| ARTICLES |
PAGE |
ABSTRACTS |
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Martina Kastnerová |
9 | |
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Jozef Pecina Eye-gouging in Antebellum Popular Fiction |
24 | |
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Christopher E. Koy Plagiarism in Typee: A Peep at Herman Melville’s Lifting from Travel Narratives |
33 | |
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Tomáš Bubík The Atheism, Agnosticism and Criticism of Religion of Robert Ingersoll in the Context of the Czech Freethinking Movement |
46 | |
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Katarina Labudova Passive Dolls and Gothic Escapes: Angela Carter’s and Margaret Atwood’s Early Novels |
61 | |
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Barbora Vinczeová, Ruslan T. Saduov Turning History into a Fairy Tale: The Borders of Reality and Fiction in Catherynne Valente’s Deathless |
75 | |
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Šárka Bubíková Writing Personal Trauma in Young Adult Fiction: Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy and Siobhan Dowd’s Solace of the Road |
90 | |
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Roman Trušník Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy as an Insight into Male Teenage Same-Sex Desire in the American South |
101 | |
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Petr Anténe A Campus Novel, a Picaresque Novel and a Double Bildungsroman: Reconsidering Michael Chabonʼs Wonder Boys |
109 | |
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Ewa Rychter Some Recent Biblical Re-writings in English and the Contemporary “Canonical” Images of the Bible |
117 | |
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Ema Jelínková The Absent Satirist: The Strange Case of Muriel Spark |
136 | ► |
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STUDENT CONTRIBUTIONS |
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Martin Mareš The Island Topos: From Paradise to Prison |
149 |
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BOOK REVIEWS |
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Jan Suk Beyond Documentary: Blazing Trails Between Romanticism and Realism in American War Novel (Review of The Representation of War in Nineteenth-Century American Novels by Jozef Pecina) |
159 |
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ABSTRACTS, KEYWORDS AND CONTACT DETAILS
Author
Martina Kastnerová
Title of the Article
Philip Sidney’s Poetics in the Context of Ancient and Continental Examples
Abstract
The study deals with the main tenets of Philip Sidney’s poetics on the basis of The Defence of Poesy and his
poetry (mainly Astrophil and Stella) in the context of Elizabethan considerations of the classical aesthetic
concepts (especially that of Aristotle and Horace) and some of the Renaissance continental examples. Sidney’s
The Defence of Poesy represents a fundamental step in establishing poetry as the creator of its own world, its
so-called second nature, and points out poetry’s ability to create figures and imitate reality; thus the main value
of poetry lies in creating clear rhetorical images of moral truth. So Sidney’s poetics plays an important role in
establishing English poetry as a device of the national cultural and social autonomy.
Keywords
Elizabethan Poetics, English Renaissance, Renaissance Poetry, Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesy, Astrophil
and Stella, Classical Aesthetics
Contact
Martina Kastnerová
Department of of Philosophy
University of West Bohemia
Riegrova 11/217
306 14 Pilsen
Czech Republic
E-mail: kastnerm@kfi.zcu.cz
Author
Jozef Pecina
Title of the Article
Eye-gouging in Antebellum Popular Fiction
Abstract
Early nineteenth century visitors of the Appalachian frontier were shocked by the violence they encountered.
In the antebellum backcountry, a “rough and tumble” fight was the accustomed method for settling even minor
disagreements. What made this fighting style unique was the emphasis on maximum disfigurement of the
opponent and amid pulling hair, biting off lips, tearing off noses and choking, gouging out an opponent’s eye
became the essence of rough and tumble. The popularity of this fighting style was attested by the presence of
numerous one-eyed men along the Appalachian frontier and the winners of such fights were celebrated in the
region’s oral folklore. The article traces the reflection of this violent phenomenon in various works of antebellum
popular fiction, including a series of humorous pamphlets known as Crockett Almanacs which were published
between 1835 and 1856.
Keywords
Appalachia, Crockett Almanacs, eye-gouging, rough and tumble, violence
Contact
Author
Christopher E. Koy
Title of the Article
Plagiarism in Typee: A Peep at Herman Melville’s Lifting from Travel Narratives
Abstract
Herman Melville’s first book Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life During a Four Months’ Residence in the Valley
of the Marquesas (1846) made him famous and along with his next narrative Omoo (1847) he maintained
an audience both in England and the United States, even though both books were controversial. In Typee, the
combination of his plagiarism of obscure travel narratives and his cheap attempts to sensationalize his brief
visit on the island of Nuka Hiva with titillating imaginings of beautiful loose native women along with his
melodramatic captivity narrative and the irrational fear of anthropophagy reveal, this paper will argue, that in
Typee Melville wrote in the main sensational hackwork.
