Работа посвящена выявлению специфики зомби-компаний в России и предложение рекомендаций для предотвращения и управления зомби-компаниями с целью повышения устойчивости и эффективности российской экономики. Объектом исследования выступают зомби-компании. Исследование этого вопроса не только поможет выявить особенности функционирования зомби-компаний в российской экономике, но и предоставит сравнительные данные, которые могут быть использованы для разработки эффективных мер по борьбе с данной проблемой. / The work is devoted to identifying the specifics of zombie companies in Russia and offering recommendations for the prevention and management of zombie companies in order to increase the sustainability and efficiency of the Russian economy. The object of the study is zombie companies. The study of this issue will not only help to identify the features of the functioning of zombie companies in the Russian economy, but also provide comparative data that can be used to develop effective measures to combat this problem.

Topic of this thesis is Dennett's criticism of the philosophical notion of qualia. First, the notion of qualia and the meaning it acquires within philosophy are introduced. Then, four thought experiments are presented to serve as an argument in favor of existence of qualia along with Dennett's reaction to these thought experiments. After that, Dennett's criticism of qualia as immediately apprehensible, ineffable, intrinsic and private properties of conscious mental states is introduced while one of the most common objections to this criticism is emphasized - Dennett's conception of qualia is too narrow and we can preserve it in a moderate way. Subsequently, the thesis outlines such a modest concept - the concept of phenomenal consciousness. This thesis attempts to show that there is no place for phenomenal consciousness in Dennett's heterophenomenology and Multiple Drafts model and that Dennett is as skeptical about this term as he is about the notion of qualia. In the end, the thesis asks the question whether it is really necessary to give up the concept of phenomenal consciousness if we want to study consciousness scientifically - from the third-person point of view.

The dissertation is titled "The trend of zombification in a current film and series production - audience-based research" and is aimed at explaining why people seek zombie themed series and movies. In the theoretical part, the author introduces the concept of a zombie in terms of its dominant position within the popular culture. With the historical background and the theoretical frame of the topic, the results of the audience research, that was focused mainly on the fans of a zombie genre, will be presented. By comparison of the media product discourse and the public discourse, the analysis reve als the hypothesis describing the relationship between the audience and the media content with a zombie theme. The research is based on a qualitative method of grounded theory. The methods of semi-structured interview and participant observation were used to collect the data.

This thesis explores the zombie’s rise to prominence in popular culture, with a focus on its development within the comics medium. The zombie is not just a ‘floating signifier’ (according to Jerrold E. Hogle), but a revenant signifier, actively and aggressively linking with existing concepts, and transforming them. The thesis also considers both the zombie figure and zombie genre within the parameters of several media – comics, television, film, and literature. The medium of comics is examined in detail as it has evolved through the influence of the zombie just as the zombie has been reshaped by each new representation. In contemporary horror comics, The Walking Dead series is not just commercially successful, it exploits properties of the medium (including panel arrangement, transitions, repetition, and the liminal space within the gutter) to thoroughly explore the metaphors and allusions that have been associated with the zombie. I discuss these metaphors by charting the zombie’s development. A lack of pre-twentieth century literary texts featuring this creature frustrates easy comparison with the monsters of Gothic fiction. Rather than evolving within the novel form, as its rival horror icons have done, the zombie has maintained a visual and visceral identity, maturing with each new incarnation, and becoming ever more gruesome: the walking corpses of ancient texts; a symbol of eternal slavery within Haitian Voodoo folklore; and its modern interpretation as violent and virulent monster. The recent notion of a zombie plague has redefined the creature as a representation of modern fears, and has led to ‘zombie apocalypse’ becoming a commonly-used fantasy scenario. The zombie’s connection to apocalyptic literature is simultaneously ancient and contemporary, with the creature being a signifier of social disorder and disrupted identity. While the emphasis throughout is on the shifting relations between media, comics are the main focus of this study. The symbolism present in the zombie, and the political and cultural ideas stemming from its slow maturation are revealed within The Walking Dead and sustained through the functions of the comics medium. Through the application of Scott McCloud’s comics theory, the closure between panels and the transition within the gutter enhance these ideas, and provide further understanding of the zombie as depicted in comics. The visual/textual relationship within comics is compared with Jacques Lacan’s modalities of consciousness, and the psychoanalytic reading provided here explores the crises of identity within the zombie, and within the fragmented narrative of the comics medium. Alternative psychoanalytic readings, and the physiology/pathology of the zombie itself are undertaken, revealing the creature to be responsive to Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject, and Slavoj Zizek’s postmodern reworking of Lacanian ideas. The thesis also returns to notions of the Gothic, haunted spaces, and the role of suburbia in the zombie narrative. This is augmented with a study of intertextuality and the “revenant” status of the zombie, and of comics. Through incorporating the critical theory of Kristeva, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Jacques Derrida, and by positioning in parallel comics theorist Thierry Groensteen’s concepts of braiding and arthrology, I emphasise the operations of the zombie figure in the comic book, and other media, asserting that the zombie is a revenant signifier continually returning and transforming, never resting, but endlessly cannibalising and reconstructing debate about identity, morality, and society.

The master's thesis deals with one of the specifics of the cultural history of the Czech lands in the Early Modern period - i. e. the general perception of the afterlife (approximately between 1500 and 1800) and revenant issues. A revenant is meant originally a human being, who, after his death, for various reasons returns to the light of the living world, with exhibits of material (revived corpses, zombies, vampires, fexts) and immaterial (spirits, white ladies, wild hunting). In this respect, the main source are Czech demonological legends. One part of the study is to evaluate the social, religious and cultural aspects that had effect on what was said above in the specific historical period. The main emphasis is placed on the individual cases of revenants in the Czech lands, preserved in historical sources, as well as comparison with the same case in other European countries. The study will also focus on the description of biographies of historical personalities, drawing conclusions about what may have caused the conviction of being revenant.