The aim of the master thesis is to identify factors on which a motivation of individual, rather terrorist organization is based for committing of suicide attacks as a social phenomenon, that appears to be a priori incomprehensible in the context of European culture setting. The secondary aim of the thesis is to distinguish an eventual difference of motivation between female suicide attackers and male suicide attackers. For these purposes, two terrorist organizations have been analysed within two separately designed case studies, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Hamas for those the suicide attacks have represented the real "modus operandi" and simultaneously engaged women to their suicide missions. These terrorist organizations have been systematically analysed in terms of cultural, political, economic and organizational and social-psychological factors. The levels of analysis used, represent a synthetized reflection of existing theoretic treatment of suicide terrorism issue. The resulting findings confirm, first of all, the fact, that suicide terrorism phenomenon constitutes considerably complicated social phenomenon, whose central motive appears to be political, more precisely nationalistic. However its strength and effectiveness are largely interconnected with other motives, both cultural,...

Ukrainian state lacks an effective historical memory policy. For this reason, the Ukrainian nation- building project lacks ideological capabilities to consolidate Ukrainian society. The dilemma regarding the national myths is the main challenge of the Ukrainian nation-building project. The dilemma emerged in choosing between the myth of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the myth of the Great Patriotic War. Both myths are struggling for an important place in the pantheon of Ukrainian history, but fisrt of all for a recognition of Ukrainian society. This resulted in the creation of conflicting historical identities. Ukrainian elite have long time speculated on the differences in the historical identity, which largely contributed to social fragmentation. This thesis describes how national myths interact with nation-building project and also analyzes the content of the most crucial interpretations of the historical myths.

VOLÁK, Jiří."Acts of Resistance": Productions by Belarus Free Theatre from 2005 to 2015 as an Alternative Articulation of Belarusian National Identity. Praha, 2016. 74 s. Diplomová práce (Mgr.) Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut mezinárodních studií. Katedra ruských a východoevropských studií. Vedoucí diplomové práce Mgr. Daniela Kolenovská, Ph.D.. Abstract The study aims to make sense of contemporary conceptions of national identity in Belarus via their cultural manifestations. For that purpose, the case of Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) has been chosen as an example of alternative culture in 2005-2015. Five plays are analysed with respect to the employed verbatim technique, and conclusions concerning the alternative society and its relation to language and other national issues are drawn. Key questions are: What are the major competing projects regarding the (supposedly weak) Belarusian national identity? Does Belarus Free Theatre use culture to promote a certain vision within the national identity debate? What language policy does Belarus Free Theatre employ and what does it say about the national development? After setting theoretical background, the study follows attempts to characterise Belarus under the rule of president Aliaksandr Lukashenka, offering basic facts about how he came to...

During the migration waves in the 19th century many Czechs immigrated to America. One of their final destinations was the city of Chicago. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries this became the largest Czech occupied base abroad. Over a hundred thousand Czechs lived in Chicago at that time so it was therefore considered to be the third largest Czech city. The topic of the dissertation thesis is the analysis the course of Czech migration to Chicago and the related development of the Czech minority. Key attention is devoted to the socio-cultural, economic and political development of the Czech minority in terms of ethno-historical methods. Furthermore, the author will focus on important historical milestones and events of this city, which in some way influenced the Czech minority. Time definition of work is 1852-1945 and follows from a historical perspective, because the first Czech immigrants arrive in greater numbers to this American territory only in the fifties of the 19th century. On the other hand, the Second World War concludes a period that was important for the Czech ethnic group in Chicago. After 1945 there is a significant assimilation process (the Czech minority is massively Americanized) and the Czech expatriate center is declining in importance.

in English Dissertation deals with the freak show culture in Prague and the Czech lands in a broader context of the modern discourses of dis/ability and the imaginations of the collective body of the Czech nation. Exhibitions of "Lilliputians", "Giants", "Siamese twins" and other "extraordinary" bodies are analyzed here as a part of the history of an international entertainment culture in the 19th-century Europe. The emphasis lays on the turn of the century, the decade that witnessed rash development both of the capitalist entertainment industry and the expert disciplines that dealt with the "ab/normal". I claim, that the popularity of freak shows in this period rested in their ability to articulate fears and ambitions of their visitors, both in their individual embodied experience and their imaginative belonging, notably their belonging to the collective body of the Czech nation. In four case studies, I focus on individual freak figures and analyze how the intersections of different axes of difference - ethnicity, gender, class - within the representation of "the extraordinary", coproduced certain notion of social order and power hierarchies that were closely intertwined with the imagined collective body of nation.

