This paper reads Larry Beinhart’s novel The Librarian (2004) and its nonfiction companion Fog Facts (2005) as a double attempt at writing that is politically invested in representing reality but that nevertheless is openly aware of the postmodern crisis of representation. In this sense, I read both books as indicative of a broad cultural search for forms of writing that engage their readers’ reality without simply attempting to return to a less complicated moment before postmodernism. The paper situates both books within crucial textual contexts: a broad ‘epistemic panic’ about the facts and reality at the time, a surge of political nonfiction published in response to George W. Bush’s Presidency, and a longer tradition of political fiction. Tracing how the novel struggles with its nonfiction aspects and how the nonfiction book relies on fiction to make its point, I then look at how the two books evoke political affect to have a realist appeal of sorts despite their insistence on the precarious nature of all realist representation. Reading both books as distinctly popular, mass-market products and thus bringing together the debate around post-postmodernism from literary studies with an interest in reading pleasures informed by popular culture studies, I argue that the two books constitute decidedly popular attempts at a new, meta-aware yet politically engaged textuality.

The paper describes the development of the content of Mateřídouška magazine in 1945 - 1955 against the backdrop of political and social developments in post-World War 2 Czechoslovakia. These trends included robust centralization of media and their subordination to the Communist regime. The paper examines the characteristics of propaganda and its role in media as one of the key instruments of totalitarianism. It explores the use of Communist propaganda in Czechoslovak juvenile literature. The second part of the paper describes the founding of Mateřídouška and its position among contemporary newspapers and children literature. It examines the influence of the editors-in-chief, namely that of František Hrubín and Jiří V. Svoboda, on the contents of the magazine. The third part describes the application of propaganda on the youngest readers during the first years since the inception of the magazine. The hermeneutic analysis covers various aspects of propaganda, including the cult of personality, celebration of labour, the role of armed forces and other phenomena of the early Communist period in Czechoslovakia.

After the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, the cultural politics of the Communist Party became the only power that should organize, regulate and evaluate cultural affairs. This brouht radical changes of the status of artists. That artists who belonged to the rank of intellectuals had to follow needs of the new kind of society. They accepted orders from above and their activity was strictly controlled. Proletarian amateurs and folk art were officially encouraged. The examples of the progressive art were found in the USSR and also among personalities from the history of the national culture. Cinematography, to which was placed a requirement of topicality, also presented the new image of the artist. The most noticeable results were reached in biografical films about our classics and films exposing folklore and cultural life of the working class. The integration of an intellectual artist into the new society became a pivotal theme in movies Písnička za groš and Nezlob, Kristino. As episodic characters, we can find also completely negative types of artists - enemies of that new society. This spectrum corresponds to a general typology of people that was used in art, journalism and public speech in general: mature, confused and totally inadaptable (designed to be displaced). Exeptional cases of...

Jacques Joseph Scientific Realism and the Natural World M.A. thesis Abstract The main topic of this work is the relation between the natural world and the world of the natural sciences, and furthermore the relation of both these worlds to our conception of an external reality "as it really is". The core of the work is rooted mainly in the Anglo-American analytical philosophy of science, namely the debate concerning scientific realism, with a section dedicated to Husserl's conception of the relation between the natural world and natural sciences (as described in his Krisis). The goal of this work is to show scientific realism as broken beyond repair, and to then offer an alternative. The problems that plague realism run deep into its roots, many of which it shares with its opponents, the new alternative theory therefore needs to be completely different. This work suggests the "Natural ontological attitude" (NOA) presented by Arthur Fine, a theory that tries to salvage the intuitions that made realism seem so attractive. NOA is then developped, using texts by W. V. O. Quine and D. Davidson, as a minimalistic metaphysics based strongly on language that still manages to provide a relation to an extra-linguistic reality.

