In this thesis I dealt with commonly accepted theory, that Czech author Emil Arthur Longen wrote his plays in style similar to film slapstick comedy. The work starts with biography of Emil Arthur Longen. He was born in 1885 and died in 1936, his life was filled with many rises and falls because of his short temper, alcoholism and turbulent relation with his first wife, Polyxena (commonly called Xena), also an actress. Longen started as a student of Arts in Prague, but never ended his studies and left to pursue his interest, first in painting, later in another fields like filmmaking and acting, but he is most known as a playwright. He wrote more than seventy dramatic pieces and adapted another hundred more for his own theatre and also for other houses he worked with. His first efforts were cabaret shorts, he also wrote more serious things, but his most succesfull plays are farces one to four acts long. He was a principal playwright who wrote plays for the theater of Vlasta Burian, nicknamed The King of Comedians in interwar Czechoslovakia, who excelled in many of them. Critics during his lifetime but also later ones noted that his plays are inspired by American film slapstick comedy. Theory of comedy says that there are many types of comedy, number of the types varies greatly among notable authors, I...

After a general historical outline of the term and concept 'grotesque' attention is focused on the grotesque in Southern fiction and an attempt is made to explain the abundance of this mode in the literature of the South. It can seemingly be linked to the distinctiveness of that region as compared to the rest of the United States—a distinctiveness that has been brought about by historical, geographical, sociological and economic factors.Basing the discussion on the theory of Philip Thomson, who defines the grotesque as "the unresolved clash between incompatibles in work and response," various critical approaches to the Southern grotesque are examined, all of which are found to be too all-embracing. An effort is then made to analyse the grotesque as displayed particularly in Caldwell, Capote, Faulkner, Goyen, McCullers, O'Connor and Welty. The study deals first with the macabre-grotesque, then the repulsive/frighten-ing-grotesque and finally the comic-grotesque. The last chapter is devoted to more recent authors writing in the 1960s. Their works reveal that the South is still a breeding ground for the grotesque. / digitalisering@umu

This essay examines the grotesque in Samuel Becketts wellknown play Waiting for Godot. The play is primarily seen as an icon of absurdism, and it is such not appropriate to examine the play as if it belongs to the litterary genre of grotesque. The primary purpose of absurdism is to reveal the pointless- and emptiness of existence. In order to illustrate these points absurdism will often make use of the common characteristics of the grotesque. With this in mind I present, within this essay, an eximination of whether Samuel Becket makes use of these characteristics to assist his portayal of emptiness in Waiting for Godot. A prior understanding of absurdism is required and i have as such primarly used Martin Esslins famous studies. The studies of the grotesque are mainly represented by two theorists. Michail Bachtin's theory is based around the medieval carnival culture, whose archetype was the duality of the body expressed through the pregnant death. Bachtin seeks to highlight the grotesques close connection with laughter as a relief and covers it's use during the middle ages and the renneissance. Wolfgang Kayser studies the term as it is used during the romanticism and modernism. Kayser describes the grotesque as "cold" and alienating. He describes the word as an ”estranged world”. The analysis relies mostly on Bachtin's theories and examines the play from the viewpoint of the picture of the grotesque body, sense of time, the logic of the upside down world and the connection to the carnivals culture of laughter but also examines if Kayser's theories of the ”estranged world” are compatible. Finally, I reach the conclusion that even though Bachtins theory treats the grotesque in a time long before Beckett's, a reading of Waiting for Godot from the perspective of the carnival culture is interesting.  The laughter and the open, grotesque body, plays as expected a large role in the handling of the emptiness, the cyclic sense of time is found in the play and never ceases to repeat, the upside down world's logic and it's abolition of hierarchies is significant and the world in the play seems alien to itself.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to compare the protagonists of two novels which are classified as Southern gothic writings: Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, and The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole. Although the pivotal characters appear dissimilar, the comparison and analysis of the novels might demonstrate common features and motifs. Studying of Southern gothic phenomena constitutes a background for the analysis, and also the initial part of the thesis. It is focused on a basic characteristic of the genre on the basis of the development of Southern literature. There is an introduction of the most important authors, genres, and typical motifs. The analytical part is prefaced by a reference to the life and work of the writers, as their nature and literary production vary. There is more attention paid to the texts by McCarthy because he has published a larger quantity of books in comparison with Toole. Southern gothic elements are therefore observed and compared in the analysed short novels, and also in other McCarthy's texts. The comparison corresponds to the theoretical ground.

