The work focuses on the analysis of the poetics of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Invitation to a Beheading in terms of its cultural context. Specifically deals with its relation to the Soviet theatrical avant-garde, with mythopoetic symbolism and early avant-garde. We approach to the novel as a parody of the post-revolutionary avant-garde Soviet theater experiments. Special attention is paid to the fact that due to the theatralization of the text, i.e. assimilation of the novel space with the theatricals, diegesis of Invitation to a Beheading is divided into two equal opposing worlds, each of which represents particular poetics. World built around main character of Cincinnatus is comparable to symbolism, namely to the symbol and symbolistic perception of Andrei Bely. The central principle of this reality is semiotization of the world. The surrounding fictional world creates its opposite as it is shaped by the principle of desemiotization which - as a central aspect of formalistic-futuristic avant- garde - systematically dismantles hero's world. However neither of these worlds is winning. In the end it is the synthesis, which helps the hero get emancipated from the novel's world. The Invitation to a Beheading can therefore be interpreted as original artist's world manifesto which through presentation and...

À partir d’un corpus ouvert de photographes et de cinéastes coloristes qui ont une fascination pour le nocturne, cette thèse explore les différentes gradations et significations de celui-ci, des plus évidentes aux plus abstraites. La thèse s’attache alors à démontrer que le régime nocturne transforme l’obscurité en valeurs chromatiques et qu’il éclaire, avec une subtilité qu’occulte la vision diurne, les aspects les plus complexes de la société et de l’esprit humain. La confrontation des analyses de séquences filmiques et de photographies dans une perspective articulant esthétique, philosophie et histoire de l’art, a permis de construire la thèse autour de trois grandes notions, Distorsion, Sublimation, Transfiguration, qui fondent le nocturne comme catégorie esthétique de l’image.Le corpus principal organisé sur des critères externes (nocturne, couleur post-années 1960-70) et internes (processus esthétiques conjoints) est composé de séquences de films en couleurs de Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), de David Lynch (1946), de Brian de Palma (1940), de Francis Ford Coppola (1939) et de séries photographiques de Gregory Crewdson (1962), Bill Henson (1955), Rut Blees Luxemburg (1967) et Daniel Boudinet (1945-1990).Le corpus secondaire est constitué de séries photographiques de Darren Almond (1971), Jean-Christian Bourcart (1960), Nicolas Dhervillers (1981), Laurent Hopp (1974), Chrystel Lebas (1966), d’extraits d’un court métrage d’Antoine Barraud (1973) et d’une série TV de Nic Pizzolatto (1975) et Justin Lin (1973), nécessaire pour finaliser la démonstration. / Based on a large corpus of colorist film directors and photographers who share a fascination for the nocturne, this thesis explores the different gradations and meanings of this one, from the more obvious to the more abstracts. The thesis endeavours to demonstrate how the nocturne reasserts the darkness values to turn them into colors, and how it illuminates, with a subtlety absent in diurnal vision, the more complex aspects of society as well as the human mind.The confrontation between picture and film sequences analysis, with a perspective articulating aesthetic, philosophy and art history, leads to three main concepts: Distortion, Sublimation and Transfiguration. Thereby it establishes the nocturne as an image’s aesthetic category in cinema and photography.The main corpus in cinema and photography, organised by externals criteria (nocturne, post-1960-1970 years color) and internals criteria (similar operating processes aesthetic), is established with the movie extracts of Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), David Lynch (1946), Brian de Palma (1940), Francis Ford Coppola (1939) as well as the photographic series of Gregory Crewdson (1962), Bill Henson (1955), Rut Blees Luxemburg (1967) and Daniel Boudinet (1945-1990).The second is based on the photographic series of Darren Almond (1971), Jean-Christian Bourcart (1960), Nicolas Dhervillers (1981), Laurent Hopp (1974) and Chrystel Lebas (1966), as well as Antoine Barraud’s (1973) movie extracts. Finally, for the requirement of the demonstration, a Nic Pizzolatto (1975) and Justin Lin (1973) TV show.

