Visual Reinterpretation of National Identity in the Public Space of Mexico Visual communication in public spaces of Mexico has been significantly shaping collective identity, from pre-Columbian times to nowadays. This PhD thesis analyzes the visual aspect of cultural and religious identity in pre-Columbian and colonial eras, later, the discussion is led through the development of the modern day national identity that followed while concurrently explaining how former structural characteristics were partially maintained. Those phenomena are explored from two vantage points: that of the cultural and political elites and that of the general population. However, these perspectives aren't presented in a sharp opposition, rather, as two conjugating cultural streams that have been continuously negotiating and shaping cultural and national identity in correlation with historical and cultural events, including influence from significant others. Accordingly, the thesis explores the official version of national identity, that is promoted by state power, but also how official identity is received into intimate spaces, the everydayness of the bearers of such identity, its reinterpretation and alternatively, the rejections. Since public art (mural art, popular graphics, graffiti, stencil art and other diverse means of...

Diploma thesis "Sects, new religious movements and identity in Russia in the nineties of 20th century in the context of overall societal changes" deals with the problem of minority religions in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Terminological part explains the difference between the termin "sect" and "new religious movement", introductory historical overview outlines the role of sects in the history of Russia. The hub of the study lays in three large chapters. The first deals with the dynamics of the religious situation in relation to sects in the first half of the 90s, classifies them and names the main representants. The second part deals with concrete manifestations of changes in the middle of the decade, for example the process Yakunin versus Dvorkin or the change of legislation in 1997. The third part seeks answer to the question what was the underlying cause of changes in social and legal position of sects and finds the anspher in the sphere of national identity.

The theme of the dissertation submitted is the novel Devil Guardian, whose author is a Mexican writer Xavier Velasco. This dissertation is the very first theoretical work in the Czech environment, devoted to the above-mentioned piece of literature published in 2004. In a sense, Devil Guardian represents a characteristic Mexican novel of the early 21st century, combining tradition and novelty in a surprising and original manner. A significant feature of the contemporary Mexican literature is a departure from the theme of Mexicanity, generally from a programmatic indulging in so-called national literature. Velasco's novel is an exemplary, however, not only piece of literature proving that the literary break-up with Mexico is neither an exclusive nor a dominant attribute of the contemporary Mexican fiction. In Devil Guardian Velasco focuses his mind on the theme of personal and national identity, which he treats in a considerably nontraditional manner, giving an ironical turn to speak to a hypermodern girl moving in the globalized world. The dissertation is divided into six parts. The first part "Originality Rooted in Tradition" refers to Devil Guardian ensuing the tradition of Mexican novel and innovating it. The second part "Xavier Velasco" briefly introduces the author's life and work. The issues...

of Ph.D. thesis: Middle Eastern Conflict in the French Public Space (2000-2010) Václav Nekvapil, 2013 The main objective of the thesis is to analyse and typologise French social discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a reflection of certain opinions, interests, stances and values associated with today's Jewishness and Jewish diasporic identity. The research also contains an analysis of the official political-diplomatic discourse of both Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Based on the methodology of typologisation and critical discourse analysis, we distinguish three basic positions related to the debate on the abovementioned topics in the years 2000- 2010: republican, anti-imperialist and neoconservative. The thesis elaborates on attitudes of presidents of the French Fifth Republic towards Israel and how their policies have been perceived by the Jewish community. The community as such is also a matter of the research: its changing religiosity, demography, immigration of Nord African Jewry and the attitude towards Zionism and the State of Israel. The thesis follows four main thematic axes when analysing arguments of the most important speakers. First, when analysing the duty of memory (devoir de mémoire), the author carefully examines moral argumentation concerning the...

Exile has always played a significant role in the history of the Romanian nation. On that account the Romanian literature written in exile after 1945 presents an important part of the history of Romanian literature as a whole. Due to its linguistic and cultural affinity France became one of the main host countries for Romanian exile writers. The introductive chapter is dedicated to description, classification and history of this phenomenon in Romanian context; furthermore, it deals with the position and reception of exile literature in Romania. According to their departure date in exile two generations of authors are presented: Mircea Eliade, Virgil Ierunca, Monica Lovinescu who left Romania in 1940s and Paul Goma, Bujor Nedelcovici, Dumitru Ţepeneag who decided to leave in France in 1970s and 1980s. The chosen works help us to get to know to the writers' creation and lives during the process of integration and, simultaneously, we get familiar with the communist Romania that became the main topics of the exile writers who are chosen as representatives of their exile generation. Through them the basic survey of this phenomenon in Romanian literature was drawn up.

