Steinbeck’s People in Flight: An Analysis of the Transformative Forces of the Road Taken

• Název práce v češtině: Steinbeckovi lidé v pohybu: Analýza proměnné schopnosti zvolené cesty putování
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Steinbeck’s People in Flight: An Analysis of the Transformative Forces of the Road Taken
• Klíčová slova: proměna, mobilita, let, útěk, John Steinbeck, Hrozny hněvu, americký sen, naděje, deprese, 30. léta, období Velké hospodářské krize, Dust Bowl, Kalifornie
• Klíčová slova anglicky: change, mobility, flight, escape, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, American Dream, hope, depression, 1930s, Great Depression, Dust Bowl, California
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2013/2014
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: David Lee Robbins, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 07.04.2014
• Datum zadání: 07.04.2014
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 12.05.2014
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 04.02.2015 09:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 14.01.2015
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 04.02.2015
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: PhDr. Hana Ulmanová, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” John Steinbeck
This thesis focuses on the theme of journey and the changes that occur in the socio-historical context of the Great Depression as well as in John Steinbeck‘s The Grapes of Wrath. The thesis is an expository piece on road literature, its features and how the chosen novel has earned its rightful place in the American oeuvre, specifically that of road literature. The thesis is separated into two major parts. The former part provides the reader with a socio-historical context of the Great Depression as well as a background on historical patterns of journey in America and how these two aspects are interrelated in the context of this thesis. The latter part constitutes the analysis of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath by including the authorial relation to the novel and the many aspects of the novel as studied through the scope of road literature. The latter part is expanded by a close-up analysis of identity changes of characters from The Grapes of Wrath. The primary focus is on the notion of change and how it is connected to the notion of the road. And between these two notions stands the human being and how he is transformed in the process.

Seznam odborné literatury

Benson, Jackson J. The Short Novels of John Steinbeck: Critical Essays with a Checklist to Steinbeck Criticism. Durham: Duke UP, 1990.
Benson, Jackson J., and Susan Shillinglaw. America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction. Penguin, 2003.
French, Warren G. John Steinbeck's Nonfiction Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1996.
George, Stephen K. The Moral Philosophy of John Steinbeck. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2005.
Li, Luchen. John Steinbeck: A Documentary Volume. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
McElrath, Joseph R., Jesse S. Crisler, and Susan Shillinglaw. John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.
Meyer, Michael J. The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2009.
Owens, Louis.John Steinbeck's re-vision of America. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985
Peeler, David.Hope among us yet : Social Criticism and Social Solace in Depression America. Athens :University of Georgia Press, 2009.
Railsback, Brian E., and Michael J. Meyer. A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.
Shillinglaw, Susan. A Journey Into Steinbeck's California. Roaring Forties, 2006
Steinbeck, John, and Thomas Fensch. Conversations with John Steinbeck. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1988.
Steinbeck, John, Robert Wallsten, and Elaine A. Steinbeck. Steinbeck: A Life in Letters. London: Penguin, 2001.
Steinbeck, John. Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin, 1990.
Western Literature Association (U.S.).A Literary history of the American West. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1987.
Zirakzadeh, Cyrus Ernesto, and Simon Stow. A Political Companion to John Steinbeck. N.p.: University of Kentucky, 2013.