The aim of this thesis is to present the specific notion of feminism and mythopoetics in the selected works of Angela Carter and demonstrate them on two selected works of Carter's, namely on the collection of re-visited traditional fairy tales The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories and the novel Nights at the Circus. The thesis also deals with chosen features of postmodernism these two works contain. In the first, theoretical part the author and her oeuvre is introduced, followed by the concept of postmodernism and its selected features. The second, practical part is focused on both books' analysis which attempts to establish whether and how the selected works show the features of postmodernism and to which extent it is possible to trace the notions of Carter's feminism and mythopoetics in them.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Funktion verschiedener Bibelbezüge im Romanwerk Theodor Fontanes untersucht. Dabei wird die These vertreten, dass Fontanes Verweise auf biblische Texte nicht etwa bloß als theologische Positionierungen zu lesen seien, sondern dass er die Bibel als Speicher an kulturellem Wissen in Form von Narrativen, Personen, Geflügelten Worten etc. begreift, den er in seiner Leserschaft voraussetzen kann und durch den er Themen wie Normativität und Diskursivität mit einer besonderen Tiefe in der Spannung von Text und Prätext verhandeln kann. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung stehen dabei Verwendungen von Bibelbezügen als hochkommunikative Diskursschablonen für poetologische Selbstreflexionen sowie für politische oder frömmigkeits-praktische Kontroversen. / The aim of this treatise is to discuss various functions of references to biblical writings which can be observed in Theodor Fontane’s novels. Analyzing various references and allusions (especially in “Grete Minde”, “Quitt” and “Der Stechlin”), it is maintained that Fontane does not use bible-references as theological statements, but with a wide range of scopes and functions: Providing sujés, situations and constellations which are well known by the typical 19th century audience, references to biblical texts can be used to discuss topics like normativity and discursivity as well as to offer a pattern for political and religious discurses or poetological reflections.

The thesis focuses on J. K. Šlejhar's literary work from two points of view. The first part introduces Šlejhar's work in the contemporary literary context as a result of a synthesis of new literary styles. In the second part the thesis concentrates on a textual analysis and reconstruction of the author's "artistic world". The first part of the thesis gives insight into the contemporary discussions aimed at revising and redefining the function of art with respect to the new development in society and new human needs. The critical reception of realism and naturalism and the reflection of the then wide-spread adoption of new influences from foreign literatures are also dicussed. To draw a comparison, we quote both period and current studies dealing with J. K. Šlejhar's work. Thereby we want to demonstrate the changing requirements of literature and art and the changing perception of a literary work throughout time. The second part of the thesis comprises the textual analysis of Šlejhar's selected writings from the point of view of semiotic literary theory and the reconstruction of the author's "artistic world". Such approach enables us to draw comparisons to Russian literature of the 19th century, primarily with the works of N. V. Gogol and F. M. Dostoyevsky, and to discover a common basis for both...

