysis and interpretation of English written travelogues of the second half of the 18th century, which described Spain and Portugal. I work with two original texts and one translation from Italian, all texts were popular among their readers. The main goal of the thesis is to create the complex image of both respective countries and their inhabitants, based on the analysis of travelogues. As the fundamental concept of the thesis, I use so-called Black Legend, the negative view of the Iberian Peninsula originating in the 16th century. At the same time, the aim of the thesis is to compare the images in all works and come to more general conclusions about English perception of Spain and Portugal. Keywords: Spain, Portugal, travelogues, image of the Other, Black Legend, Southey, Baretti, Young

A Computer-Assisted sentence Stress Teaching and Learning Environment (CASTLE) is proposed and developed, in order to help learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) to perceive and produce English stress correctly. Sentence stress plays an important role in English verbal communication. Incorrect stress may confuse listeners, and even break down a conversation. Stress is also challenging for ESL learners to master. It is neither easy for them to produce nor easy to perceive stress. Learners tend to transfer the stress patterns of their first language into English, which is not always appropriate. However, stress has been overlooked in English language teaching classes, due to the time limits of a class and teachers’ lack of confidence of teaching stress. Thus, CASTLE is intended to help ESL learners to use sentence stress correctly. There are three modules in CASTLE: an individualised speech learning material providing module, a perception assistance module and a production assistance module. Through conducting an investigation into which voice features (i.e. gender, pitch and speech rate) makes a teacher’s voice preferable for learners to imitate, we find that learners’ imitation preferences vary, according to many factors (e.g. English background and language proficiency). Thus, the speech material providing module of CASTLE can provide individualised speech material for different learners, based on their preferred voice features. In the perception assistance module of CASTLE, we propose a set of stress exaggeration methods that can automatically enlarge the differences between stressed and unstressed syllables in teachers’ voice. These stress exaggeration methods are implemented by the manipulation of different prosodic features (i.e. pitch, duration and intensity) of the teachers’ voice. Our experimental results show that all our proposed exaggeration methods could help ESL learners to perceive sentence stress more accurately. In the production assistance module of CASTLE, we propose a clapping-based sentence stress practice model that is intended to help ESL learners to be aware of the rhythm of English language. By analysing the limitation of conventional categorical representation of stress, we propose a fuzzy representation which is intended to better represent the subjective nature of stress. Based on the fuzzy representation of stress, we propose three feedback models in order to help the learners correct their stress errors. In addition to the development of CASTLE, we also propose an enhanced fuzzy linear regression model which can overcome the spreads increasing problem encountered by previous fuzzy linear regression models.

in English The master thesis is concerned with the analysis and interpretation of English written travelogues of the second half of the 18th century, which described Spain and Portugal. I work with two original texts and one translation from Italian, all the texts which were popular among their readers. The main goal of the thesis is to create the complex image of both respective countries and their inhabitants, based on the analysis of travelogues. During the analysis, I use the concept of stereotype as defined by Walther Lippmann. I also use so-called Black Legend, the negative view of the Iberian Peninsula originating in the 16th century. At the same time, the aim of the thesis is to compare the images in all works and come to more general conclusions about English perception of Spain and Portugal. Keywords: Spain, Portugal, travelogues, image of the Other, Black Legend, Southey, Baretti, Young

Cette thèse vise à analyser les discours sur l’Iran dans les récits de voyageurs germanophones entre 1906 et 1941. Le corpus comprend trente récits de scientifiques et de leurs épouses, de commerçants, diplomates, écrivains. La perception de la nature, la vision du progrès technique, le jugement sur les religions et sur la condition féminine constituent les axes de l’analyse. Ce travail interroge les processus de circulation des savoirs présents dans ces récits et la spécificité du récit de voyage féminin. La thèse prend en compte l’influence des facteurs tenant à la culture d’origine des voyageurs et à leur critique des valeurs européennes. Si les discours de certains voyageurs témoignent de l’importance des liens avec la population iranienne et de la remise en question de la suprématie du progrès à l’européenne, d’autres, en particulier les récits féminins, renvoient l’image d’une société allemande patriarcale que les voyageuses aspirent à fuir. / This thesis aims at analyzing the discourses on Iran in the narratives of German-speaking travelers between 1906 and 194. The body of literature is made of thirty narratives written by scientists and their spouses, businessmen, diplomats and writers. The analysis is structured along the perception of nature, the vision of technical progress, and the judgements of religions and women’s conditions. This research questions the means of circulation of knowledge in these stories and the specificity of the female travel story.The thesis takes into account the influence rooted in the travelers’ cultural background and their criticism of European values. If some travelers’ narratives demonstrate the importance of interaction with the local population and challenge the supremacy of European-like progress, others, and especially the women’s narratives, offer the image of a German patriarchal society the travelers sought to escape.