Keywords
Herman Melville, cannibalism, autobiography, plagiarism, travel narrative, Marquesas Islands
Contact
Author
Tomáš Bubík
Title of the Article
The Atheism, Agnosticism and Criticism of Religion of Robert Ingersoll in the Context of the Czech Freethinking Movement
Abstract
In the American society in the 19th century, still prevailingly Christian, proclamations of faithlessness and calls
for a purely scientific worldview occasionally appeared. Religion was perceived as an obstacle to efforts toward
scientific materialism. A leading representative and popularizer of such an attitude was the American humanist,
thinker, orator and lawyer Robert Green Ingersoll, whose works have been translated into many languages,
including Czech. Ingersoll became a very popular figure, inspiring freethought circles both in the United States and
in Europe. As a keen critic of religion, he ranked among the key American advocates for free thought, humanism,
and the propagation of scientific knowledge. The paper discusses his specific form of faithlessness (agnosticism
rather than atheism) and introduces a typology categorizing strategies of his criticism of the religious worldview
in the context of Czech intellectual and freethinking movement of the first third of the 20th century.
Keywords
Robert Green Ingersoll, Freethinking, Atheism, Agnosticism, Czech Freethought Society, Volna myslenka
Contact
Authors
Katarina Labudova
Title of the Article
Passive Dolls and Gothic Escapes: Angela Carter’s and Margaret Atwood’s Early Novels
Abstract
The article deals with Shadow Dance (1966) and Love (1971) by Angela Carter; and The Edible Woman (1969)
and Lady Oracle (1976) by Margaret Atwood. It focuses on Carter’s and Atwood’s treatment of popular genres,
especially the genres of romance and Gothic. Although their early writing depicts passive characters who are often
presented as doll-like and paralyzed, they develop from victims to survivors. In this respect, Carter and Atwood
exploit romance and Gothic to re-write and parody the pre-determined roles and stereotypical conclusions which
these traditional genres contain.
Keywords
Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, Shadow Dance, Love, The Edible Woman, Lady Oracle, genre, romance,
Gothic romance, passive dolls, escapist literature, postmodern literature
Contact
Authors
Barbora Vinczeová, Ruslan T. Saduov
Title of the Article
Turning History into a Fairy Tale: The Borders of Reality and Fiction in Catherynne Valente’s Deathless
Abstract
This article explores the parallels between the classic Russian fairy tale Marya Morevna and its reimagining
in Catherynne Valente’s Deathless. The authors claim that the novel follows the pattern of the postmodern
reinterpretation of fairy tales and provide a thorough analysis of the characters, setting, style and other phenomena
supporting this claim. The novel simultaneously addresses the themes of political and social criticism of early
Soviet Russia, resulting in the ironic tone and satirical comments provided by the author. The literary analysis
strives to answer the question ‘how is this fairy tale combined with history?’ The novel transcends the genre of
a fairy tale retelling and functions as a novel filled with historical references and subjective commentary on the
political and the social situation.
Keywords
fairy tale, retellings, Russia, Russian fairy tales, Marya Morevna, Valente, Deathless
Contact
Author
Šárka Bubíková
Title of the Article
Writing Personal Trauma in Young Adult Fiction: Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy and Siobhan Dowd’s Solace of the Road
Abstract
In recent decades, the findings of trauma studies have been used in analyzing literary texts depicting trauma.
While most critical attention is devoted to so-called historical or collective trauma (such as the Holocaust) and
its long-time effects on survivors, there are novels, particularly coming-of-age novels, addressing complex issues
of personal trauma. Analyzing Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy (2001) and Siobhan Dowd’s Solace of the
Road (2009), this paper centers on personal (individual) trauma such as loss, child abuse and/or abandonment,
and on traumatic memory in connection with identity formation of a teenage protagonist. It also deals with the
textual means of writing trauma and reflects on the category of young adult literature under which both novels
were marketed, arguing why Zephaniah’s novel fits the category while Dowd’s can be seen as a crossover novel.
Keywords
Trauma, coming-of-age novel, writing trauma, young adult novel, crossover novel, Benjamin Zephaniah,
Refugee Boy, Siobhan Dowd, Solace of the Road
Contact
Šárka Bubíková
Department of English and American Studies
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
University of Pardubice
Studentská 84
532 10 Pardubice
Czech Republic
E-mail: sarka.bubikova@upce.cz
Author
Roman Trušník
Title of the Article
Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy as an Insight into Male Teenage Same-Sex Desire in the American South
Abstract
The article discusses two opposing interpretations of Jim Grimsley’s novel Dream Boy (1995), a “southern” one
and a “gay” one. Because of the ambiguities of the novel, the story of two teenagers, Nathan and Roy, can be
considered primarily in its southern setting and understood as an insight into same-sex desire in the South, which
often exists outside the categories of gay identity. At the same time, it can be seen as just another coming-out story,
this time one set in a rural area and ending prematurely with the violent death of the main protagonist. While
the author of the article would subscribe to a “gay” interpretation, he admits that the “southern” interpretation,
suggested by Grimsley, may provide a valuable insight into same-sex desire in the American South.
