Yasmina Reza, auteur de théâtre français, reconnue dans le monde entier, a reçu les prix les plus prestigieux : trois Molières (FR), un Laurence Olivier Award (GB), deux Tony Award (USA), le Die Welt (All), pour ne citer qu’eux. En France, elle est encore souvent considérée comme un auteur à succès, n’offrant au public qu’une forme de théâtre de boulevard contemporain. L’étude précise des textes dramatiques de Yasmina Reza, de sa langue, de ses personnages et des structures de ses pièces, laisse apparaître sous le masque de la comédie une richesse et une complexité plus profondes. Elle met en scène des personnages bourgeois dont la vie se caractérise par une certaine facilité, tout en levant le voile sur des préoccupations métaphysiques universelles. Il s’agit toujours de la confrontation de l’homme avec le monde ou avec ses semblables. Cette pensée de l’individu inquiet s’accompagne dans la forme d’une réflexion sur le pouvoir de l’art dramatique. La caractérisation bourgeoise de son théâtre est autant un miroir tendu au public qu’un masque qui voile une interrogation permanente sur le sens de la vie et de l’art, dans la continuité du travail de l’avant-garde du milieu du XXe siècle dont elle se révèle être une relève inattendue. / The Famous French playwright Yasmina Reza received some of the most prestigious prices in the world : three Molières (FR), a Laurence Olivier Award (UK), two Tony Award (USA), a Die Welt (DE). Nevertheless, in France she is still considered as merely a successful author, with some kind of new farce to offer. A specific study of Yasmina Reza’s drama, including her language, her characters and the architecture of her plays, brings out other meaningful and complex colors from under the mask of comedy. She stages middle-class characters whose life is quite easy; in the meantime she reveals universal metaphysical issues. It is always about a clash between a person and the world or a person and his kind. This reflection about the anxious being goes on stage with a reconsideration of the power of theater. The middle-class characterization is a mirror for the audience as well as it is a mask that covers a constant questioning about the meaning of life and art, continuing the work of the avant-garde of the middle of the 20th century, of which she appears to be an unexpected new recruit.

The subject of thesis is an urban revitalization solutions in the territory of Zlín Film Studios, its restoration for film production and other uses. Our vision is to be achieved in this area in the form of interconnected sub-objectives of a compact and fully functional, exceptional unit with the accumulation of education, specific entrepreneurship in the audiovisual industry, a number of civic services, temporary and permanent housing and even facilities for relaxation and sports. The intention reflects the unique history to the maximum possible extent, respects the environment and the existing urban-architectural solutions and creates a new multifunctional public space.

The thesis is divided into two parts, one theoretical and one empirical. The first one presents origin and different perception of the boulevard comedy genre in France, Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom and USA. Afterwards, a brief characteristic of the boulevard comedy is presented in terms of content and subject matter. Four kinds of comedy are presented - comedy of manners, comedy of situation, comedy of intrigue and interactive comedy. The translatological analysis of the Czech translation of the French humorist Laurent Baffie's contemporary play Toc toc by the director and translator Jaromír Janeček constitutes the second main part of the thesis. The analysis is based on the theoretical studies of Jiří Levý and Jan Mukařovský, which are dealing with the translation of drama, and also on the theory of so-called Manipulation school of André Lefevere. Several problems have arised from the detailed analysis of the original text. The comparison of the translation and the original text is made on the ground of these problems. Subsequently, there is an evaluation of the translation. In some cases, a different solution is proposed. The work is supplemented by insights into the translation practice, which are drawn from personal interviews with translators and experts on drama.

This study explored the nature of community power and decision-making surrounding the renaming of Portland's Union Avenue in honor of the slain civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Employing an integrated theoretical framework based on G. William Domhoff's (1967) perspective of the compatibility of c. Wright Mills' Power Elite Model (1956) and Robert A. Dahl's Pluralist Model (1961) plus Claude s. Fischer's (1982) perspective on the nature of the urban social environment, this study attempted to provide insight into and understanding of the dynamics involved in the controversy that developed over the efforts to rename a street for Dr. King, the decision-making process, and the apparent motivations of the participants.

