The question of Russia's geopolitical affiliation has been a cause of centuries long debate, whether Russia belongs to Europe or to Asia. From the geographical point of view, Russia is predominantly situated in Asia. From cultural and civilisational points of view, Russian people tend to lean towards Europe, even though they capture elements of both civilizations. By examination of the most prominent Russian schools of thought, mainly of geopolitical nature (Slavophilism, Westernism, Atlantisms, Eurasianism, etc.) the work seeks to systemize the answers to this question. At the same time, it seeks to determine through analysis of the contemporary Russian foreign policy, which of these ideological leanings plays a dominant role in foreign policy discourse in Russia since 2000. Thanks to identification of this priority direction and by determining the primary orientation of Russian foreign policy in a particular region, the aim of this work is finally to answer the following question: What is Russia: Europe, Asia, or a separate continent of Eurasia?

This work aims, in a rather contemplative manner phased into three related parts, to discuss two concepts indispensable for Hegel's entire philosophy of life and history: language and memory. In Part I, I examine the triple relation between language and thinking, thinking and reality, and reality and language. I argue that language shares a logical structure with thinking and reality, and is itself the performative principle (or acteur) of creating reality, being itself the externalizing tool of the movement of thinking without which any development of the Spirit would not be possible. Part II targets the concept of memory and its function within thinking and action of self-consciousness. It is argued that Hegel's language functions as the modern concept of discourse in terms of its agency in reality. Memory is understood as fundamentally entangled with matter, or the material objectivity that calls in memory to be named, i.e. posited in language. Memory is an interiorizing principle, language is the exteriorizing principle, both deeply rooted in the so-called night of the self of each spirit. I also discuss the subject-objective relation against the background of memory, before moving onto Part III which generally tackles the process of the self-expression of the Spirit in history, the distinction...

This work aims, in a rather contemplative manner phased into three related parts, to discuss two concepts indispensable for Hegel's entire philosophy of life and history: language and memory. In Part I, I examine the triple relation between language and thinking, thinking and reality, and reality and language. I argue that language shares a logical structure with thinking and reality, and is itself the performative principle (or acteur) of creating reality, being itself the externalizing tool of the movement of thinking without which any development of the Spirit would not be possible. Part II targets the concept of memory and its function within thinking and action of self-consciousness. It is argued that Hegel's language functions as the modern concept of discourse in terms of its agency in reality. Memory is understood as fundamentally entangled with matter, or the material objectivity that calls in memory to be named, i.e. posited in language. Memory is an interiorizing principle, language is the exteriorizing principle, both deeply rooted in the so-called night of the self of each spirit. I also discuss the subject-objective relation against the background of memory, before moving onto Part III which generally tackles the process of the self-expression of the Spirit in history, the distinction...

The key research question of my diploma thesis deals with the problem of whether the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman creates the same discourse as far-right political parties in the Czech Republic. The research concerns the social discourse surrounding the current migration crisis facing Europe. In this connection, there is a discourse analysis of the themes of migration, Islam, terrorism, external and internal actors. This research is conducted on the basis of the theory of binaries from Teun Van Dijk, which can be applied to a populist political style characterized by President Zeman and extreme right-wing political parties, among which are analyzed the Workers' Party of Social Justice, National Democracy, Dawn - the National Coalition, Freedom And Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura and the Citizens' Rights Party. Research data is collected from President Zeman's official communications channels and political parties, including official websites and social networks. Based on a discourse analysis of their political views, it is possible to compare President Zeman and the extreme right-wing parties to each topic and to conclude whether they speak the same or differently about these themes.

The work called Fashion as a Differend presents the demands of critics of fashion and shows that they are in decomposition with its definition as defined by J. - F. Lyotard in the context of a postmodern condition. It argues that discourse overriding the demands of fashion critics is asymetrical with discourse within which fashion is defined. It turns out that there is a logical paradox with regard to the essence of fashion, which is transience or rapid change (at least as fast a change in society) and the floating demand for slowing down, stability and other criticisms that are linked to its transformation.

This thesis focuses on critical analysis of the discourse on the Bohemian Forest National Park (BFNP) between 1991 and 2010. This large-size protected area has over the long term been the subject of highly critical debate among various participants including top political representatives, particularly as a result of several cases of massive disturbances of mature forest stands. Hence this discussion offers some very suitable material for an analysis aiming to help expose the links between regional subjects and general politics - and to demonstrate the relations between language and power. The introductory two chapters presenting the subject and a clarification of the position from which my critical analysis is to be performed is followed by a section describing the basic procedures and concepts defining the theoretical and methodological framework of the critical discourse analysis (CDA). This third chapter deals with the mutual relations between the initial CDA qualitative approach and the quantitative corpus approach, particularly in view of the issues surrounding the replicability of critical research. However, it also presents such key terms as discourse, critique, ideology, identity and intertextuality/interdiscursivity. The fourth chapter forms the analytical core of the work - made up of two...

This thesis deals with the theory of speech acts which is based mainly on analysis of speech and its function in communication. We use speech not only to convey something but to also do something, to change the state of things around us and to accomplish specific goals. Speech acts in a literary piece are then analyzed on theoretical basis, specifically in Milan Kundera's dramatic play Majitelé klíčů.

Eva Krásová: Émile Benveniste and the role of sens My thesis "Émile Benveniste and the role of sens" is a monographic study of the life work of Émile Benveniste (1902-1977) through the role that the concept of meaning (sens) takes in his thought. I adopt the methodology defined by K. Kœrner as "historiography of language sciences", and thus my perspective on Benveniste's work is mainly chronological and developmental. First part of the thesis concentrates on theoretical foundations of Benveniste's thought in the school of Paris (A. Meillet and M. Bréal), Prague (R. Jakobson and V. Skalička) and Copenhagen (texts around 1939). I point out the concept of language system in diachrony in A. Meillet's thinking and in Prague school and present a hypothesis about the role of Émile Bneveniste in their contact during the International congresses of linguists. This results into a description of the perspective of meaning as it was presented in Benveniste's 1962 lecture "Levels of linguistic analysis". Second part deals with Benveniste's concept linguistics of discours. First chapter explains the main concepts of Benveniste's theory of language: semiotics and semantics or the semiotical and the semantical (le/la sémiotique, sémantique), enunciation (énonciation), appropriation (appropriation) and the theory...