The study focuses on Marxist critique of Soviet systems in Czech oppositional thought during the period of so-called normalization (1970s–1980s). This analytical discourse was characterized by efforts to re-establish the critical debates that started as a part of Czechoslovak social-scientific critique in the 1960s and intended to provide a detailed analysis of the nature of the so-called Soviet-type systems (STS, i.e. the political systems of the Warsaw Pact countries). Thus, the STS theory was geopolitically defined and did not deal with analyzes of other communist regimes (for example, Yugoslavia or China). On the example of selected Czechoslovak thinkers (e.g. Pelikán, Mlynář, Strmiska, Hájek) the first part of the study addresses attempts to evaluate Czechoslovak development in the 1960s as a specific case of democratization of the Soviet-type system; in the second part I focus on interpretations of these discussions from the perspective of East-European totalitarian paradigm. Finally, the third part describes how these analyzes contributed to the formulation of possible political changes in the Eastern Bloc.
Jan Blažek, a correspondent of the Czech Ethnological Society, wrote in 1982 a text that described representatives of selected socio-professional groups in the Czech countryside before World War I. He paid attention to beggars, vagrants, wanderers, and barrel organ players. Even though those people usually were on the margin of society, the author identifies peculiar features of each of the mentioned groups and he differentiates between them (he creates a particular characteristics for each of them). He deals with their social and material situation, majority ́s relationship to them (including possible stereotypes and expressions of solidarity), their life conditions (diet, accommodation, clothing etc.) and other features (way of earning livelihood, typical behaviour, or verbal expressions).
The study concerns provisional dwellings of poor village inhabitants, particularly a dwelling of a smallholder from Kostelec na Hané, which was continually inhabited for more than one hundred years. It was partly built under the road in the western part of the residential area. The entrance part of the basement that has for unknown reasons not been used for many years was modified. From the basement there is a system of tunnels under the town. Their use as a permanent dwelling was unique in central Moravia. The appearance of this house - its construction, space division, hearth, etc., is reconstructed in the study.
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The paper focuses on the intellectual aspects of Bohumil Hrabal’s work and also on the concept of worldview. The starting point is Josef Zumr’s article “The Intellectual Inspiration of Bohumil Hrabal” (1989); the approaches of Jan Patočka (1942) and Jan Mukařovský (1947) are also mentioned. In his article Zumr presents Hrabal’s worldview as a mosaic of constitutive and affirmative influences. He formulates a thesis on the post-war continuity of the avant-garde, of which Hrabal’s work is a part. In this paper, Zumr’s interpretation is subjected to partial revision: it is not only about ideological influences, but also about their individual creative transformation. Hrabal has lost the optimism of the avant-garde, his work testifies to the turn of an epoch and combines humour with melancholy and historical scepticism. and Příspěvek se zaměřuje na ideové aspekty díla Bohumila Hrabala a také na pojem světového názoru. Referenčním textem je studie Josefa Zumra „Ideová inspirace Bohumila Hrabala“ (1989). Zmíněny jsou rovněž přístupy Jana Patočky (1942) a Jana Mukařovského (1947). Zumr ve své studii představuje Hrabalův světový názor jako mozaiku konstitutivních a konfirmativních vlivů. Formuluje tezi o poválečné kontinuitě avantgardy, které je Hrabalovo dílo součástí. V tomto příspěvku je Zumrova interpretace podrobena dílčí revizi: nejde jen o ideové vlivy, nýbrž také o jejich individuální tvůrčí transformaci. Hrabal ztratil optimismus avantgard. Jeho dílo je svědectvím o přelomu epoch a spojuje humor s melancholií a dějinnou skepsí.
This paper surveys a new approach to interpretation of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - the resolute reading. The proponents of the resolute interpretation (especially Cora Diamond and James F. Conant) have argued that the central point of Tractatus is § 6.54. The reading of the section should be resolute, which means the sentences in Tractatus are simply nonsense (einfach Unsinn). Thus, the Tractatus’ aim is not a theory or doctrine of aspects of reality, language or their relation. On the other hand, the main point of the text should be elucidation of the reader’s points. The paper analyses two assumptions in the resolute reading and submits criticism of them. The basis of the criticism is to verify the validity of resolute reading’s assumptions by reference to Notebooks, Prototractatus, correspondence and some manuscripts and typescripts from the Tractatus period in Wittgenstein’s thinking., Příspěvek se zabývá novým přístupem k interpretaci Wittgensteinova Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - rozhodného čtení. Zastáncové rozhodného výkladu (obzvláště Cora diamant a James F. Conant) argumentovali, že centrální bod Tractatus je § 6.54. Čtení sekce by mělo být rozhodné , což znamená, že věty v Tractatus jsou prostě nesmysly ( einfach Unsinn ). Tak, Tractatus ' cíl není teorie nebo doktrína aspektů reality, jazyka nebo jejich vztahu. Na druhé straně by hlavní bod textu měl být objasněnčtenářských bodů. Příspěvek analyzuje dva předpoklady v rozhodném čtení a kritizuje je. Základem kritiky je ověřit platnost předpokladů rozhodného čtení odkazem na Notebooky, Prototractatus , korespondenci a některé rukopisy a strojopisy z období Tractatus v Wittgensteinově myšlení., and Tomáš Došek
Social work as an institutionalized profession aims to promote and defend human rights and social justice regardless of gender, sexual orientation and other grounds. Rooted in Christianity, it is partly performed by religious organizations and religious people. Consequently, conservative values may orient the profession, thus conflicting with the rights of lesbians and gays. The aim of the article is to present the risks of social worker’s oppressive action toward same--sex parents, and to suggest possibilities how to avoid such ethical misconduct. First, we present a dilemma of social work arising from the tension between ethical principles of equality and non -discrimination on the one hand and conservative norms on the other hand. Then, we introduce individual oppressive tendencies which are manifested in the discourse “on homosexuality” in Czech social work and how these may transform into social worker’s oppressive action. Finally, we propose practical suggestions that can support anti -oppressive social work in the Czech Republic.
This study examines how South Africans construct and negotiate racial identities in written commentaries via a forum of the Mail@Guardian website Thought Leader in response to a blog by Ndumiso Ngcobo entitled “I’m a coconut and I am proud of it – say it with me.” Ngcobo’s ironic opinion piece, written in 2008, which plays with the label “coconut” (frequently employed in South Africa among “black” people in reference to another “black” person who seemingly behaves “white”), triggered 163 responses from individual readers. An essential point made by Ngcobo is that perceptions and attitudes around “whiteness” and “blackness,” or what can be considered “white” or “black” in racial terms, vary greatly, depending on circumstances and perspective. However, the author’s irreverent and ironic style is misunderstood and misinterpreted by many of the comment writers. Relying partially on the methodological framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, I analyze the commentary texts and interpret the categories people use in their discursive constructions of race and identity by examining their stylistic choices and content markers and focusing on sociolinguistic and cultural issues. It is argued that the analyzed comments are representative not only of the pervasiveness of “rigid” race thinking but also of how intra-racial boundaries are constructed in the post-apartheid state.