This diploma thesis examines Sally Rooney's novels Conversations with Friends and Normal People from the viewpoint of Marxist literary criticism. Based on the author's own claim to incorporate "a Marxist framework" into her writing as a way of describing the surrounding world, the thesis, there- fore, aims to explore the aforementioned novels with regard to Marx's theory. The first part focuses on the theoretical background and principal thoughts of Marxism and Marxist literary criticism. Next, there is outlined the conception of social classes in Ireland and a brief introduction of Sally Rooney's views in order to provide context to the novels. The second part of the thesis then applies the theoret- ical background to an analysis of the novels themselves. This includes their stories, settings, charac- ters and conveyed ideas in relation to the issues of base and superstructure, power dynamics, class identity, social status and influences of economic as well as cultural and educational hegemony.

This diploma thesis deals with two literary debuts, the novel by the French writer Édouard Louis Ending with Eddy B. and the novel by the Czech author Lucie Faulerová Lapači prachu (The Dust Catchers). First, it deals with the phenomenon of art criticism as such and tries to describe various theoretical approaches to it, which can then be used in the practical analysis of critical texts. It then analyzes and attempts to interpret each of the works and analyzes their critical acceptance. In the case of Édouard Louis, these are both reviews published in Czech cultural and news periodicals and selected (most important) English-language critics published in the American, British and Irish media. In the case of Lucie Faulerová, the work deals only with Czech criticism, offering an almost complete overview of major texts evaluating Dust Catchers. The work tries to capture the different approaches of critics to both novels and to the role of the art critic as such. At the end of the work there is a comparison of works and their critical acceptance.

The loneliness theme of Carson McCullers' fiction falls into three divisions or levels. And because of her focus on the individual, her general theme of loneliness as it results from human isolation is universal. She develops her "broad principal theme" through an examination of human characteristics common to all human beings. In expressing her concept of isolation as a human condition, however, she presents loneliness as she believes it exists in her own culture, and, for this reason, her works present a loneliness that results from American cultural attitudes and is tempered by a Southern sense of nostalgia. After first establishing an understanding of McCullers' basic theme through an analysis of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, this study analyzes the nature of the Southern tradition and its influence on the criticism of her fiction with particular focus on the problems of determining to what degree her Southern settings inhibit the interpretation of her works beyond a regional perspective. A comparison of thematic elements, events, and characterization in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter to nonfiction critical discussions of American culture in The Image by Daniel Boorstin and The Pursuit of Loneliness by Philip Slater shows that the social context and the theme of isolation in the novel reflect a condition of life that is American, not distinctively Southern. The final portion of this study continues the analysis of McCullers' basic theme in Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, and Clock Without Hands, comparing elements of these later works to The Image and The Pursuit of Loneliness in order to demonstrate the particularly American loneliness of her characters and the value of her works to the tradition of American novel.

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[pt] Ebooks, audiolivros, adaptações para séries, filmes e jogos, aplicativos de discussão de leitura, redes sociais para leitores e conteúdo de nicho sob demanda a um clique de distância. Nesta nova dinâmica de fluxo de narrativas na era da convergência, um grupo de internautas produz vídeos para compartilhar sua experiência de leitura de livros na plataforma YouTube: os booktubers. Objeto desta pesquisa, o booktube – comunidade formada por produtores e espectadores dos vídeos – aponta para novas relações com a literatura entre a geração de nativos digitais. O caminho traçado nesta investigação propõe três momentos: o antes, um levantamento sociocultural e tecnológico de fatores que levam os leitores a falar de livros na internet; o durante, uma análise do conteúdo que é produzido pela comunidade e sua relação com a crítica literária, a mediação de leitura e o mercado editorial; e o depois, um estudo de caso de usos institucionais do booktube como incentivo à formação de leitores e promoção de cultura. As discussões propostas são baseadas na cultura participativa, na de nicho e na da convergência, nos conceitos de transmídia e mediação de leitura e na perspectiva do jornalismo cultural e dos estudos culturais. / [en] Ebooks, audiobooks, movies, series and games adaptations, book discussion apps, social media for readers, and niche content on demand just a click away. On this new dynamic of narrative flow at the age of convergence, a group of web users make videos to share their book reading experiences at YouTube: the booktubers. Object of this research, the booktube – community formed by creators and audience – points to new relationships with literature among digital natives. The outline of this investigation suggests three moments: the before, a sociocultural and technological survey of factors that lead readers to talk about books on the internet; the during, an analysis of the content that is produced by the community and its relation with literary criticism, reading mediation and the publishing market; and the after, a case study of institutional uses of the booktube as a reading incentive and promotion of culture. The proposed discussions are based on participatory, niche and convergence cultures, on the concepts of transmigration and mediation of reading and on the perspective of cultural journalism and cultural studies.

This thesis is a ”meta-analysis” that investigates the apparent lack of coherence in August Strindberg’s A Dream Play and how this has been dealt with by scholars in literary and theatre studies. The primary material consists of a selection of research publications dated from the 1920’s up until the present day. The analysis concludes that there are four major groups of analyses that, in this regard, provide different solutions on how to counter this seeming deficiency. On the back of this, four general arguments are examined in detail: early attempts to classify this enigmatic drama with regard to genre, psychological analysis, analysis of philosophical ideas and contents, and analysis of the visual aspects of the play. By arguing along these lines of inquiry, scholars wish to substantiate the validity of various elements that harmonize the apparent disparity of the play and exhibit a coherent sequence of events and an interpretable meaning. Moreover, the ways in which these ”solutions” are substantiated and conveyed, that is, the argumentative practices, are examined and critically evaluated. Finally, based on the previous analysis, suggestions pertaining to further areas of research are offered and briefly discussed.

