(anglicky) The goal of my diploma thesis is to analyze Yury Buida`s prose mainly focusing on his cycle Prussian Bride, in which I will be looking for the elements typical for magical realism literature. Another question I will be exploring in this work is going to be a reflection of a historical memory of Kaliningrad Oblast inhabitants. I will be working with the works about magical realism including the one about the magical realism in Yury Buida`s work specifically, as well as with a selection of materials about historical and traumatic collective memory. The contribution of this work will be in a form of Yury Buida`s work analysis (which has not been properly studied until now) and its` representation in a context of a modern European literature studies. Key words: cycle, magical realism, memory, trauma, Yury Buida, Russian Literature of the 20th century

IN ENGLISH Ralph B. Perry's general theory of value was the most extensive and influential axiological project undertaken in the USA prior to WWII. While Perry's main goal is to provide a general definition of value and to describe the means of its criticism, the project also deals with the nature of special values, including aesthetic value. This dissertation thesis traces the aesthetic vein in Perry's theory, which is concentrated on the terms of aesthetic interest and its passive correlate, the aesthetic object. These are also the centerpieces of the definition of aesthetic value. First, interest and its object are defined in their general sense; next, they are defined in their specific aesthetic sense. Perry defines aesthetic interest as the interest in apprehension, and the object of this interest as a problematic intentional object with an index-predicate structure: its index is the localizable source of stimulus, and its predicate, the reflected act of apprehension. The final chapter is devoted to the forms of interplay between aesthetic interest and other interests, and the criticism of aesthetic interest from the aesthetic and moral standpoint. In Perry's theory, the aesthetic value belongs among the trinity of universal values. It is considered autonomous as long as the aesthetic interest...

Die vorliegende Studie beschäftigt sich mit dem Phänomen der zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten. Ausgangspunkt ist die außergewöhnlich hohe Anzahl an veröffentlichten Geistergeschichten, die es um bzw. seit Anfang der Jahrtausendwende gab. Die Besonderheit liegt darin, das Kanada gemäß seines Selbstverständnisses ein „matter-of-fact-country“ ist, das im Gegensatz zu seinem südlichen Nachbarn, den USA, weder Gründungsmythen noch eine reichhaltige Tradition an Schauerliteratur vorweisen kann. Dieses Phänomen wird unter einer ästhetisch-ontologischen Perspektive untersucht. Mithilfe romantischer Philosophie (v.a. Friedrich J. W. Schelling), aber auch zeitgenössischen philosophischen Ansätzen sowie traditionellen Mythen kann erklärt werden, dass die Aufklärung und der damit einhergehenden rationalen rationalen Weltsicht, die nicht zuletzt die Kolonialgeschichte bestimmte, in sich begrenzt ist – schließlich kreiert die Aufklärung selbst einen neuen Mythos: nämlich den von ihrer Allmacht. In dieser Arbeit wird dargelegt, dass es ein menschliches Bestreben ist die Welt eben nicht nur rational und logisch zu betrachten. In diesem Sinne verstehen sich, so die These, die Geistergeschichten als ein längst überfälliges Gegenspiel zum rationalistischen Selbstverständnis der kanadischen Kultur. In diesem Zusammenhang setzt sich die Arbeit mit theoretischen Ansätzen wie der Schauerliteratur und des Magischen Realismus kritisch auseinander und schlägt vor eine pantheistische Lesart zu entwickeln (pantheistisch, da in den Geschichten alle übersinnlichen Kräfte der Welt immanent sind). Diese Studie zeigt, dass die Geister andere Semantiken aufweisen als bei der konventionellen Schauerliteratur: Wo in klassischer Schauerliteratur die Geister eine Bedrohung darstellen, werden sie in den zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten als der Erde zugehörig aufgefasst. Es handelt sich also um eine lebensbejahende Form der Einschreibung von Magie in die (Lebens-)Welt, die zugleich dem menschlichen Bedürfnis nachkommt die Welt über Mythen – und keine rationale Sicht – zu erklären. Unter Betrachtung dieser Prämissen werden folgende Geistergeschichten untersucht: Tomson Highways „Kiss of the Fur Queen“ (1998), Eden Robinsons „Monkey Beach“ (2000), Kenneth J. Harveys „The Town that Forgot How to Breathe“ (2004), Joseph Boydens „Three Day Road“ (2005) und David Chariandys „Soucouyant“ (2007).

The thesis deals with the former Bush's plan of the so-called third pillar of the American missile defense system in Poland and Czech republic. We demonstrate on this topic the value of several key (neo)realist theoretical concepts. Specifically, the exact types and functioning of security dilemmas are analyzed in the framework of American-Russian, American-Iranian and American-Czech/Polish relations. The thesis also illustrates the importance of related modalities of deterrence and shows, which states and how balanced the US. In addition to that, attention is paid to the question whether the "shield" was motivated by defensive realist worries about security or rather by offensive realist struggle for power and gains at the expense of others.