This submitted paper aims to give a communicative image of the conflicts of the Czech Estates Uprising in the south of Bohemia. The focal point of the research has been three clashes of Protestant and Catholic armies. The first was the Battle of Lomnice, which took place on November 11, 1618, between the allied estates troops of Jindřich Matyáš Thurn and Jiří Fridrich Hohenlohe and the catholic military assembly of Karel Bonaventura Buquoy. After the battle that was victorious for the generals of the estates, the military actions moved to the area around České Budějovice, which was besieged by the army of the estates, as the catholic troops withdrew here. Ending the siege of the South Bohemian metropolis caused the third conflict, which has become part of this work. The battle at Záblatí took place on June 10, 1619, by the troops of Petr Arnošt of Mansfeld, the general of the rebellious Czech estates, and the military corps of imperial mercenaries commanded by Karel Bonaventura Buquoy. The aim of the author was to capture the fullest range of information framework, which was completed by reports of these military clashes of the Czech Estates Uprising. As part of research activities, attention was paid first to the works which explored the battle of Záblatí from political and military point of view. This view became a basic framework in which the research was conducted. However, the work should not only to recapitulate the conclusions already drawn, but the aim was to look at the examined issue with a new look. Such a view was based in the research of either new or to-nowoverlooked sources, such as the period news that historical science began to discover in recent years. A relatively large part of the historical community took the argument in saying that under the tide of propaganda and perspice it is not possible to find the truth about individual events of the Czech Estates Uprising. It would certainly be possible to claim that credible authentic information was scarce in the leaflets of the Czech Estates Uprising. These who contracted the prints, however, attempted to influence the readers of contemporary journalism and help them orientate in their intellectual worlds that were in this way uncovering to us. Another possibility for viewing the conflicts of the Czech Estates Uprising was offered through the view of the ordinary villages and towns inhabitants that were coming into contacts or were just observers of the South Bohemian battlefield. Although the preservation of the sources of the early 17th century from the environment of towns and villages was far from abundant, we managed to find some authentic testimonies that evaluated the battles of the Czech Estates Uprising from the very distinctive angles of view. The author interpreted sources of song lyrics reporting to the rural environment and sources of interurban correspondence, through which he tried to uncover at least part of the mental world of ordinary residents of South Bohemia affected by war in the first third of the 17th century and their view on the South Bohemian battlegrounds. Similarly, he also proceeded in the interpretation of the noble correspondence, whether it were warriors or the aristocrats affected by war misfortunes.

En España, al igual que en el resto de países europeos a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, se hace exhibición de "lo primitivo": personas (indígenas procedentes de los nuevos territorios colonizados) y objetos (piezas de arte y artefactos de la cultura material de los indígenas procedentes de las colonias). Algunas de estas muestras coinciden con las primeras exposiciones organizadas en España: Exposición General de las Islas Filipinas en Madrid (1887), Exposición Universal de Barcelona (1888) y Exposición Internacional de Barcelona (1929). El presente trabajo analiza la presencia o ausencia de "lo primitivo" (personas y objetos) en los principales acontecimientos expositivos españoles, su relación con acontecimientos homónimos en otros países europeos y su posible recepción en colecciones museísticas (museos de antropología, etnología y misionales). / In Spain, as in the rest of European countries at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth, aboriginal from the new colonized territories and "primitive" objects (art and artefacts from the material culture of the colonies) were also exhibited. Some of these events coincide with the first organized Exhibitions in Spain: General Exhibition of the Philippines Islands in Madrid (1887), Barcelona World Exhibition (1888) and Barcelona International Exhibition (1929). This work analyzes the presence or absence of "the primitive" (people and objects) in the major Spanish exhibitions, the relationship with similar events in other European countries and the possible reception in museum collections (museums of anthropology, ethnology and missionary).