Das Dissertationsprojekt befasst sich mit der australischen Autorin Dymphna Cusack, deren Popularität in Ost und West zwischen 1955 und 1975 ihren Höhepunkt erreichte. In diesem Zeitraum wurde sie nicht nur in den westlichen Industriestaaten, in Australien, England, Frankreich und Nord Amerika viel gelesen, sondern auch in China, Russland, der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und in vielen Sowjetrepubliken. Im Verlauf ihres Schaffens wurde ihr grosse Anerkennung für ihren Beitrag zur australischen Literatur zuteil; sie erhielt die &bdquo;Commonwealth Literary Pension&ldquo;, die &bdquo;Queen&prime;s Silver Jubilee Medal&ldquo; und 1981 den &bdquo;Award of her Majesty&ldquo;. Trotz dieser Unterstützung durch den Staat in Australien und England äusserte Cusack immer wieder feministische, humanistisch-pazifistische, und anti-faschistisch bzw. pro-sowjetische Sozialkritik. <br /> Sie war auch für ihren starken Nationalismus bekannt, plädierte dafür, eine &bdquo;einheimische&ldquo; Literatur und Kultur zu pflegen. Besonders das australische Bildungssystem war das Ziel ihrer Kritik, basierend auf ihren Erfahrungen als Lehrerin in städtischen und ländlichen Schulen, die sie ihrer Autobiographie beschrieb. 'Weder ihr Intellekt, noch ihre Seele oder ihre Körper wurden gefördert, um ganze Männer oder ganze Frauen aus ihnen zu machen. Besonders letztere wurden vernachlässigt. Mädchen wurden ermutigt, ihren Platz dort zu sehen, wo deutsche Mädchen ihn einst zu sehen hatten: bei Kindern, Küche, Kirche.' Cusack engagierte sich stark für Bildungsreformen, die das Versagen australischer Schulen, das erwünschte liberal-humanistische Subjekt zu herauszubilden, beheben sollten. <br /> Der liberale Humanismus der Nachkriegszeit schuf ein populäres Bedürfnis nach romantischem Realismus, den man in Cusacks Texten finden kann. Um verstehen zu können, wie Frauen sich zwischen &bdquo;Realismus und Romanze&ldquo; verfingen, biete ich eine Dekonstruktion von Geschlecht innerhalb dieses &bdquo;hybriden&ldquo; Genres an. Mittels feministischer Methodik können Einblicke in die konfliktvolle Subjektivität beider Geschlechter in verschiedenen historischen Perioden gewonnen werden: die Zeit zwischen den Kriegen, während des Pazifischen Krieges und den Weltkriegen, während des Kalten Krieges, zur Zeit der Aborigine-Bewegung, des Vietnamkrieges, sowie zu Beginn der zweiten feministischen Bewegung in den siebziger Jahren. Eine Rezeptionsanalyse des romantischen Realismus und der Diskurse, die diesen prägen, sind in Kapitel zwei und drei untersucht. <br /> Die Dekonstruktion von Weiblichkeit und eines weiblichen Subjekts ist in Kapitel vier unternommen, innerhalb einer Diskussion der Art und Weise, wie Cusacks romantischer Erzählstil mit dem sozialen Realismus interagiert. Nach der Forschung von Janice Radway, werden Cusacks Erzählungen in zwei Tabellen unterteilt: die Liebesgeschichte versagt, ist erfolgreich, eine Parodie oder Idealisierung (s. &bdquo;Ideal and Failed Romances&ldquo;; &bdquo;Primary Love Story Succeeds or Fails&ldquo;). Unter Einbeziehung von Judith Butlers philosophischem Ansatz in die Literaturkritik wird deutlich, dass diese Hybridisierung der Gattungen das fiktionale Subjekt davon abhält, ihr/sein Geschlecht &bdquo;sinnvoll&ldquo; zu inszenieren. Wie das &bdquo;reale Subjekt&ldquo;, der Frau in der Gesellschaft, agiert die fiktionale Protagonistin in einer nicht intelligiblen Art und Weise aufgrund der multiplen Anforderungen an und den Einschränkungen für ihr Geschlecht. <br /> Demnach produziert die geschlechtliche Benennung des Subjektes eine Vielfalt von Geschlechtern: Cusacks Frauen und Männer sind geprägt von den unterschiedlichen und konfliktvollen Ansprüchen der dichotom gegenübergestellten Genres. Geschlecht, als biologisches und soziales Gebilde, wird danach undefinierbar durch seine komplexen und inkonsistenten Ausdrucksformen in einem romantisch-realistischen Text. Anders gesagt führt die populäre Kombination von Liebesroman und Realismus zu einer Überschreitung der Geschlechtsbinarität, die in beiden Genres vorausgesetzt wird. <br /> Weiterführend dient eine Betrachtung von Sexualität und Ethnie in Kapitel fünf einer differenzierteren Analyse humanistischer Repräsentationen von Geschlecht in der Nachkriegsliteratur. Die Notwendigkeit, diese Repräsentationen in der Populär- und in der Literatur des Kanons zu dekonstruieren, ist im letzten Kapitel dieser Dissertation weiter erläutert. / In her lifetime, Dymphna Cusack continually launched social critiques on the basis of her feminism, humanism, pacificism and anti-fascist/pro-Soviet stance. Recalling her experi-ences teaching urban and country schoolchildren in A Window in the Dark, she was particularly scathing of the Australian education system. Cusack agitated for educational reforms in the belief that Australian schools had failed to cultivate the desired liberal humanist subject: 'Neither their minds, their souls, nor their bodies were developed to make the Whole Man or the Whole Woman - especially the latter. For girls were encouraged to regard their place as German girls once did: Kinder, Küche, Kirche - Children, Kitchen and Church.' I suggest that postwar liberal humanism, with its goals of equality among the sexes and self-realisation or 'becoming Whole', created a popular demand for the romantic realism found in Cusack&prime;s texts. This twentieth century form of humanism, evident in new ideas of the subject found in psychoanalysis, Western economic theory and Modernism, informed each of the global lobbies for peace and freedom that followed the destruction of World War II. <br /> Liberal ideas of the individual in society became synonymous with the humanist representations of gender in much of postwar, realistic literature in English-speaking countries. The individual, a free agent whose aim was to 'improve the life of human beings', was usually given the masculine gender. He was shown to achieve self-realisation through a commitment to the development of &ldquo;mankind&rdquo;, either materially or spiritually. Significantly, the majority of Cusack&prime;s texts diverge from this norm by portraying women as social agents of change and indeed, as the central protagonists. <br /> Although the humanist goal of self-realisation seems to be best adapted to social realism, the generic conventions of popular romance also have humanist precepts, as Catherine Belsey has argued. The Happy End is contrived through the heroine&prime;s mental submission to her physical desire for the previously rejected or criticised lover. As Belsey has noted, desire might be considered a deconstructive force which momentarily prevents the harmonious, permanent unification of mind and body because the body, at the moment of seduction, does not act in accord with the mind. In popular romance, however, desire usually leads to a relationship or proper union of the protagonists. <br /> <br /> In Cusack&prime;s words, the heroine and hero become &ldquo;whole men and women&rdquo; through the &ldquo;realistic&rdquo; love story. Thus romance, like realism, seeks to stabilise gender relations, even though female desire is temporarily disruptive in the narrative. In the end, women and men become fully realised characters according to the generic conventions of the love story or the consummation of potentially subversive desire. It stayed anxieties associated with women seeking independence and self-realisation rather than traditional romance which signalled a threat to existing gender relations.<br /> <br /> I proposed that an analysis of gender in Cusack&prime;s fiction is warranted, since these apparently unified, humanist representations of romantic realism belie the conflicting aims and actions of the gendered subjects in this historical period. For instance, when we examine women&prime;s lives immediately after the war, we can identify in both East and West efforts initiated by women and men to reconstruct private/public roles. In order to understand how women were caught between &ldquo;realism and romance&rdquo;, I plan to deconstruct gender within the paradigm of this hybrid genre. <br /> <br /> By adopting a femininist methodology, new insights may be gained into the conflictual subjectivity of both genders in the periods of the interwar years, the Pacific and World Wars, the Cold War, the Australian Aboriginal Movement at the time of the Vietnam War, as well as the moment of second wave Western feminism in the seventies. My definition of romantic realism and the discourses that inform it are examined in chapters two and three. A deconstruction of femininity and the female subject is pursued in chapter four, when I argue that Cusack&prime;s romantic narratives interact in different ways with social realism: romance variously fails, succeeds, is parodic or idealised. Applying Judith Butler&prime;s philosophical ideas to literary criticism, I argue that this hybridisation of genre prevents the fictional subject from performing his or her gender. <br /> <br /> Like the &ldquo;real&rdquo; subject - actual women in society - the fictional protagonist acts in an unintelligible fashion due to the multifarious demands and constraints on her gender. Consequently, the gendering of the sexed subject produces a multiplicity of genders: Cusack&prime;s women and men are constituted by differing and conflicting demands of the dichotomously opposed genres. Thus gender and sex become indefinite through their complex, inconsistent expression in the romantic realistic text. In other words, the popular combination of romance and realism leads to an explosion of the gender binary presupposed by both genres. Furthermore, a consideration of sexuality and race in chapter five leads to a more differentiated analysis of the humanist representations of gender in postwar fiction. The need to deconstruct these representations in popular and canonical literature is recapitulated in the final chapter of this Dissertation.

