Classical mythology has been one of the main sources of inspiration for European artists for centuries. It also remained current during the 20th century. From the 1920s, one can see increasing interest in classical myths; it becomes a source of inspiration even for artists of avant-garde art movements. The 20th century artist approach themes from classical mythology from a position of newly acquired artistic freedom. Release of iconographic conventions and academic rules, emphasis on psychology and individuality of a modern man brings specific forms of reception and reinterpretation of classical myths. In many cases, classical mythology carries allegorical meanings in a relation to contemporary political and social events, often in a very critical tone. But it also represents a tool for one's personal coping with reality. The thirties and early forties of the 20th century with dark atmosphere affected by war conflicts represent the culmination period of classical myths in visual arts. The tendency can be observed both in the art of European and Czech origin. Antiquity and classical mythology become the symbols of a return to the roots of European culture and civilization, symbols of the common European humanistic heritage. The collection of nearly 180 works of modern Czech art inspired by classical...

1 Mgr. Alena Fry Dissertation Abstract Edgar Allan Poe in Czech Reception: Translation and Interpretation History The doctoral thesis investigates the history of Edgar Allan Poe's reception in Czech culture from the 1850s to the present. Its aim is to scrutinize how the author's image has been shaped and reshaped over the course of time by various book editions, interpretive approaches and key translations, and what socio-cultural, literary or individual factors contributed to these transformations. The thesis is intended to contribute to the understanding of the history of Czech literary translation and of Czech literature's intercultural affinities. Chapter 1 defines the research goal, presents the theoretical background and outlines the structure of the thesis. It reveals the inseparableness of Poe's image as the author and the man, i.e. the Poe "myth" that started developing during Poe's lifetime, and the necessity to also account for it when studying his Czech reception. Chapter 2 focuses on the period up to the early 1890s and examines the earliest interpretations. These were strongly influenced by R. W. Griswold's infamous "Memoir" and dwelt mainly on the circumstances of Poe's life. Furthermore, the chapter provides an overview of the first prose and poetry translations which were occasionally...

Thesis called "The reception of poetry poetics of the year 1950 as an attempt of fulfilling Štoll`s ideologically-aesthetical conception" aims, baring in mind a wider cultural-political context, to trace back the extent of indentification of stalin literal critique with Štoll`s ideologically-aesthetical conception soon after its presentation on the business conference of the Czechoslovak Writers` Union in January 1950. Working with selected poetry poetics of that year it is trying to render the specifics of their reception after this speech had been accepted as a final methodological and value indicator of all contemporary literal-crtitic cretive activity. As an initial document for this thesis is therefore Ladislav Štoll`s book {\clqq}Thirty Years of Fight for the Czech Socialist Poetry`` (1950), the extended printed version of Štoll`s report which even contains parts of Jiří Taufer`s speech from the same conference. In three autonomous parts, for all that linked in a way, the thesis tries concretely bring into effect these requested intentions by focusing on books of poetry {\clqq}Zpěv míru`` by Vítězslav Nezval, {\clqq}Píseň o Viktorce`` by Jaroslav Seifert and {\clqq}Máj země`` by Ivan Skála. Being aware of the necessity of taking into account even the non-literal influences it looks into not only their contemporary reception itself but also aboriginal cultural-political circumstances and the poets` status in the hierarchical mosaic of cultural politics of that time. In the overall framework effort of creating complex view of the questions introduced, the thesis` subchapters offer attempts of own literal analysis of discussed poetry works.

The beginning section of this thesis named Current Trends in the French Children's Literature is focused on a terminology concerning key theoretical terms in children's literature. Further content is focused on the history of children's literature, including a brief overview of the period and examples of the key works. There is a list of Major international and French literary prizes given to authors of children's books. The complex relationship between author and reader was also examined. The next part of the thesis is primarily focused on a literary analysis of three French novels for teenagers published at the beginning of the 21st century: Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle, La vie, en gros by Mikaël Ollivier and Oscar and the Lady in Pink by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Emphasis is put not only on basic characteristics of contemporary children's literature but also on the singularity of these literary works. The problems of literary translation from French into a quite other language are covered in the final part of the thesis. The translator has to move a literary text into the target language and carry the distinctive character of a work, its idioms and tone. KEYWORDS children's literature, the reader, reading, the reception of the literary work, literary prizes in France, international literary...

The dissertation examines the reception of Czech and European abstract art in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s and 1930s. It assumes that the Czechoslovak cultural milieu was unfavourable for abstract art at that time, yet various forms of its reception were occurring. Thus, the objective is to demonstrate and document opportunities for abstract art public presentation, related critical reactions and theoretical reflection. The reception history perspective followed in the dissertation deals with written sources, and focuses on relationship between viewers and abstract art and on handling particular artworks. Predominantly recipients such as theorists, art critics, editors, artists, and other participants in the arts sector are taken into consideration when exploring contemporaneous exhibiting, evaluation and interpretation of abstract art. The paper includes responses and attitudes to abstract painting and sculpture as well as to abstract photography, film and kinetic art.

