Memory and Uncertainty in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

• Thesis title in Czech: Paměť a neurčitost v Kodani Michaela Frayna
• Thesis title in English: Memory and Uncertainty in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2012/2013
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury (41-KAJL)
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Petr Chalupský, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 07.02.2013
• Date of assignment: 07.04.2014
• Date and time of defence: 12.09.2014 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 10.04.2014
• Date of proceeded defence: 12.09.2014
• Course: Diploma Thesis (OSZD005)
• Opponents: PhDr. Tereza Topolovská, Ph.D.

References

Heisenberg, Werner. Část a celek. Rozhovory o atomové fyzice. Olomouc: Votobia, 1996, transl. Jiří Horák

Heisenberg, Werner. Physics and Philosophy. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1959

Abraham Pais, Niels Bohr's Times. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991

Lustig, Harry, Sepherd-Barr, Kirsten. “Science as Theatre”. American Scientist, November-December 2002. Vol. 90, Issue 6, p 550

King, Robert L. “The Play of Uncertain Ideas”. Massachusetts Review, Summer 2001, Vol. 42 Issue 2, p 165

Storm, William. “On Science of Dramatic Character”. Narrative, May 2011, Vol. 19 Issue 2, p241-252, 12p

Preliminary scope of work in English

Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen builds on a real historical event – the meeting of the two physicists, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in 1941. The play deals with the limits of human memory and with the impossibility of the objective interpretation of history. The thesis will attempt to explore the different ways in which Michael Frayn approaches the theme of uncertainty and unreliability of human memory. It will also try to establish to what extent the staging of the play determines its interpretation by a comparison of two Czech productions with the BBC tv film.