Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, September 2007. / Restricted until 27th September 2009.

Exploration of the influence that politics may have on artists’ creativity has been undertaken by looking at selected works of Yugoslav film director Aleksandar Petrović. An attempt was made to identify thematic or stylistic motifs in his films that could be understood as reflections on the political context in which the work was made. One of the most common approaches to examine a work of one filmmaker, the auteur theory, has been modified into the theory of political auteur, to aid in identifying recurrent motifs and themes that artists introduce in their work as a reaction to the surrounding political reality. As Petrović worked in Yugoslavia during Socialism, this period was historicised in order to support the identification of ‘political motifs’ in his films. The period between 1965 and 1973 is taken as the focus of research, since it is known as the 'liberal hour', the period of great artistic and intellectual freedoms, during which Petrović directed four of his most significant films. Each of these four films is analysed in respective chapters, first by elaborating on the then current political background, and then by analysing the films’ narratives against it, and extrapolating thematic and stylistic motifs reflecting back on this background. Such exploration of art and politics has been undertaken with a view to emphasise consistent motifs in art works, not only to do with an artist’s personal interests, but also those that emerge as a result of imposing societal structures.

Thesis In the Light of Kabbalah: Jewish Mystique in Polish Literature in the Interwar Period deals with different models of reflection of Jewish religious and mystical tradition in the Polish interwar literature (on the example of three authors representing different ways of perceiving their own Jewish roots as well as the processing of themes based on the tradition of Jewish mysticism). Aleksander Wat, originally a futurist, was critical of the Jewish religious tradition - but still cannot his own "Jewishness" escape; prose writer Bruno Schulz offers an unique vision of cosmogony and eschatology reminiscent of - besides other things - selected concepts of Kabbalah; Bolesław Leśmianʼs relationship to this tradition is the looses, but on the other hand his method of working with motives which can interpreted in the context of the Jewish religious tradition is very original. Literary work of all three - as the heirs to the "people of the Book" - is marked by a specific relationship to language and the written word. In addition to this theme we deal with e.g. the Golem motive, the idea of the creation of the world or the idea of God. These analytical chapters are preceded by a theoretical and methodological introduction based on the traditions of literary hermeneutics, but also on selected concepts of...

This thesis deals with the issue of memory and remembering in the post-communist area. In particular, it examines the form, extent and success of the Holocaust reflection and coping with the past on the example of the speeches of Czech and Polish presidents from 1993 (Václav Havel), or 1995 (Aleksander Kwaśniewski) until the access to the European Union in 2004. Author of the thesis assumes that the fall of Communism and the restoration of the democratic establishment represented a significant impetus for the countries in question to deal with their past. At the same time, they try to prove that the Holocaust memory politics of key political representatives of the Czech Republic and Poland has been one of the important factors in the creation of their post-communist democratic identity - and not only with respect to an unofficial demand of the unifying Europe to cope with the heritage of the past. Through the analysis of selected presidential speeches, the thesis identifies and evaluates the image of Holocaust created by the Czech and Polish presidents on the one hand and the weaknesses in the Holocaust memory politics of both actors on the other. After theoretical and conceptual introduction (chapter one), the experience with the Holocaust in Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and...