This thesis examines the role of dialogic processes in representations of conversion narratives and expressions of poetic subjectivity across the works of four poets: Guittone d’Arezzo (c.1235-1294), Guido Guinizzelli (c.1230-1276), Guido Cavalcanti (c.1255-1300) and Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The introduction proposes a definition of ‘dialogic processes’ drawing on theoretical models of performativity and dialogism. It presents the usefulness of these approaches to the analysis of narratives of conversion and accounts of subjectivity in poetry. Chapter 1 analyses Guittone’s conversion poetics in light of these processes and seeks to complicate the teleology of his narrative of self. Chapter 2 examines the poetry of Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti, first establishing the ‘poetic conversion’ of Guinizzelli in dialogue with his own and others’ poetry. It then examines Cavalcanti’s physiological performance of a polyphonic subjectivity and how far this poetic expression partakes in the dialogic processes previously discussed in relation to religiously inflected writing. Chapters 3 and 4 will explore the manifestations of these phenomena of dialogue and performance in Dante’s oeuvre with particular focus on the Commedia as a key site for intertextual interaction both with his own earlier texts and with the texts (and figures) of the other poets under discussion. These chapters will seek to reopen the teleological closure which Dante tries to impose on his vernacular predecessors, as well as on his own works. The weight of critical engagement with Dante’s predecessors has treated them as sources or reference points for Dante’s own praxis. I aim to consider Guittone, Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti on their own terms and in dialogue with one another before approaching Dante through these poets, thus reconstructing the networks of poetic dialogue in late medieval Italy, and situating Dante firmly within a dialogic tradition of narratives of self and conversion.

The song genre constitutes a significant part of J. B. Foertser's work (around 350 songs). In the Czech musical context, Foerster is along with Vítězslav Novák considered a founder of modern Czech song. Despite its unquestionable significance, Foerster's song output remains an unexplored area in musicology. The aim of this diploma thesis is to contribute to the body of scholarship devoted to Foerster by focusing on this area of his work, which has not received adequate critical attention. The main part of the thesis consists of detailed musical-textual analyses of the song cycle Šest písní na básně Puškinovy op. 161 (1937). Through the analyses, the thesis examines the composer's approach to the setting texts to music and points out the qualities of his work. The discussion gives an overview of Foerster's song output and outlines the main critical concerns in this area of his work. The last but one chapter of the thesis compares opus 161 with selected Foerster's song cycles from his previous work periods and an attempt is made to put the opus into the context of the composer's song output as a whole. In the conclusion, opus 161 is discussed in the context of the Czech and, more generally, European song productions.

Im Mittelpunkt der Dissertation „Politik der kleinen Form“ steht die Frage nach der Politizität ‚kleiner‘ Formen in augusteischer Zeit: also der sogenannten Liebeselegie des Properz, Tibull und Ovid sowie der erotischen Dichtung des Horaz. Auf der Grundlage einer Analyse der Gattungs- und Formpolitik ihrer Paraklausithyra und Recusationes wird eine neue Interpretation aufgezeigt. Jenseits von inhaltszentrierten Lesarten, die immer nur den Subversions- oder Affirmationscharakter von Literatur herausarbeiten, schlägt diese Dissertation einen dritten Weg vor: den der Ambivalenz und des Paradoxons. / At the centre of the dissertation „The Politics of Small Forms“ is the question of the politicity of ‘small forms’ in Augustan times: of the so-called love elegy of Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid as well as of the erotic poetry of Horace. On the basis of an analysis of the genre and form politics of their paraclausithyra and recusationes a new interpretation is pointed out. Beyond content-centered readings, which work out either the subversive or the affirmative character of literature, this dissertation suggests a third way: that of ambivalence and paradox.