Kerhartová, J.: Czech grotesque /Graduation thesis of the post-Bachelor study programe/ Prague 2012 - Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education, department of Art, 81 pages This work is oriented as a theoretical study with research aim. It's focused on analysis of the phenomenon of Czech Grotesque and it's causality as a wide cultural - social problem. We use qualitative research methods and research design by The Grounded Theory, authors Strauss - Corbin. Main theme of this study is to investigate possibilities about didactic use of this topic in art education at grammar school. We reflect contemporary trends in art education in czech education curriculum - methods of constructivist pedagogy and discursive analysis. Important part of this work is research probe leading to find out student's pre- concepts about Czech grotesque. At the end, we construct resulting theory which is grounded on our previous research. Key words Czech grotesque, absurdity, art education, existence crisis, constructivist pedagogy, quality research methods

The dissertation focuses on the impact of authority and grotesque in the U.S. literature of the 1960s. The key theoretical approaches used for the analysis were: Bakhtinian theory concerning popular carnival culture and Vizenor's theory concerning tricksters, Deleuzian notion of repetition and schizoanalysis and the theory of Foucault concerning power and anti- authority struggles. The main task of the analysis was to trace the common and differentiating features which were demonstrated in the novels in the form of anti-authority struggles and forms of madness, which is viewed as a deliberating force. The authors were chosen for their challenging attitudes toward the forms of power exercised over the American society and for the usage of the grotesque as a tool to convey a subversive message. The analysed authors were John Kennedy Toole and his A Confederacy of Dunces, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and his Slaughterhouse 5 and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Izabela Laiblová Urban Dissertation "Václav Havel and Sławomir Mrożek - Theater of the Absurd behind the Iron Curtain" Abstract: Dissertation is devoted to the analysis of dramatic works of Václav Havel and Sławomir Mrożek in the context of the Theater of the Absurd, trying to answer the question whether it is possible to include plays of these East European writers into this literary movement. Dissertation discusses the impact of political, social and cultural situation on the entry of the Theater of the Absurd behind the Iron Curtain reflecting the perception of the trend in Czechoslovakia and Poland. It describes the key thematic areas of both authors' dramatic plays, such as the relationship between humans and the system, the individual and the group as well as type of dramatic characters. It focuses also on the language of Havel's and Mrożek's plays with its several characteristics, such as phraseology taken from the language of communist propaganda as well as combining different styles - official, administrative and others. The dissertation discusses the composition Havel's and Mrożek's with their significant differences, outlined by comparing the relationship "circle - funnel", respectively "circle - spiral". The research is focused mainly on early plays of both authors. In the case of Havel's plays...

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During the 16th century occurred a new phenomen, that the physically disabled people because of they visage were presented as curiosities or miracles. Some cases were so incredible therefore their appearances gave an impulse for creating an artwork. The images were popular between all social levels, were collected by townspeople, scientists, nobles and kings. The dissertation thesis "Homo deformis". The fascination by appearance of deformed human body in the Czech lands between 1526-1620 aims to explore how the phenomen of human curiosities was reflected in early modern visual art in the Czech lands. This dissertation thesis bases on individual examples of human monstrosity in various art forms as an portraits, allegories, scientific illustrations and pamphlets. It exams images of abnormal disabled people between 1526-1620 and focuses on they symbolic meaning, aesthetic interpretation. It summarizes the knowlege about perceptions of depicted abnormal persons in 16th century. It also shows the Early modern society reactions about "homo deformis", their everydayness and social status. This thesis studies reasons why the disabled body was a kind an inspiration for artists. It examines ii the artists of 16th century were able to picture cases of physicality deformed bodies anatomically correctly. It...

The text deals with various types of ironwork from ca 1550-1740, which we can encounter in sepulchral spaces in Bohemia. The text includes notable examples of individual types of ironwork related to sepulchral monuments in Bohemia and even Central Europe, especially when the works were inspired by Bohemian examples. The main research subject matter of the dissertation is a typological group of ironwork that defined the space around a tombstone or mausoleum freely situated in a sacred environment, e.g. the most important cited work - the ironwork surrounding the Royal Mausoleum in Prague, or the ironwork surrounding the Cenotaph of Maxmilian I located in the Court Church of Innsbruck. Other types of ironwork related to sepulchral monuments are mentioned complementarily, such as ironwork closing off interior chapels, freely standing ironwork, and ironwork protecting sepulchral niches. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)