The goal of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the perception of the German gymnastic movement founder Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852) and of his ideology in the German Gymnastic Club. Since the eighties of the 19th century, the Jahn's ideas had been specifically interpreted in the gymnastic clubs in Lower Austria. This interpretation, under the direct influence of growing racial anti-Semitism, consisted of an extreme national and racial intolerance. The clubs, since 1889 associated in German Gymnastic Club, gradually made their way to the radically national movement that gained the epithet of "völkisch". Various methods have been applied to determine how the club adopted, interpreted and in its own way also changed the Jahn's teaching in the field of the language, physical exercise, national and anti-Semitic ideology and, last but not least, in terms of festivities and symbology. The result of the study has shown that the "völkisch" interpretation of Jahn's controversial ideas enabled the Club to lay the foundations for the new ideology which was to become dominant in the gymnastic movement of the German speaking countries in the thirties of the 20th century.

99 Summary Buberův kulturní sionismus a Masarykův humanismus - komparativní studie Buber's Cultural Zionism and Masaryk's Humanism - Comparative Study Marie Venclová This thesis deals with various aspects of understanding the term nation, its roots and dimensions in the works of Martin Buber and Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. The comparative study is based on analysis of Buber's Three Addresses on Judaism and Masaryk's Problem of a Small Nation. In these texts the philosophers present their attitudes and ideas about the meaning, origin and content of the existence of a nation. The results of the comparison show, that their points of view are similar in more than a few aspects and what most importantly bonds their ideas is the moral, spiritual and cultural understanding of the meaning of a nation. Furthermore, they both stress the responsibility of each and every individual part of the society for implementing such ideas into practice. Buber's cultural Zionism as well as Masaryk's humanism are also concepts based on critical self-reflection and need of education, which serves to broaden horizons and identify positive values in one's own nation. Motivation for this thesis resided in unique legal position of the Jewish minority in Czechoslovakia after the First World War. Based on the results of the comparison we...

The thesis deals with the Czechoslovak communist politician Gustáv Husák in connection with the cause of the Slovak bourgeois nationalism. It is structured chronologically, sometimes interspersed with thematic areas. It draws from a wide variety of sources. The prevailing approach is positivistic and analytical. The aim is to explain the emergence of the cause of the Slovak bourgeois nationalism and the way in which Husák was incorporated into it. The work points to a pivotal link with the international context and reveals poor relations between leading Party officials. Furthermore, the thesis raises issues of Husák's political fall, fabricated charges, imprisonment and subsequently the complexity of the rehabilitation process, at the end of which Husák's Communist Party membership was restored and a further political career remained a possibility. Additionally, the text tries to consider to a large extent the social relations between different participants and understand their motives of behavior. All of this is also put into perspective with respect to Czech-Slovak relations, which were significantly influenced by the aforementioned cause. The intention of the work deliberately exceeds the biographical theme.

The diploma thesis "Rural section of the Bohemia newspapers in 1856 - 1876" analyses the thematic content and news frequency from the countryside and places that the German written newspapers Bohemia published during the introduced period. In the beginning the thesis describes the historical, cultural and political connection in the Czech countries, it focuses mainly on Czech-German relationship and national problems that grew after the year 1848. It introduces the media area of this period as well. The main titles and newspapers distributed in Prague and German places have been mentioned there. Bohemia played the main role in integration of German population especially till 50s. Consecutively, it grows the number of other titles and periodical, so Bohemia loses its strong position. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the rural section should prove weakening of the rural news and the changes of its structure and content. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis focuses on the relationships between Czechs and Germans in České Budějovice during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The main emphasis is on the influence the church had on the relationships between the two nations in the time and place mentioned above, as they were described in the collected sources and historic literature. This thesis concentrates mainly on these topics: religious life, community life and education. The conclusion of my work is the discovery that the church and the individual congregations did not participate in the national struggle in the town. They only tried to work to the benefit of the town and its citizens. In case they set up organizations such as schools, clubs, hospitals, it was because they were missing in the town or because they did not exist in sufficient numbers for the ever-evolving town of České Budějovice. It did not matter whether it was a school for Czech or German children, for example. Also, the nationality of the members of the church and congregations themselves was not necessarily decisive. Although the knowledge of both Czech and German language in the town was an important prerequisite. More significant problems arose only with the Redemptorist college, which became unintentionally by the...