Nikolaj Kljuev (1884-1937) est l’une des figures les plus fascinantes de l’« Âge d’argent » russe et du modernisme. Longtemps interdite après son exécution, son œuvre n’a été redécouverte qu’à la faveur du « boom » éditorial de la perestroïka, la publication de poèmes épiques tardifs suscitant un vif intérêt pour son œuvre témoignage de la violence de la collectivisation. Né dans le Nord russe, engagé pour la cause paysanne, correspondant d’Alexandre Blok entre 1907 et 1915, idéologue du néo-populisme dans les années 1910, bolchevik en 1919, Kljuev est devenu, dans les années 1920, une référence pour la génération des jeunes poètes soviétiques (Harms, Vvedenskij, etc.), un conservateur de la culture russe ancienne et un modèle d’anti-comportement, dans le contexte d’un champ littéraire en pleine reconfiguration. Attirant un public très divers, modulant sa personnalité littéraire et sa voix en fonction de son auditoire, Kljuev s’épanouit sur scène comme dans le cadre privé du cercle et du couple. Alors qu’il a trouvé, au cours des années 1910, un matériau esthétique de choix dans le folklore russe, la vieille foi et les chants populaires, c’est le « je » qui demeure au centre de son univers poétique, sous la forme d’un héros lyrique évoluant au sein des cycles. Ceux des années 1917-1932 occupent une place cruciale dans sa trajectoire poétique, dans la mesure où c’est en leur sein que s’élabore le « cosmos de l’Isba », au cœur de l’univers poétique kljuevien. Éminemment charnel et homoérotique, le «je» est aussi désincarné dans un Verbe qui devient le vecteur de l’intentionnalité du texte poétique, au même titre que les masques du poète se font le véhicule de son identité narrative. / Nikolai Klyuev (1884-1937) is one of the most fascinating figures of the Russian «Silver age» and modernism. Forbidden for half a century after the poet’s execution, his work was almost fully recovered only at the end of the 1980’s, and the publication of the late epic poems sparked an intense interest in those poetic testimonies of the violence of collectivization. Born in the Russian North, committed to the peasant revolution, Alexander Blok’s penpal between 1907 and 1915, ideologist of neo-populism in the 1910’s, bolshevik in 1919, Klyuev became in the 1920’s a reference for the young generation of soviet poets (Harms, Vvedenski, etc.), a keeper of Russian folk culture and an example of anti-behavior whithin the frame of a mutating literary field. Attracting a diverse crown and modifying his literary persona as well as his voice regarding his audience, Klyuev thrives on stage as well as within the private circle and couple. Whilst he has found during the 1910’s a valuable aesthetic material in Russian folklore, old belief and popular songs, his poetic universe gravitates around his «self» in an egocentric manner. The utopian formula of the «isba cosmos» is formulated precisely within the lyric cycles of the 1920’s that correspond to the intimate intention of his verse. Carnal and homoerotic, the «lyric hero» is also disembodied in the Word that carries the poetic intention, the same way the mask Klyuev dons in public becomes the vehicle of his narrative identity in perpetual representation

Qualifying work has interdisciplinary charakter. This work is concentrate on knowledge of history and culture of age last members of Přemysl´s dynasty and the first members of Luxembourg´s dynasty. The primary aim of work is to identify the conditions under which there is courtly literature and minnesing on the courts of these rulers. Next aim is using the comparative method to define the basic topics in prose and poetry. The secondary aim is recognizing influence of German and Latin literature domestic and foreign on literature written in Czech. The work ?Minnesing and court literature at the court of last members of Přemysl's dynasty and the first members of Luxembourg's dynasty? deals with years 1283?1306 and 1310?1333 taking into account also past years.

The subject of this thesis is a characterisation of key motivic units in lyrical works of Jaroslav Vrchlický and Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, thus it explores Czech parnassian and decadent poetry of the end of 19th century. It observes and traces literal, esthetical and thought shifts of both authors from the aspect of various motives usage. The thesis is divided into five chapters, each of them dealing with one specific motivic unit. The chapters are: 1. Motives of woman, body and sexuality. 2. Motives of dream, imaginary and escape. 3. Motives of dying, disease and decay. 4. Motives of depressiveness, grief, bitterness and vanity. 5. Motives of nature and landscape. Each chapter compares these motives, examines their usage by both authors and looks at how their form and expression undergo a process of certain changes. It also focuses on those motives that appear as completely new elements in their poetry. The conclusion provides with brief summaries of all chapters and a short look through frequency word dictionary of relevant volumes of poems.