English Summary The present thesis deals with the various ways in which Anglophone literatures form their canon(s) in the Czech context. In doing so, it treats literature as one inseparable whole, consisting of poetry, prose and literary criticism. The latter is not understood as auxiliary literature, but rather as a self-sufficient form that deserves equal attention to so-called "creative writing"; after all, all the three major literary forms inevitably participate in canon formation, albeit in their own respective ways. The process of canon formation takes different turns and yields different results in the original, i.e. Anglophone, milieu and in the Czech context - and the canons that thus arise differ as well. Moreover, the debate on canons is always being complicated by their essentially unstable, variable nature; by definition, the process of canon formation is unfinished and interminable. Canons are not to be viewed as the be-all and end-all of literary analysis but rather as guideposts, useful tools that stimulate further study and permanently invite questioning and revisions of themselves. In spite of this fundamental - and quite simple - purpose, the literary canon is an extremely complex and intricate concept. The complexity of its meanings and its implications is dealt with in the thesis'...

This study uses the framework of systemic functional grammar to conduct the stylistic investigation of extracts from two texts of literary criticism written by F.R. Leavis and Paul de Man. The aims of the study are: i) to identify the characteristic features of the type of text known as professional literary criticism, and interpret the ideological significance of the textual features thus identified; ii) to identify the characteristic features of two specific registers of literary criticism, liberal humanist criticism and deconstruction, and interpret the relationship between linguistic and ideological variation -as exemplified in the texts which are analysed- and power. The features which make systemic functional grammar a powerful tool in stylistic analysis are identified, and a review of the applications of systemic grammar to text analysis is presented. A model of the relationship between text and context is presented, and its key terms and their relationship (discourse, ideology, genre, register, language) are discussed. The analysis of extracts from literary critical texts is conducted according to the three main features of the context of situation as identified in systemic grammar: field (subject matter of the discourse), tenor (participants in the discourse) and mode (medium of the discourse). Finally, the study considers the implications and applications of the conclusions drawn, particularly those that relate to the academic institution within which literary critical texts are produced and read. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

Peu importe la discipline qui l’appréhende, de la médecine humorale à la psychanalyse aujourd’hui, de l’histoire de l’art à la philosophie, la mélancolie se définit par un manque. S’il ne succombe pas à l’apathie, le mélancolique s’efforcera de pallier cette insuffisance par ses activités intellectuelles et artistiques : la mélancolie est carence et génie. La mélancolie travaille : elle compose avec l’absence. De quel ordre est ce manque ? Dans les écrits savants et les œuvres visuelles, la mélancolie a l’image en défaut : un souvenir ou une représentation juste, idéale. La mélancolie ne donne rien à voir sinon ce rapport à l’image, ce travail de mise en ordre et de mise en œuvre que l’on résume sous les noms « intellection » et « création ». La mélancolie est formaliste : elle cherche un modèle, une représentation, un nom, la forme d’une narration. Peu d’œuvres se prêtent à l’étude du génie de la mélancolie comme celle de Roland Barthes (1915-1980). Critique, ce corpus questionne la mélancolie de la forme et du sens. Écrite, cette œuvre donne à lire une figure de la mélancolie qui diffère selon ce qui lui manque. Toujours, la mélancolie compose avec l’absence de l’image. Cache de l’écriture, la photographie a été utilisée comme image du réel et du souvenir. L’image photographique participe d’une quête théorique en même temps qu’elle donne forme à la mélancolie de l’écriture. Avec la photographie, la mélancolie apparaît à la ville (L’empire des signes), au miroir (Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes), en amour (Fragments d’un discours amoureux) et au tombeau (La chambre claire). En figurant ce qui échappe à la littérature, la photographie ordonne autour d’elle une narration mélancolique. Ainsi la fragmentation, la collection, la spécularisation, l’investigation et la formalisation, sont autant d’opérations qui caractérisent la poétique narrative mise en place dans l’œuvre de Roland Barthes. Dans ces opérations, nous voyons également un modèle de la mélancolie du processus de création. / In any body of knowledge, from humoral medicine to psychoanalysis, from art history to philosophy, melancholy has been defined by a gap. Unless he becomes apathetic, the melancholic will try to cope with this deficiency by engaging in intellectual or artistic activities: melancholy is both genius and inadequacy. Melancholy is a labour that deals with absence – but what kind of absence? Arts and scholarly literature has portrayed melancholy as a result from a flaw in the image: a memory or an accurate representation is missing in the melancholic mind. We do not see much of melancholy but an ongoing process of imagination, craft and organization that we call “intellectualization” or “creation”. Melancholy supposes a tendency to formalize: it is the search of the ideal mode of representation, be it a graphic, a name or a literary genre. Few productions allow the study of melancholy at work as well as Roland Barthes’ (1915-1980). Intellectual, his written works question the meaning and the forms of literature and the world in a melancholic way. Creative, his production shows a figure of melancholy that varies from one book to another, depending on what is missing – though it always has something to do with a defect in the image. In this sense, photography has been used as the image of both reality and memory for the writer-to-be. The photographic image is a key to understand his theoretical quest and desire to write a novel. With photography, melancholy appears in the city (L’Empire des Signes), on the mirror (Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes), in love (Fragments d’un Discours Amoureux), and on a grave (La Chambre Claire). Figuring what literature cannot grasp, a photograph sets the conditions of a melancholic narrative. Thus, fragmentation, collection, speculation, investigation, and formalization are the many operations that describe Roland Barthes’ poetics. In these operations, we see as well a model for the melancholy of the creative process.