Keywords
American literature, gay literature, southern literature, Jim Grimsley, Dream Boy, rural South in literature,
teenage sexuality
Contact
Roman Trušník
Tomas Bata University in Zlín
Faculty of Humanities
Mostní 5139
Zlín, 760 01
Czech Republic
E-mail: trusnik@fhs.utb.cz
Author
Petr Anténe
Title of the Article
A Campus Novel, a Picaresque Novel and a Double Bildungsroman: Reconsidering Michael Chabonʼs Wonder Boys
Abstract
Michael Chabon’s second novel Wonder Boys (1995) focuses on Grady Tripp, a professor of creative writing
whose personal and professional problems culminate during a writers’ festival on campus. A first person account
of a series of unexpected events that Grady and his student James Leer experience in and outside of Pittsburgh
during one weekend, the novel received mixed reviews. Whereas Robert Ward praised the text for being “the
ultimate writing-program novel,” Michael Gorra denounced it, in a rather simplified way, as “another novel about
a writer messing up his life.” Most famously, Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post review appreciated the
novel’s style and effective use of comic elements, but concluded that the text portrays a limited experience similar
to the author’s own, thus urging Chabon “to move on, to break away from the first person and explore larger
worlds.” While Chabon later seemed to follow Yardley’s advice in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and
Clay (2000), an ambitious historical novel which earned him the Pulitzer Prize, this paper aims to reconsider
Wonder Boys by drawing on its previous criticism and analyzing it as an amalgam of the campus novel, the
picaresque as well as both Grady’s and James’s Bildungsroman.
Keywords
American novel, campus novel, picaresque novel, Bildungsroman, Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys
Contact
Petr Anténe
Institute of Foreign Languages
Faculty of Education
Palacky University Olomouc
Žižkovo nám. 5
Olomouc, 771 40
Czech Republic
E-mail: petr.antene@upol.cz
Author
Ewa Rychter
Title of the Article
Some Recent Biblical Re-writings in English and the Contemporary “Canonical” Images of the Bible
Abstract
This paper focuses on three contemporary Anglophone rewritings of the Bible (i.e., on Philip Pullman’s The
Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (2010), Jeanette Winterson’s Boating for Beginners (1985), and on
Jim Crace’s Quarantine (1997)) and contends that the rewrites can be read against the background of the late
twentieth-century emergence of dominant understandings of the Bible: of the Bible as a cultural icon and of
the Bible as an epitome of liberal/human values. Those dominant – or “canonical” – images of the Bible prefer
either to foreground the role the Bible played in the formation of Western culture and democracy, and/or to
play down the more scandalous, less palatable features of biblical texts. While the dominant images embody the
currently most popular and culturally orthodox perspectives on the meaning of the Bible, other concerns and
perspectives are relegated to the margins of interest. Seeing some parallels between such contemporary processes of
marginalisation/promotion and the past mechanisms of biblical canon-formation, I argue that the recent biblical
rewritings re-enact the process of forgetting, suppressing or proscribing alternative accounts of biblical events, and
simultaneously, bring into sharp focus and problematize its twentieth- and twenty-first-century form of canonicity.
Keywords
Bible, rewriting, canon, Pullman, Winterson, Crace, Jesus, democracy, culture, liberal values
Contact
Author
Ema Jelínková
Title of the Article
The Absent Satirist: The Strange Case of Muriel Spark
Abstract
Based on her early novels, Muriel Spark was pigeonholed by her contemporaries as a Catholic satirist committed
to eternal truths. However, Spark took an increasing delight in elusiveness in her later novels, refusing to confer
value on her texts or insert an easily recognizable moral preoccupation. This paper is an attempt to discuss
whether Spark’s cool, unengaged quality and ostentatious lack of interest in upholding moral values may or may
not enable satire within the confines of its traditional predicament. Since Spark came very close to contradicting
many of her previous claims and findings during her dynamic development, I am obliged to utilize novels from
different periods, The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), along with
The Abbess of Crewe (1974), to find out whether any method can be derived from her apparent inconsistency.
Keywords
Muriel Spark, Scottish literature, twentieth-century British literature, satire, parody, duality, devil worship
Contact
Author
Martin Mareš
Title of the Article
The Island Topos: From Paradise to Prison
Abstract
Abstract
This article deals with the transformation of the island topos. The island is frequently depicted as a paradise
and prison in English literature and the article elaborates on the transformation of the two topoi. Prior to the
depiction of the transformation, the article deals with perceptions and attitudes people have associated with
islands throughout history. The core part of the article describes the process of the island transformation. It also
points out the significant geographical features of islands which help to change the perception of the environment.
Works by English authors such as, The Magus, Utopia, Web, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels are used
in order to help illustrate the processes of this transformation.
Keywords
Island, poetics of place, topos, John Wyndham
Contact