This thesis focuses on issues of multi-layered identities within a social space. It analyzes ritual (or ceremony) as one of the codified displays of culture within which collective ideas and attitudes regarding identity are manifested, shared, and strengthened. Bosnian Serbs - due to political and social change - were forced to redefine their position in society, as well as their (collective) identities and social ties. Slava is a fundamental ritual seen as an attribute of "Serbianness", and in the context of this study, manifests itself as an indicator of establishment and validity of collective identities. Slava is a traditional celebration practiced by Orthodox believers in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgary, Albania, and Macedonia. It is a festivity of either a family, village, or local church patron. At the center of this research will be an individual slava of a family patron saint, krsna slava, or krsno ime. For Bosnian Serbs, krsna slava is currently a revitalized ritual concurring with local tradition and convening with social ambitions of current inhabitants in the region (otherwise it would not be revitalized). The pertinence of this research subject is given by the nature of ritual itself as it is founded on collective sharing and the manifestation of common ideas1 ....

The thesis focuses on the analysis of the basic types of the film characters portraying artificial women: creatures who combine "femininity" (humanity) and technology, and who show female sexual characteristics or features that are stereotypically perceived as female-like (e.g. female cyborgs, female androids, female robots). The characters are analyzed and approached from the perspective of postmodern philosophy and post-theory studies; the forming of their body and identity is analyzed on the account of the narrative. The aim of the thesis is to explore whether the film representations of female cyborgs are similar to real cyborgs in the sense that they bring liberalization from the point if view of posthumanism and cyberfeminism, or whether they can only be perceived as the prime form of the Foucaltian body-as-machine, i.e. perfectly controllable precise technicist bodies which are created by the current power dispositions. The characters are divided into four categories, based on their predominant physical and "social" functions: a sexbot, a domesticated artificial woman, a destructive artificial woman and an emotional/intelligent artificial woman. The following identification and interpretation of the body, identity, relationships and the narrative structures are based on the theoretical...

The main subject is evaluation of effective use in terms of care (not only within protection of monuments) in order to save and protect industrial heritage. Pointing out on critical issues connected with the end of production of traditional branches which played the key role in historical development of our cities. Nowadays abandoned buildings and sites are represented by memory of the place or its prosperity. New owners often don't share the positive approach to the industrial heritage, developers are seeking new sites, cities and inhabitants have developed new needs through the time. The work will demonstrate examples within European context and will make recommendations in monitoring and classification of industrial heritage to prevent undo able losses.

The aim of the urban – architectural study is to connect the historic city centre with the so far problematic and neglected areas along to the viaduct via rehabilitation and conversion of industrial buildings and filling up the city structure with new volumes in order to integrate the area within the organism of the city. Creative efforts are supported by analysis of post-industrial cityscape generally and its problems. The focus will be on sustainable principles, connectivity, eco-friendly transport and creating quality public spaces.

The objective of this thesis is to do a comparative analysis of four Romany life-stories in prose from different parts of the world and identify features which may justly be called characteristic of Romany writing. The comparison of Victor Vishnevsky's Memories of a Gypsy, Mikey Walsh's Gypsy Boy and Gypsy Boy on the Run, Andrej Giňa's Paťiv. Ještě víme, co je úcta and Irena Eliášová's Naše osada yields valuable insights into how Romany writers construct their identity and to what extent their current work relates to the existing literary genres. Because of Romany studies' multidisciplinary nature, the extensive introduction lays the theoretical foundations for the analysis. I proceed from the characteristics of Romany studies in general in part 1.2 to the way it was practised during my undergraduate years in Prague as opposed to the Western tradition (part 1.3). Using a case study of the schism Romany studies are currently facing in the Czech Republic, in part 1.4 I attempt to illustrate the more general epistemological challenges the field has been grappling with between essentialist/primordialist and radical constructivist views. As there is a definite scarcity of theoretical literature conceptualising Romany writing, in part 1.5 of the introduction the existing body of work is assessed and found...