This diploma thesis deals with the theatricality of Milada Horáková and company trial and its theatrical reflections. In this thesis, the political trial is regarded as an ideological fiction on the grounds of the ritual and theatrical character. The dramas, which are inspired with this trial, are interpreted in the following chapters. First of them, it deals with Pařeniště by E. F. Burian in the context of the socialist realism, which was put on the stage in a short time after this trial. It paid attention to re-putting on the stage in 2008 as well. The last part of this thesis deals with contemporary productions, which are inspired with this trial (Horáková, Gottwald by Karel Steigerwald and opera Tomorrow will... by Aleš Březina and Jiří Nekvasil), which depict absurdity and bizzare atmosphere of this trial.

This thesis examines works of theatre and film that explore a refusal of acting. Acting has traditionally been considered as something false or as pretending, in opposition to everyday life, which has been considered as something real and truthful. This has resulted in a desire to refuse acting, evident in the tradition of the anti-theatrical prejudice where acting is considered to be seductive and dangerous. All the works that I examine in this thesis are relatively recent and all of them explore the paradox that in our (postmodern) times a gradual reversal has occurred where everyday life is seen as more and more false or as pretending or simulating (ie. containing acting and theatricality) and conversely, acting in theatre and film has become the place where people have begun searching for reality and truth and where ‘acting’ and pretending in life can be revealed and refused. The result of this paradox - and what I also discuss as a confusion of acting and living - is that the place in which acting can be refused has shifted; the ethical desire to refuse acting (in theatre and in life) is turning up in the aesthetic domain of acting itself. In my first chapter I study works by filmmaker István Szabó and playwright Werner Fritsch, who represent the desire to refuse acting in the context of fascism where theatrical and filmic spectacle was used by the Nazis to seduce the population and where actors during this period also experienced an inability to separate their political and artistic lives. In my second chapter I look at the way Genet’s The Balcony and Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution explore the desire to refuse acting as a result of a confusion of acting and living in the context of sexual (sadomasochistic) role-play. And in my third chapter I examine the way Warhol’s The Chelsea Girls, von Trier’s The Idiots and Affleck’s I’m Still Here represent a refusal of acting and theatricality altogether, responding to the way that ‘acting’ in life may have become an all-pervasive substitute (a simulation) for living. Foundational to the development of this thesis and a major source of material is my analysis of three theatrical productions with Free Theatre Christchurch, directed by Peter Falkenberg, in which I was involved as an actor and in which a refusal of acting was explored.

This study is concerned with portraiture as a roleplay and a strategy to communicate the sitter´s identity to affect the viewer. Focusing on the sitter´s pose and the depiction of dress, the study examines three portraits between 1624 and the 1630s, representing Herman Wrangel (1584–1643), Field Marshal and Councilor of the Realm. The analysis is based on the concept, the fiction of the pose, developed by Harry Berger Jr. The idea of Theatricality discussed by Hanneke H Grootenboer´s is also used. The results show that dress, details of dress and the pose which are significant for the identity of the sitter are depicted with emphasis. Therefore, the dress and the pose have a key role in the depiction of the sitter acting his identity. The sitter acts before the artist and in the long run before the beholder. The portrait of the nobleman becomes a monologue for the beholder who can confirm the nobility´s role in society. / Uppsatsen handlar om hur porträttmåleri som ett rollspel och en strategi för förmedling av den avporträtterades identitet till betraktaren. Tre porträtt från perioden 1624–1630, föreställande Herman Wrangel (1584–1643) fältmarskalk och riksråd, har analyserats med fokus på den avporträtterades pose och dräktens avbildning med stöd i begreppet the fiction of the pose, baserat på Harry Berger Jr teori. Vidare används begreppet teatrikalitet, som det diskuteras av Hanneke H Grootenboer. Undersökningen visar att dräkt och dräktdetaljer samt poser som är betydelsefulla, för den avporträtterades identitet, framställs med emfas. Därmed spelar dräkten och posen en viktig roll i den avporträtterades framställan. Den avporträtterade agerar inför konstnären och i förlängningen inför betraktaren. Porträttet av adelsmannen blir en uppvisning, en monolog inför betraktaren som kan bekräfta adelsmannens roll i den sociala hierarkin.