Die Arbeit liefert eine Gesamtinterpretation des geschichtsphilosophischen Klassikers von Giovanni Battista Vico "Prinzipien einer neuen Wissenschaft über die gemeinsame Natur der Völker" (1744). Neben einer Interpretation des verum-factum-Prinzips als erkenntnistheoretische Grundlage des Werks und einer Rekonstruktion seines Geschichtsbildes schließt die Dissertation einen Vorschlag zur ideengeschichtlichen Einordnung Vicos sowie eine Diskussion der Aktualität seiner Geschichtsphilosophie ein. Es wird gezeigt, dass die rezeptionsgeschichtlich tonangebenden idealistischen und theologischen Interpretationsansätze dem Werk unangemessen sind. Als Alternative wird eine naturalistische Lesart entwickelt. Diese lebensrealistische Lesart zielt auf den Nachweis ab, dass Vico den menschlichen Geschichtsprozess als evolutionären und zugleich sinnvollen Vorgang begreift, dessen Ziel im Überleben der menschlichen Gattung besteht. Vicos Theorie der geschichtlichen Selbstregulierung stellt hierbei die symbolische und soziale Produktivität des Menschen als körperliches Naturwesen ins Zentrum, wobei die Entstehung von sozialen Institutionen und symbolischen Weltbildern als nicht-intendiertes Resultat subjektiv-sinnlicher Handlungsmotive begriffen wird. Detailliert herausgearbeitet wird die Leitidee Vicos, dass soziale Institutionen durch vorrationale Fiktionen stabilisiert werden, die der menschlichen Einbildungskraft entspringen. Insofern sind es soziale Mythen, die die Gesellschaft zusammenhalten. Mit der Orientierung seines systemtheoretisch angelegten Geschichtsdenkens an menschlichen Überlebensfragen vertritt Vico einen Standpunkt, der bis heute nichts Aktualität verloren hat.

Pädag. Hochschule, Diss., 2005--Heidelberg.