Private Prison Cells : The Dynamics and Variety of Ian McEwan’s Space Concepts of the Postmodern Gothic

The paper will examine the dynamics of changes in the concepts of spaces in the selected novels written by the contemporary British author Ian McEwan. It will define the role of representational spaces in McEwan’s early novels (The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers) and concentrate on the term of intense focalization in the author’s recent novel Nutshell. The main aim of the paper is to trace the presence of the uncanny in McEwan’s fictional spaces and explore the theme of space violation and disturbing human privacy within the closed space which points out to the genre of postmodern Gothic

The Gothic, Romantic and Victorian Tradition with Respect to the Poetics of the Sublime: The Space of Transylvania and Victorian London in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Tracing the Romantic Sublime in Victorian fiction, the changes in late 19thcentury discourse through which the Romantic Sublime was generally re-jected due to its nature of excessive romantic subjectivity, egoism and lack of social responsibility cannot be ignored. However, speaking of the tran-sitional nature of the sublime in 19th century fiction¹15it becomes clear that the Victorians found the Romantic Sublime potentially attractive and thus subconsciously present in their works. Nevertheless, what is a more rele-vant aspect in the Victorian novel is the human aim at the rationalising of events which attempts to define the relationship of literature and science in the 19th century. Questioning the criteria of objectivity and rationali-ty in the course of the narrative becomes relevant namely in Bram Stok-er’s Dracula where scientific and technological progress is undermined by the sublime presence of the undead in spite of the human effort to use all available documentary material to witness the case

Private Prison Cells

The paper will examine the dynamics of changes in the concepts of spaces in the selected novels written by the contemporary British author Ian McEwan. It will define the role of representational spaces in McEwan’s early novels (The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers) and concentrate on the term of intense focalization in the author’s recent novel Nutshell. The main aim of the paper is to trace the presence of the uncanny in McEwan’s fictional spaces and explore the theme of space violation and disturbing human privacy within the closed space which points out to the genre of postmodern Gothic

Multiplicity of Spaces in Daniel Deronda

The paper focuses on the multiplicity of spaces structuring the novel Daniel Deronda and attempts to demonstrate an understanding of space projected by George Eliot in the European context. This last novel of George Eliot was in this respect more revelatory than her previous works, as it moves the author’s perception of space far from English regionalism. The paper further contrasts the use of space in Daniel Deronda with Eliot’s previous novels using Deleuzoguattarian smooth and striated space as well as certain Romantic impulses in Victorian novels as defined by D. D. Stone. A significant aspect of the study is an analysis of water as space, namely interpreting the presence of the River Thames and the sea along the port of Genoa. Both of these water spaces contribute greatly to the development of the novel’s plot towards a tragic mood. Heidegger’s philosophical treatment of the spatial aspect of the bridge will be focused upon in the final part of the article

Crossing the Boundary: The Space of Hardy‘s Wessex Novels

The article focuses on concepts of space in Thomas Hardy‘s Wessex novels, The Return of the Native, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and The Woodlanders. The theoretical approach used here is centred on two general categories of defining space. One is aesthetic expression of space, i.e. how space is perceived by the narrator or the characters themselves; this notion in some ways corresponds with smooth space as Deleuze and Guattari use this term to focus on the dynamics of forces in their Treatise on Nomadology in A Thousand Plateaus. The other category concerns mimetic aesthetics and space representation, i.e. how space is constructed with regard to a specific “reality,” a mediation which in some ways corresponds to Deleuze and Guattari’s category of space striation. Examples of both approaches will be shown in the essential conflict of the novels’ characters with respect to the environments they occupy. Attention will be devoted to the process of the characters’ assimilation into the environment, including their possible absorption by space

