This master thesis focuses on the possibilities and limits of the dramaturgist during the creative process of rehearsal and on the dramaturgical parts of development of new dramatic texts. The author reflects her previous encounters with dramaturgy and her British experience gained during a study visit of Rose Bruford College in London.This master thesis does not lead towards theoretical generalization, but to the notation of the growing experiences, from which it draws conclusions for her own dramaturgical work (and her playwriting).The first part analyzes the phenomenon of the 'first reading rehearsal' in Czech and British context and the definition of relations between the various parts in this process.In the second part, the author describes two different principles of work aimed at developing new dramatic texts and compares them with her own experiences. As s part of this master thesis, there is also a transcript of an interview with Christopher Campbell, literary manager of the Royal Court Theatre in London.

This master thesis deals with one of the current trends in contemporary British drama – the so-called „climate change plays“. In the first part of this thesis my aim is to briefly introduce the history and context of climate change debate from the 1970s to the present day and explain how environmental problems started to arise in different art spheres, above all in Anglophone literature. In the second part the focus is on the climate change plays that emerged in English speaking countries in the past 15 years. The core of this thesis are analyses of four plays premiered in major London theatres between 2009 – 2011: The Contingency Plan by Steve Waters, The Heretic by Richard Bean, Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London and Lungs by Duncan Macmillan. The main objective of these analyses is their approach towards climate change science and their shared ideologies, motives and themes. The last chapter attempts to evaluate this social phenomenon and to consider the difficulties artists have to face when dealing with such complex scientific problems like climate change.

Diplomová práce se zaměřuje na působení britské Východoindické obchodní společnosti v Indii. První kapitola shrnuje okolnosti vzniku a působení Společnosti na indickém území před rokem 1756. Následná kapitola popisuje přerod Společnosti jako monopolní firmy v suveréna na indickém subkontinentu. Teoretická část práce se věnuje přístupu předních britských ekonomů té doby k otázce kolonií a Společnosti samotné. Hlavní část práce analyzuje nositele, nástroje a financování hospodářské politiky Indie v době vlády Východoindické společnosti. Zabývá se vztahy britských politiků k indické otázce a jejich vlivem na formulaci hospodářské politiky. Analyzuje hlavní nástroje politiky Společnosti v Indii jako jsou obchodní monopol a armáda. Podrobněji sleduje financování, příjmy a výdaje Společnosti v době její vlády. V závěru nastiňuje některé okolnosti konce vlády Východoindické společnosti na subkontinentu.

This diploma thesis deals with analysing selected British anti-colonial fiction applying the theory of the renowned British literary critic Edward W. Said. It introduces Said´s theory of the motif of colonialism in different types of art work as the basic statement, as well as Said´s concept of ´the empire´, and these concepts will later on be applied onto individual literary works. They include the novella in a journal form Journal of a West India Proprietor by Matthew Gregory Lewis, a fable "How the Camel Got His Humph" from Just So Stories, and a poem "Gunga Din" from the collection Gunga Din and other Favorite Poems by Rudyard Kipling. My analysis will also include the novel A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, two novellas Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness and a short story "An Outpost of Progress" by Joseph Conrad, and a short story called "The Force of Circumstance" by Somerset Maugham. The main phenomena that will be analysed in this thesis are British racism towards the native people, cultural differences and misunderstandings, British superiority (very often also linked to certain naivety) over the native people. Analysing all these factors, I will strive to emphasize the authors´ artistic intentions and efforts to point them out as serious social problems. Applying the theory of Edward Said, I will support and develop my arguments.

Surrogacy - abstract This master thesis deals with the phenomenon of surrogate motherhood (surrogacy) and analyses it from the point of view of Czech and British law, especially the Private law. Its main objective is to approximate to the answer to the question whether surrogacy should be entrenched in Czech law and, if so, what should the main features of such legal regulation be. In order to achieve this aim, it, firstly, focuses on the currently valid and effective Czech legislation. It is a well-known fact that, apart from the provision of § 804 of the Czech Civil Code, Czech law does not provide for surrogacy, at all. Surrogacy is, therefore, only partially regulated in some of its aspects, namely assisted reproduction, legal parenthood and adoption. Since the United Kingdom is often mentioned as one of the possible sources of inspiration for the future Czech legal regulation of surrogacy, British law concerning this phenomenon is considered in the following part of this thesis - especially in the light of the extensive case law. In particular, issues such as surrogacy arrangements, assisted reproduction, legal parenthood and transfer of legal parenthood (that is adoption and parental orders) are analysed. These are then subjected to critical assessment. In its last chapter, the thesis returns to the...

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Thesis Abstract The present thesis offers to read six plays by three contemporary British playwrights - Sarah Kane's Crave (1997) and 4.48 Psychosis (1999), Caryl Churchill's The Skriker (1994) and Far Away (2000), and Tim Crouch's ENGLAND (2007) and The Author (2009) through the lens of Julia Kristeva's essay on abjection, Powers of Horror (1982). Kristeva theorizes abjection as that which retains some resemblance to the subject or object, but is neither - or no longer belongs to the subject. Being confronted with the abject is unpleasant because it is threatening for the subject. It contains all that is habitually removed from life and does not belong in the symbolic order - corpses and excrements. Likewise, the maternal body needs to become abject for the infant to realize its own borders and bodily integrity. Kristeva proposes that the abject finds its way back into the symbolic order through literature, and reads a number of writers as being concerned with the abject. In the theatre, as well as in the visual arts, abjection has been a useful theoretical starting point, despite the fact that it is seen by a number of critics as something which cannot truly be grasped, and as resisting description and verbal imposition. Each playwright and each play includes a different aspect of the abject. Central to...

The thesis examines contemporary British theatre focusing on the dynamic between a playwright, a director and an actor, which is very different in the UK from continental Europe. Describing specific London productions as well as the history of modern British theatre, it tries to identify what are the defining characteristics of British directing, acting and playwriting. Each chapter focuses on one of these elements and defines British theatre in realation to the Czech scene. By comparing selected productions of the same British play in Prague and London the author draws attention to the possible difficulties that might arise while staging British drama in a different cultural context.

This dissertation examines a very popular and widespread trend in contemporary British and Irish theatre - monologue plays. One of the reasons of the recent boom of monologue-based theatre performances might be the fact that the condensed theatrical form presents a challenge for everyone involved - the playwrights, actors, and crucially also for the audience. The diversity and quantity of such plays present an obstacle that has deterred most theatre scholars from systematic analysis as it is difficult to decide on what ground such widespread phenomenon might be critically approached. Given the essential role the audience have as the only communication partner of the lonely monologists on stage, this work attempts to analyse the contemporary boom of monologue plays in the U.K. and Ireland by using a systematic framework, based on the various incorporations of the monologue, which enables examination of how specific strategies of the realisation of the monologue elicit audience engagement. First it explores monologue plays in which one actor/actress performs one character, then it deals with plays in which the performer re-enacts other characters, subsequently this work focuses on very rare experiments in the monologue form, where the performer re-enacts conflicting versions of their split selves and...

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to show insufficiencies and mistakes in three post- war translations (by Božena Šimková, Eva Kondrysová and Eva Ruxová) of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The thesis focuses on the translations and reception of Jane Austen's work, analysis of the first sentence of the whole novel (which is crucial for its understanding) and the issue of the translation of propria, toponyms, cultural facts, humour and irony, adaptation of social roles names, phraseology. The main part of the bachelor thesis is comparison of the translations of British cultural facts of the 18th and 19th century, the forms of expressing humour and irony and translation of chosen phraseologisms or idioms. Their misinterpretation could cause severe misunderstanding.