This study examines the description of characters' education in twelfth- and thirteenth-century French epic and romance with two broad aims: to establish how education is described, and to suggest reasons why it is portrayed in the particular way that it is. The discussion is divided into three parts. The first provides the contextual framework for the second two, and presents a brief overview of the history of education in the period, together with a survey of the theory and practice of education in school and at home. Critics and historians have noted the link between education and literature and we provide a model of contemporary educational background, theory and practice, against which literary descriptions may be compared and understood. In Part II we analyse these literary descriptions, hitherto not comprehensively explored. Taking a large corpus of works, we examine the content of characters' education, drawing comparisons across genre and timespan, and with the model from Part I. This, together with further examination of where poets draw their inspiration, what they choose to include and how it is presented, provides a context within which particular features, descriptions or texts may be discussed. Part III examines particularly interesting treatments of education. Five different studies of individual works or groups of texts illustrate the range of ways education may function, and help us to establish the status of the education description in Old French literature. We conclude that poets deliberately describe and exploit education in various ways. These range from delineation of character, where we see authors shaping the raw material of narrative for their own ends, to major thematic use, essential for understanding a text. Study of the theme of education reveals its contribution to and reflection of the importance of medieval education and its influence on vernacular literature.

The diploma thesis analyzes the literary characters of Communist protagonists in the novels and short stories published in Czech literature of the last fifteen years. We assume that the time distance dynamically changes the concepts of the representations of the Communist protagonists. The aim of this work is not only to define the stereotypical traits that are associated with the figure of the Communists, but it also attempts to identify the practices of the lifting up of such protagonists from the traditional semiotic connotations. The thesis analyzes the characters of the Communists from the point of the thematic units, as they seem to be the most common semantic units for standard readers.

Inaug.-Diss.--Munich. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 504-514.

The diploma thesis deals with the personality of Arnošt Lustig and his work. Apart from the biographical section, it focuses on the specific features of his literary work, including characteristics of the author's style of writing and linguistic means. In particular, it focuses on the analysis of several selected works where the central figures are women. It records how the Lustig's life is experience was reflected in the selection of these female figures. In the center of interest is the motive of the female heroine, the characteristics of the individual types, interpretation of their thinking, behavior and negotiation against the background of the historical context.

This thesis with help of literary literature is at first focused on the way of displaying the subject in post-revolutionary Czech prose (from anti-infective output till output which is accented on mimetic stylization). The social situation before and after year 1989 is taken into consideration. Thanks to this theoretical background is the attention focused on the way of existing of the sujbect in five short proses by Alexandra Berk and its interpretation related to living reality. Practical analysis of the texts is led on narratology and theatological meaning (using intertextual relations, resp. metatext relations). Before the analysis it will briefly introduce the author, her life and activity.

The diploma thesis is focused on the problems of children readership and its main aim is to reveal the influence of the literary work that is very popular among readers on the interpretation of concrete literary text. By the means of research it tries to detect how the work Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling and its popularity affect the perception of literary text with respect to pupils of the 6th grade in primary school and students of 1st year in secondary school. The defined aim is studied mainly through reader's perception of literary characters in the concrete literary text; the main focus is aimed at perception of character hierarchy, creation of relationships with characters and perception of the main character of the work Harry Potter. Thanks to these findings it is possible to say whether the children readers are able to perceive the concrete literary text independently on the work by J. K. Rowling and its popularity or whether they are constantly under its influence and are not able to free themselves from its dominance. According to final discoveries it is possible to approach the work within the context of literary classes and overall literary education. Summarizing the results, the research has revealed that the influence of the phenomenon called Harry Potter and its popularity is quite...

This paper aims to draft a typology of antiheroes in contemporary fantasy literature. Antiheroes are reflected upon concerning their origins, development, and recognition by the implied reader. Mythical trickster is also considered an antihero. The first half presents a theoretical base for the subsequent analysis.

The diploma thesis deals with various genres which, at the turn of the century, depicted life of the Prague offscourings, i.e. socially excluded and frequently humiliated inhabitants of Prague. The main objective is to give a characteristic of a homeless character, the man on the street, also known as the "Prague vagabond", a character which regularly appears in literature of the period. The thesis discusses several specific Prague vagabonds whom it subsequently compares to the literary type of vagabond (the author used Daniela Hodrová's theoretical findings about the literary type) and shows the impact the city environment has on him. Besides that, the author follows the way the city itself is described as the vagabond of Prague is closely connected with and to a large extent determined by his home city. Primarily, the thesis works with fiction (although a few plays are included as well) and aims to focus on authors of the period who are not widely known today, e.g. R. J. Kronbauer, K. L. Kukla, V. Plaček, F. L. Šmíd, and J. Hais Týnecký. Keywords Prague, Prague offscourings, vagabond, beggar, social issues, literary character, environment

This diploma thesis is focused on a comprehensive analysis of the characters in the stories by Božena Němcová. The theoretical part is devoted to the theory of the formation of literary figures. In the practical part we follow the characters affected by mutual relations, environment and the society in which they live. We concentrate on the most important author's stories: Pomněnka šlechetné duše, Baruška, Chudí lidé, Sestry, Dobrý člověk, Divá Bára, Karla, Chyže pod horami, Cesta z pouti. In the stories Němcová offered a view of the Czech country people, patterns for her work Němcová acquired during her travels and from the telling of local residents. In her works, Němcová leaves her characters speak the local dialect, picturing local costumes, customs and culture. The characters are emotionally rich, elaborated, credible, partly idealized. In the work the author expressed several ideas which the society should follow.

This work is centered in the analysis of characters in the novel The Savage Detevcives written by Roberto Bolaño. The thesis has no purpose in the biografic analysis of its authors life. It represents a detailed research and identification of characters that were (and still are) attached to our delimited context which is centered in the years of the development of the plot (1975-1976) and the years after while the movement infrarrealsim lasts. Its purpose is the analysis of each selected character. In order to fulfill it I have created the concept of the "infra-grafía". An infra-grafía is some kind of curriculum of each character that helps to respond the question that this work arises: which characters are fictional and which are infra-real? Because real is none of them.