A Major Minor Literature: The Grass Is Singing and Disgrace
| Thesis title in Czech: | Velká menšinová literatura: Tráva zpívá a Hanebnost |
|---|---|
| Thesis title in English: | A Major Minor Literature: The Grass Is Singing and Disgrace |
| Key words: | Doris Lessingová|Tráva zpívá|J. M. Coetzee|Hanebnost|koloniální historie|zločin|smíření|Deleuze a Guattari|menšinová literatura|deteritorializace|stávání se zvířetem |
| English key words: | Doris Lessing|The Grass Is Singing|J. M. Coetzee|Disgrace|colonial history|crime|reconciliation|Deleuze a Guattari|minor literature|deterritorialization|becoming animal |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2017/2018 |
| Thesis type: | Bachelor's thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 27.06.2018 |
| Date of assignment: | 27.06.2018 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 28.06.2018 |
| Date and time of defence: | 17.06.2019 09:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 26.05.2019 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 17.06.2019 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | Mgr. Klára Kolinská, Dr., Ph.D. |
| Guidelines |
| The main objective is to perform a thorough analysis and comparison of two major works, The Grass Is Singing (1950) and Disgrace (1999), written by two Nobel Prize Laureates, Doris Lessing and John Maxwell Coetzee respectively. The authorsbelong to different generations and thus have different life experience and political views; nevertheless, they have much in common. They were of European origin but grew up and lived in South Africa and they both, in their own way, had to deal with the fundamental conflict of that region, which is inability of the white and black races to live together in peace, and this conflict represents also the central theme of both novels. The time gap of almost half a century significantly changed the backdrop of the stories and representation of human characters but hatred and violence still persist. The thesis aims to answer the following research questions: How do the novels differ in terms of their form, content, message and reception by readers and literary critics? How has the discourse on racism and apartheid changed from the 1950s to the 1990s? How are these changes reflected in the novels? What are the main differences in the personal approach of both writers towards major social and political changes that they lived through? The prerequisite parts of the thesis will be a comprehensive overview of the colonial and postcolonial history of the region, and an overview of relevant literary criticism with focus on minority literature and postcolonial criticism. |
| References |
| A Land Apart: A Contemporary South African Reader. Ed. J. M. Coetzee. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1987. Chapman, Michael. Southern African Literatures. Pietermaritzburg, ZA: University Kwazulu Natal Press, 2003. Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. London: Vintage, 2000. Coetzee, J. M. White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. Minneapolis, MN: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1986. Lessing, Doris May. The Grass Is Singing. London: M. Joseph, 1950. Lessing, Doris May. Under My Skin Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1995. Lowe, Norman. Mastering Modern British History.London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. 3rd ed. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. Ed. John Mcleod. Milton Park: Routledge, 2007. |