The dissertation looks into the book culture, book production and readership in the kingdom of Bohemia in early humanism. It explores the conditions of rise and reception of book printing in the kingdom of Bohemia. The mind-set of the Utraquist society, resistant to the influence from abroad, international isolation of the Utraquist Bohemia and the previous insignificant manuscript production proved to be the factors which failed to encourage the arrival of book printing in the country. The initial advancement of book printing was hesitant and could not to keep up with the more developed trade abroad. The Czech printing production related to the efforts of reformation to further enhance the moral status of the society soon turned to disseminating literature in the vernacular, yet often they were translated literature. The early Czech printed production however was affected by low quality and quantity of prints and was not of the significance declared by the previous generations of researchers. Personalities of the Catholic society were more inclusive about new ideas from abroad. In the contemporary society the Catholics were therefore the first ones to embrace book printing and also they were quicker in reception of humanism. The early humanist literature in Bohemia is related to the personality of...

The theme of the dissertation is the reception of the Classical Antiquity in the Czech Literature between 1880 and 1910. The aim was to analyse the ways in which Czech culture related to the Classical Antiquity in the period of increased concern with Classical topics, motifs and forms. The first, largest part, methodologically inspired by the demythicizing perspective of Vladimír Macura and Jiří Rak, concerns with stereotypical views of the Classical Antiquity particularly prominent in the contemporary discourse: the antithetical image of noble Greece and corrupted Rome, the topos of bright Hellenic Sun and clear Sky, the ideology behind the common opinion that Ancient sculptures were all white (and the reactions to the discovery that they were, in fact, polychrome), the topos of a Greek athletic body and its employment in the policy of the Czech sports movement 'Sokol' (Falcon), and last but not least the topos of a man unspoilt by civilization and living in accordance with the Nature. Separate chapters are also devoted to two then important intermediaries of reception, grammar schools and translation. In the second part, attention is drawn to the representation of the Classical Antiquity in dramatic plays by Jaroslav Vrchlický, especially the dramatic trilogy Hippodamie, and their reception in...

The thesis focuses on the reception history of Bernard Bolzano (1781- 1848) in the Czech intellectual culture of the 1945-1989 period. The aim of the thesis is not only to summarize existing studies of Bolzano's life and work or to study some of the partial themes related to Bolzano - but to discover basic features of Bolzano reception that can be found accross the different fields of Bolzano research and that are also connected to intellectual and political history background. The expected merit of the thesis can be considered from two different perspectives: In the context of intellectual history the reception of Bolzano is just a very partial theme, however it can expose some of more general features concerning Czech intellectual history of investigated period. From this point of view Bolzano is just a criterion of historical sources selection that enables to study very complex issue of the Czech intellectual history. In the context of Bolzano research this thesis is also a contribution to the better understanding of Bolzano's life and work. The thesis is pointing out themes which should be researched more thoroughly and, it is more important, it discovers the basic contexts of the potential further studies. Keywords: Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848), Czech history 1945-1989, Czech culture 1945-1989,...

Seneca's Tragedies and their Reception in the Jesuit School Theatre of the Bohemian Province in the 17th and 18th Centuries (1623-1773) Eva Popelková Abstract The study of the reception of Seneca's tragedies in the Jesuit School theatre in the Bohemian province is focused on three aspects: the description of the mechanism and the expression of passions; the pedagogical issue linked to the figure of a tyrant, with an emphasis on female characters; and the image of pagan gods. The research is based on a comparison of Senecan tragedies and school plays from the Society of Jesus. The corpus consists of three parts: the printed plays of Carolus Kolczawa; the plays of Arnoldus Engel, both staged and intended for publication; and the plays devoted to John of Nepomuk, the emblematic saint of the Czech baroque period, which were not to be published. The analyses are preceded by an overview of the Senecan reception in the Early Modern Europe, the presentation of the Jesuit context and the studied corpus. Keywords Seneca, reception, Jesuit theatre, School theatre, Neo-Latin literature, Bohemian province, 17th century, 18th century

Petros Markaris's detective novel addresses the economic crisis, highlighting the economic, political and social crisis rather than the crime cases. In the first part of my master's thesis, the detective novel is addressed in the wider context of the greek contemporary literature and the development of the genre is briefly described. Thereafter, an analysis of the content of the trilogy regarding the crisis and the description of the main topics, such as unemployment, migration and far-right wing is carried out. In the next chapters, the common characteristics of all the novels are described. Furthermore, a research was conducted regarding the translations into German, Spanish and Italian to find out why Petros Markaris gained popularity abroad.