This thesis examines the work of the contemporary exilic Iraqi author Ḥasan Blāsim within the framework of magical realism. At the same time it argues for a more formalistic and wider definition of magical realism, which also includes fiction without any supernatural elements. Magical realistic components found in the short story collection Majnūn sāḥat al-ḥurrīya (The Madman of Freedom Square) underline the most important themes in the stories. These are related to the catastrophes that afflicted Iraq and its people in the course of last thirty years. With its emphasis on the documentation of modern Iraqi history dominated by war and exile Blāsim's work belongs to the genre of documentary narrative. The goal of documentary narrative is to contribute to the collective memory of a nation. Despite Blāsim's focus on documenting, magical realism in his work cannot be considered as an attempt to create a parallel cultural world. The supernatural in his stories functions metaphorically and relates exclusively to the real world of war and violence, in which people under heavy circumstances turn into animals, cannibals, which is magical in itself. In addition, Blāsim's work is on a subordinate level discussed from the perspective of postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory has undergone a complicated...

The book Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay, written by French aesthetician Nicolas Bourriaud is going to be initial text for my diploma thesis. Bourriaud claims, that contemporary art is mostly made by the principle of assemblage; art works are made by reinterpretation, reproducing or by new exhibiting of artefacts or forms of past. The assumption of the original concept in artworks of contemporary artists - semionauts (travelers in the worlds of signs) has been allready completely ineffective. Through the example of hyperrealistic paintings, which has lately reappeared in portfolios of international and czech artists, I will try to show whether its revilal is based on the emergence of new medias, that even more than in the seventies simulate reality or whether they deal with the concept of postpostprodution - the artists lend only formal, in this case, hyperrealistic, signs. This diploma thesis will be completed by the case study of paintings of czech hyperrealist painter Jan Mikulka.

This paper presents a case study of a regional integration called East African Community (EAC) that associates Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda later joined Rwanda and Burundi. The main research question is the reason for creation of the EAC. Congruence method is used to answer this question with further investigation to confirm existence of the causal relationship. There are three theories used to formulate a hypothesis concerning formation of the EAC - neofunctionalism, realism and liberal theory of international relation in the form reformulated by Andrew Moravcsik. Neofunctionalism cannot explain emergence of the EAC as strong supranational actor, key neofunctionalists feature, is not present. Spillover process also does not occur. Realism also fails to provide an explanation, although the end of the Cold War brings shift in global power structure. East Africa is also endangered by economic marginalization caused by integration of other parts of the continent. However intrastate and regional political instability and security threats were more important at that time. The EAC also does not correspond with the notion of only low politics integration. Liberalism offers most reasonable explanation that integration is based on common interest in development and fight against poverty. Common historical...

The diploma thesis consists of a series of events by the art duo NEWkus. The NEWkus art duo deals with the transformation of relationships and the overall definition of the NEWkus body concept. It copes with the isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic as well as with the apathy caused by the monotonous lifestyle in an enclosed space with the same person and the impossibility of meeting within the NEWkus duo. Thanks to a series of events in the home environment, the group is aware of its own existence on a much wider scale, it finds that it is not only two-member, that its structure is more extensive. The series of realized events is built on the borders of social, artistic experiment and intimate realism. The whole experience is screened in a single space, as part of the NEWkus Days festival. The space is defined by an object inspired by a screen, the internal environment of which is adapted to the image and the needs of both authors. The spectator is thus allowed to meet the story, which will be presented from many angles during the festival and will provide the opportunity to blend with the body of NEWkus in real time and space.

This diploma thesis mainly deals with the relationships between the poetic manifestations of socialist realism and so called total realism in the early fifties. The first part focuses on general issues; within it I try to describe characteristic features of both poetics, for total realism it is done mostly in the background of comparison with like-minded concepts (Hrabal's poems from the fifties, the works of former members of Group 42). In other chapters of the text I am thinking about a total realism from two aspects: first, as an alternative form of realism, which defines itself against the official art, as well as a program that is dependent on the official art to some extent by paraphrasing or using some of its means and resources.

Abstract The thesis deals with the US foreign policy under Richard Nixon. More specifically, it examines the US rapprochement with Communist China (PRC) and the triangular diplomatic relations between the US, USSR, and PRC. The thesis draws from the realist theories, particularly the offensive and defensive branches of neorealism represented by John Mearsheimer and Kenneth Waltz. The thesis applies the theoretical concept of wedging strategies as power-balancing tools on the selected US foreign policy. The thesis conducts a qualitative case study using the process-tracing method. A causal mechanism derived from the concept of wedging strategies is theorized and further applied in the analysis. The analysis of the US foreign policy towards China examines the individual traces in the theorized mechanisms. The results of the study show that the US broke the Sino-Soviet alliance using a defensive wedging strategy by exploiting the Sino-Soviet split, resulting in PRC's dealignment with the USSR. The US reapproached the PRC and swayed the Chinese leadership with strategic guarantees tacitly aimed against the USSR. These guarantees were ultimately projected into the Shanghai Communique of 1972.