Koncepce prostoru viktoriánských románů

The dissertation focuses on two general categories of defining space: on space expression according to the expressive approach to aesthetics and, secondly, on space representation based on the mimetic aesthetics. The exploration of the surface structure of space employs the philosophical categories of smooth and striated space, formulated by Deleuze and Guattari in their Treatise on Nomadology, while the depths of the inner spaces, including the spaces of the human mind, are treated within the framework of Gaston Bachelard's phenomenology, stressing the importance of the symbolic meanings hidden in the unconscious. The primary texts in which the concept of space is explored range from the Brontë sisters' novels (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre) to Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels, and further on to the last novel of George Eliot, Daniel Deronda. Attention is given to the role of natural elements constituting space, with emphasis on the element of water.Práce se zabývá koncepcí prostoru vybraných viktoriánských románů nejprve v jeho povrchové struktuře a posléze zkoumá hloubkové vztahy těchto struktur k archetypálním a symbolickým složkám prostoru v literatuře. Ke zkoumání "povrchu" byla využita filosofie pojetí prostoru Deleuze a Guattariho rozlišující prostor hladký (nomádský) a zvrstvený (civilizačními zásahy). Další část práce využívá filosofickou perspektivu vnímání prostoru Gastona Bachelarda, jehož Poetika prostoru zachycuje fenomenologii básnického obrazu s důrazem na archetypální pojetí hloubky prostoru a jeho funkci v lidském podvědomí. Práce se zaměřuje na vybrané romány viktoriánské doby, které nesou jisté společné znaky (centralizace prostoru, otevřenost krajiny, vztah k místu nebo určitému regionu), a v tomto směru podrobuje analýze romány sester Brontëových (Na Větrné hůrce, Jana Eyrová), Thomase Hardyho a George Eliot (Mlýn na řece Floss, Daniel Deronda).Ústav anglistiky a amerikanistikyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Multiplicity of Spaces in Daniel Deronda

The paper focuses on the multiplicity of spaces structuring the novel Daniel Deronda and attempts to demonstrate an understanding of space projected by George Eliot in the European context. This last novel of George Eliot was in this respect more revelatory than her previous works, as it moves the author’s perception of space far from English regionalism. The paper further contrasts the use of space in Daniel Deronda with Eliot’s previous novels using Deleuzoguattarian smooth and striated space as well as certain Romantic impulses in Victorian novels as defined by D. D. Stone. A significant aspect of the study is an analysis of water as space, namely interpreting the presence of the River Thames and the sea along the port of Genoa. Both of these water spaces contribute greatly to the development of the novel’s plot towards a tragic mood. Heidegger’s philosophical treatment of the spatial aspect of the bridge will be focused upon in the final part of the article

Concepts of Space in Victorian Novels

The dissertation focuses on two general categories of defining space: on space expression according to the expressive approach to aesthetics and, secondly, on space representation based on the mimetic aesthetics. The exploration of the surface structure of space employs the philosophical categories of smooth and striated space, formulated by Deleuze and Guattari in their Treatise on Nomadology, while the depths of the inner spaces, including the spaces of the human mind, are treated within the framework of Gaston Bachelard's phenomenology, stressing the importance of the symbolic meanings hidden in the unconscious. The primary texts in which the concept of space is explored range from the Brontë sisters' novels (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre) to Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels, and further on to the last novel of George Eliot, Daniel Deronda. Attention is given to the role of natural elements constituting space, with emphasis on the element of water

Crossing the Boundary: The Space of Hardy‘s Wessex Novels

The article focuses on concepts of space in Thomas Hardy‘s Wessex novels, The Return of the Native, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and The Woodlanders. The theoretical approach used here is centred on two general categories of defining space. One is aesthetic expression of space, i.e. how space is perceived by the narrator or the characters themselves; this notion in some ways corresponds with smooth space as Deleuze and Guattari use this term to focus on the dynamics of forces in their Treatise on Nomadology in A Thousand Plateaus. The other category concerns mimetic aesthetics and space representation, i.e. how space is constructed with regard to a specific “reality,” a mediation which in some ways corresponds to Deleuze and Guattari’s category of space striation. Examples of both approaches will be shown in the essential conflict of the novels’ characters with respect to the environments they occupy. Attention will be devoted to the process of the characters’ assimilation into the environment, including their possible absorption by space

Crossing the Boundary: The Space of Hardy‘s Wessex Novels

The article focuses on concepts of space in Thomas Hardy‘s Wessex novels, The Return of the Native, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and The Woodlanders. The theoretical approach used here is centred on two general categories of defining space. One is aesthetic expression of space, i.e. how space is perceived by the narrator or the characters themselves; this notion in some ways corresponds with smooth space as Deleuze and Guattari use this term to focus on the dynamics of forces in their Treatise on Nomadology in A Thousand Plateaus. The other category concerns mimetic aesthetics and space representation, i.e. how space is constructed with regard to a specific “reality,” a mediation which in some ways corresponds to Deleuze and Guattari’s category of space striation. Examples of both approaches will be shown in the essential conflict of the novels’ characters with respect to the environments they occupy. Attention will be devoted to the process of the characters’ assimilation into the environment, including their possible absorption by space