L'objectif de cette thèse consistait à déterminer la nature des aménagements liés à l'adaptation à l'artillerie à poudre de l'ensemble fortifié de Coucy, en particulier de la ville, et à appréhender chronologiquement ces développements. Il n'existait pas, en amont de ce travail, d'étude archéologique et architecturale d'envergure relative à cette période et portant sur ces questions. La destruction des archives municipales lors de la Première Guerre mondiale, puis celle des archives départementales lors du conflit suivant, explique en partie ce manque. Un bilan des connaissances s'est donc imposé. Ce travail devait déterminer le contexte historique d'émergence des travaux et les conditions dans lesquelles les chantiers se sont déroulés. Parallèlement, la compréhension du système de mise en défense de Coucy passait aussi par l'étude de ses acteurs. Notre démarche visait à confronter les données matérielles de terrain et les données testimoniales, iconographiques et graphiques. Les données matérielles ont été récoltées directement sur le terrain par le biais d'une analyse archéologique du bâti complétée par des fouilles archéologiques sur deux secteurs de l'enceinte urbaine à fort potentiel. Enfin, à travers un corpus de sites fortifiés soigneusement choisis pour lesquels des mentions d'aménagements existent, il a été possible de comparer les différentes solutions défensives à l'échelle régionale et d'éclairer certains travaux propres à Coucy et mal datés. De plus, cette méthode devait clarifier le rôle stratégique de la place. À l'issue de ces travaux, nous sommes désormais en mesure de proposer une image plus précise de l'évolution défensive de la place et d'en comprendre les enjeux. / The present thesis aimed at investigating the site evolution related to the adaptation to the powder artillery in the fortification of Coucy, in particular the city walls, and at identifying the chronology of this evolution. Prior to this work, there was no strong enough archeological study for this period and dealing with these matters. The destruction of the municipal archives during the first world war, and of the departmental ones along the following conflict, partially explains this lack of data. Therefore, a report on current knowledge was necessary. This work had to determine the historical context of emergence of the fortification work, and the conditions under which it was carried out. In parallel, understanding the defensive system of Coucy required the study of ail players involved. Our approach consisted in confronting material and testimonial data. Material data were directly collected on the field and treated by a building archeology analysis, completed by excavations on two sectors of the city walls with great potential. Finally, the evolution of the fortifications in Coucy was better understood by a comparative analysis. Indeed, through a carefully chosen corpus of fortified sites, it has been possible to compare the local defensive solutions with the regional ones and to define and properly date some work related to Coucy. Furthermore, this method had to clarify the strategic rule of Coucy. To conclude, the present work allowed us to offer a clearer picture of the defensive development of Coucy, and to understand the related stakes.

Space is a social product and produced socially. For a social analysis, it is therefore necessary to put equal emphasis on conceptualisations of time and space and to analyse the production process of space. This thesis aims to analyse the production of capitalist space and it is based on Lefebvre&rsquo / s conceptualisation of &lsquo / production of space&rsquo / within the context of Marxist urban space theories. It is based on the argument that every mode of production creates its own spaces and the new spaces call for new social relations. In the analysis of space, historical geographical materialism and realist geography are used. In this thesis, the production of urban space of Ankara is analysed with an emphasis on social relations of planning and architecture. Ankara as the capital city is a spatial representation of nation state and national identity. Spatial representations and practices are analysed in terms of Atat&uuml / rk Boulevard and the squares of Ulus, Sihhiye and Kizilay. Within this scope, public buildings and monuments, housing, transportation and commercial spaces are examined by drawing on Lefebvre&rsquo / s conceptual triad of &lsquo / spatial practices&rsquo / , &lsquo / representations of space&rsquo / and &lsquo / spaces of representation&rsquo / . In the production process of the urban space of Ankara, history of space is considered as the history of its forms and representations and the production of urban space is examined in historical periods. The exploratory type of research used in this study is primarily based on documentary-historical data.

This is a study about the “grilljanne”, a type of young dandy in fin-de-siècle Stockholm. The “grilljanne” was known for his odd, flamboyant sense of style, his constant economic troubles, and his disruptive behaviour in public. The main source for descriptions of the “grilljanne” is the boulevard newspaper Figaro and its editor-in-chief Georg Lundström (who published under the signature Jörgen). The purpose of the study is to examine how the “grilljanne” was portrayed as an opposite to the dominant bourgeoise ideals of the 1890s. By considering the “grilljanne” a stereotype, it looks at how the stereotype was constructed by the writers of Figaro, and how it relates to contemporary discussions about class, gender, sexuality and youth. The analysis is inspired by recent research into the history of masculinity, and how deviant forms of masculinity have been constructed as countertypes to the dominant ideals. The “grilljanne” was continuously mocked in Figaro, both because of his style and his behaviour. Specifically, he was portrayed as the antithesis of bourgeois masculine ideals of self-restraint and moderation. His vanity, snobbishness and excessive interest in fashionable consumption makes him comparable to various forms of dandyism during the second half of the nineteenth century and made him a caricature of over-the-top elegance. The negative portrayal can also be seen as an expression of anxieties regarding blurred lines between classes, changing sexual morality and increasingly unclear distinctions between male and female behaviour. The “grilljanne” was often also described as a symptom of a debased and degenerate youth. This related to the specific fear of decadence, a phenomenon which has usually been studied by historians of literature. This study has shown that phenomena such as decadence and dandyism were intimately connected to fin-de-siècle anxieties about class, masculinity, sexuality and youth.

