Smetana’s Vltava is widely described as a musical depiction of sights and scenes on a journey down the Vltava River that glorifies the river as a defining national landmark. While this understanding of the piece complies with its program and produces a formal and thematic analysis that reveals a general adherence to the conventions of the nineteenth-century symphonic poem, the interpretation only considers the work in isolation and does not account for its most exceptional features. My paper will analyze Vltava in its larger context as a part of the symphonic cycle of Má Vlast to uncover a deeper programmatic significance to the movement’s formal and thematic design, one inextricably bound up with Smetana’s Czech nationalism. The analysis will consider all of the movements of the cycle and their relationships to one another, with particular emphasis on the crucial relationship between Vltava and Z českých luhů a hájů. / text

Aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the role of nationalism in contemporary Czech extreme right movements. Its author has two fundamental objectives. The first is to evaluate strength and relevance of contemporary Czech nationalism within extreme right movements. The second objective consists in the analysis of nationalism itself, which should reveal the true nature of these organizations and their ideological platform. This thesis presents an overview of Czech extreme right spectrum. It was essential to select movements that mutually differ and therefore represent various manifestations of Czech right extremism. All three platforms can be classified as extreme right movements strongly resonating with Czech nationalism. They see themselves as patriots who defend conservative values and national traditions. Revue of The National Idea represents an attempt to create a sophisticated, intellectual forum providing conditions for ultra-right views and ideas. D.O.S.T. movement acts as a conservative "people's initiative", standing against multiculturalism and the European Union. The National Party is then an example of extreme political grouping with traces of populism, xenophobia and pure racism. Content analysis of these three movements is the main topic of the thesis. Examining their goals,...

The thesis Political Programmes of the Czech Representation in the Second Halve of the 19th Century focuses on both programme documents and actual work of Czech political parties, whether more or less institutionalized, between the years 1848 (March Revolution) and 1918 (the downfall of Austria-Hungary). At first it summarizes the historical development in the respective period (Chapter 1), next, it analyses programmes of political parties in three broadly defined topics: 1) Organisation of the empire, question of the Czech State Right (Chapter 2); 2) Constitutionalism, civil rights and role of a citizen (Chapter 3) and 3) National matters (Chapter 4). The attitudes about each of these areas of the following political parties are defined: Bohemian nobility, National Party (till 1874) or Old Czechs (since then), Young Czechs, Social Democrats, Agrarians, Catholic parties, National Socialists, Progress parties and parties of the Radical State Right, Realists and Anarchists. For the conclusion, the author of the thesis attempts to characterise and evaluating the Czech political representation, as well as its importance for the development since 1918.