Justifications and critique in the European Union: a study of legitimacy in practice Mgr. Ing. Olga Gheorghiev ABSTRACT Inspired by the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Luc Boltanski and his collaborators, this thesis examines how legitimacy is produced in public debates at the EU level through the craft of justification and critique among competent actors. In doing so, this research takes aim at three specific episodes in the history of the European integration that share in common the qualities of uncertainty of outcome, controversy in public debate and the urgency to reach a form of consensus and thus to resolve the created uncertainty. The examined events are the following: the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, and the adoption of specific measures in reaction to the European sovereign debt crisis. The theoretical part of this thesis situates the potential of the sociology of critical capacities for the study of the EU among other theoretical traditions, pointing out directions in which this particular theoretical framework could cover some of the limitations of other approaches. This is followed by the empirical part, which is divided in three chapters for each of the examined historical episodes. While structured somewhat symmetrically, each...

The thesis attempts to discuss the character of late Romantic literature and art as it developed in England throughout the Victorian period. It follows the assertion made by G. Hough that it is possible to identify a continuous presence of Romantic ideas and methods in the writings of some major Victorian authors, and reflects the fact that there was actually no consensus or prevailing unequivocal view of Romanticism at that time, as is evidenced in the contradicting statements of such writers as John Ruskin and Walter Pater. The first objective of the thesis is thus to define the characteristic features of English Romanticism as they can be tracked down in the formative period of the 18th century and the time of High Romanticism of the first decades of the following century, and to see what transforming changes these characteristics underwent during the Victorian era. The sources of Romantic sensibility are located in the revolutionary role of the scientific discoveries of the 17th century and a new focus of the philosophical writings of that period, concerning mainly operations of the human mind. This development resulted in new aesthetic conceptions based on the two prevailing approaches, empiricism and Neo-Platonism. These theories conditioned the main concern of Romantic thought, i.e. an...

This thesis focuses on present prehension of publicistic genre of film review by its authors and seeks for its differences from original theoretical definitions including the reasoning and question on its future change. Derivation of our research is confirmation of hypothesis which was conclusion of previous bachelor thesis and it speaks of transformational tendency of film reviews in time. Combination of quantitative and qualitative technique gathering data, therefore questionnaire survey with present-day film reviewers and semi-structured interviews with well-known figures, aims to the most perfect capturing of their present output, equipment for it and values, but also theirs own authorship opinions about points of importance within writing about movies and how it is changing in time and eventually where it is heading.

The war represents one of the most conspicuous manifestations of the overabundance of energy that Georges Bataille has been theorizing as part of his theory of general economics. On the background of this facts, work seeks to define war as an inherently non-utilitarian expenditure of energy with which the human must necessarily contend. Next, the work attempts to question the common denominators of the excessive moments that war undoubtedly belongs to, and to point out their importance in philosophy of Bataille. The sovereignty that accompanies such moments will be further themed, bearing in mind the specificity that the author devotes to it, which breaks out of dialectical necessity. Keywords: Georges Bataille, sovereignty, accursed share, heterogeneity, self-consciousness, critique of utilitarity, war

This thesis is a complete bibliography of texts written by Růžena Vacková published in between years 1929 and 1948, supplemented by contemporary contextualisation of the time and characteristics of individual periodicals in which these texts appear. A substantial part of this study deals with magazines Vacková has contributed to consistently for a long period of time. This study presents a brief biographical summary, serving to facilitate the classification of individual texts and their relation to the author's persecuted life. The study also includes a brief outline of her views as an author and as an critic. Keywords: Růžena Vacková, bibliography, criticism, magazines of the 1930s and 1940s

The diploma thesis deals with Czech-Hungarian translation difficulty, especially in the linguistic field. It covers the most frequent issues that a particular beginning translator confronts with when translating from Hungarian into Czech language. Working on concrete examples of contemporary translations (created after 2000), it provides a possible solution in terms of adequately transferring content and form of the original. The comparison of translational transformations is the subject in varios linguistic levels, starting from morphological to a syntactical level. Depending on the type of solution and transformation, the effects of these changes will be mentioned on a stylistic level. The thesis is designed as a guide for novice translators. Keywords: theory of translation, critique of translation, methods of translation, Hungarian literature, manual, Czech translation, Hungarian translation, linguistics

This diploma thesis is examining hidden presence of a French author Romain Gary in the works of Émile Ajar. Only after Gary's death the public learned, that Émile Ajar was in fact Gary's pseudonym, although he has publicly denied this connection throughout his life. Because of this unrevealed mystification, Gary was given Goncourt prize twice, despite the fact that each author is only allowed to receive it once. Gary claims in his testament, that an observant reader of his work should immediately discover the connection. Can we agree with him, even if literary critics failed to find out? This work investigates various literary practices used by authors to hide their identity. The "lives" of both authors are presented. Gary did not only create Émile Ajar's life story, he also persuaded his nephew to pose as Ajar in public. The stories are followed by a comparative analysis of eight novels: four published under Gary's name and four under the pseudonym. Comparing the selected works from diverse aspects, we try to answer the principal question: Was it possible to prove that Émile Ajar was Gary's creation during his very lifetime?

This diploma thesis "Isaiah 49 as seen by Rhetorical Criticism: Between Doubts and Radical Hope" adopts the method of rhetorical criticism and applies it on a chosen biblical text from the 49th chapter of Isaiah. Rhetorical criticism is an exegetical method which, provided that the form of the text firmly relates to its content, tries by an attentive studying of the linguistic structures of the text to better understand the intended meaning of the author. This studying is of a synchronic character and uses structural and literary tools. It also pays attention to elements of persuasion. In the first chapter of this thesis, rhetorical criticism is introduced as well as its emergence in the second half of the 20th century and its subsequent development is described. In the second chapter, the method of this thesis is specified. It is then used in the third chapter, which is the core of the thesis, to interpret the chosen biblical text. The utilization of the method of rhetorical criticism is then evaluated in the final fourth chapter.

The work "Rise of television political satire in the USA, Czech Republic and Germany in the new millennium" maps the development of television political satire in the United States, Germany and the Czech Republic in the period from 2000 to the present days with a look at the history of this genre in each respected country. Special attention is focused on the programs that had the greatest influence on the current form of this genre and influenced it the most. The first part of the work presents the history of television political satire in each individual country and introduces their current representatives of this genre, which have the greatest influence in the modern day. This section also introduces the obstacles of their cultural environment in which the shows were created to provide a more holistic view on obstacles that these shows have had to overcome in today's media world. In the second part, selected shows will be analysed from a technical and formal point of view and attention will also be focused on their hosts. The role of host in these shows is one of the most important elements which determine their future success. Furthermore, the work will examine other elements that individual programs share with each other and, conversely, the elements in which individual programs of political...

The topic of this thesis is gender analysis of "hantec", a specific dialect spoken in the second largest city in the Czech Republic - Brno. The aim of the work is to search for differences between manifestation and perception of women/female and men/male in "hantec" from the perspective of gender linguistics. On example of local dialect I demonstrate how the general gender discourse prevails. By analysing the vocabulary and literary forms of "hantec" I want to show to what extent this dialect (specific for Brno) reflected the principles of gender inequality. The focus lies on the presence of language sexism and reproduction of gender stereotypes in "hantec". In the thesis I also document the historical development of "hantec" and how were the principles of gender inequality displayed in the different stages of its development.