The thesis Between Picture and Word,The Life and Work of Viktor Pivovarov explores the life and art of one of the leading personalities of Russian unofficial art. Viktor Pivovarov is considered one of the founders of The Moscow Conceptual School. He has been living and working in Prague, Czech Republic since 1982. His works are represented in major world collections, e.g. in The Tate Gallery in London, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, in The Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow, The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg and The National Gallery in Prague. The thesis is divided into three parts: 1) Life, time, contexts, 2) Work and 3) Timeline. The first part covers the artist's biography, the period context and the so-called unofficial Russian art of the 1950s- 70s. It also deals with his influence on the Czech cultural scene. The second part analyzes selected works by Pivovarov and tries to present an overall characterization of his art. It also attempts to place his work in the Russian, Czech and the West art contexts. The third part, the timeline, focuses on the important dates in Pivovarov's life and work and on crucial political and cultural events.

The topic of the diploma’s thesis is a proposal of revitalization of the former industrial area in Prague, Vysočany. The neighborhood that was in the past in the suburbs of Prague near the railway is now barely used or not used for the benefit of the city district and its users. The proposal is based on creating an active environment that would correspond to the modern running of the city and serve the needs of its inhabitants. The urban-architectural study respects the current trends of the locality and ongoing development projects, which will significantly influence the appearance and functioning of Vysočany district. In particular, the given locality is characterized by the lack of urban life, as it is mainly the industrial district, as well as the center itself, which would correspond to a major urban district. An important part of the whole concept was the intervention of the area with the new city boulevard Kolbenova. The aim of the thesis is a proposal that would be based on the needs of Prague as a metropolitan city, therefore the proposal respects the currently discussed Metropolitan Plan, which allows high-rise development in the given locality. The study seeks to create sufficient housing capacity and opportunities that represent the potential for the entire city district and can respond to the demand of the population for quality living in the city according to current standards relating to the capital city of Prague.

La présente étude est une ethnographie du boulevard Saint-Laurent qui a duré 11 mois et au cours de laquelle j’ai intégré ce que l’on qualifie aujourd’hui le « cœur » du boulevard, la portion allant de la rue Sherbrooke à l’avenue Mont-Royal. Me basant sur des observations, des entretiens avec des résident.es et des commerçant.es, des brochures touristiques et les installations éducatives longeant l’artère, j’entreprends une entreprise de démystification : comprendre la réalité du boulevard contemporain en la substituant à l’aura énigmatique et mystérieuse que l’on retrouve dans les écrits historiques et les discours populaires. En menant des entretiens, je dénote une « nostalgie moderne » chez les résident.es et les commerçant.es de l’artère et montre leur utilisation différenciée de qualificatifs comme « gentrification » et « effervescence ». Par mes observations de tableaux éducatifs longeant les trottoirs, je fais l’expérience d’une « nostalgie post-moderne » et révèle les intérêts des sociétés de développement quant à la transformation commerciale du boulevard. Je perçois que les sens attribués à l’imaginaire du boulevard contemporain se définissent selon un rapport temporel et critique. Ma méthode d’enquête est à la fois phénoménologique, dans la mesure où elle reprend la figure du flâneur de Walter Benjamin comme posture d’observation, et « empirique », notamment par l’utilisation du feuilleton sociologique inspiré de Siegfried Kracauer, approche qui insiste sur la matérialité du quotidien, les discours et les observations. / The current study is an ethnography of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, which lasted 11 months and during which I integrated what is now called the “heart” of the boulevard, the portion between Sherbrooke street to Mont-Royal avenue. Based on observations, interviews with residents and shop owners, tourist brochures, and historical posters installed along the boulevard, I undertake an enterprise of demystification: to understand concretely the reality of the contemporary boulevard by going beyond an enigmatic and mysterious aura perpetuated in historical writings and popular discourses. In conducting interviews, I note a “modern nostalgia” among residents and shop owners of the boulevard and show their differentiated uses of words like “gentrification” and “effervescence”. Through my observations of historical boards lining the sidewalks, I experience a “post-modern nostalgia” and reveal the interests of development associations in the commercial transformation of the boulevard. I perceive that the meanings attributed to the imagination of the contemporary boulevard are defined according to a temporal and critical relation. My method of inquiry is both phenomenological, as it takes up Walter Benjamin’s figure of the flâneur as a posture of observation, and “empirical”, in particular through the use of sociological feuilletons inspired by Siegfried Kracauer, an approach which stresses the importance of the materiality of everyday life, discourses and observations.