News

The English Department is proud to invite you to

two exciting public lectures

by

doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.

associate professor, Masaryk University

and

Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D.

assistant professor, Masaryk University

False Friends Beyond the Language Class – What Is There to Study? (dr. Rambousek)
April 28, 2023, 8.50 am, P102

The lecture deals with selected aspects of language interference, especially the so-called false friends (faux amis, false cognates). There are around two thousand false cognates between English and Czech. While often mentioned in intermediate-level English lessons, they are neglected at higher levels of ESL and in translator training. Based on errors collected from authentic texts, the lecture looks into the existing types of false friends and compares the ESL approach to what is needed in translation studies. How can false friends be studied, registered, and their treacherous influence avoided? Throughout the lecture, a few tricky examples will be presented and discussed.

Jan Firbas and His Approach to Functional Sentence Perspective (doc. Chamonikolasová)
April 28, 2023, 10.40 am, P102

The lecture will present the basic principles of the theory of Functional Sentence Perspective founded by Jan Firbas and its position among other theories of Information Structure. Attention will be paid to factors affecting the flow of information in discourse and the distribution of Communicative Dynamism within sentences and clauses. The lecture will include an example of the application of the FSP theory in translation.

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Doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D. is a teacher at the Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. She specializes in teaching Functional Syntax and the History of the English Language. The focus of her research is the Information Structure of Discourse. She is a follower of Jan Firbas, the founder of the Brno school of Functional Sentence Perspective.

Mgr. Ing. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D., teaches translation theory and practice courses at the Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. His research interests include the history of Czech translations of children’s literature, especially Lewis Carroll, and problems of language interference and language contact in translation practice.

In the week of April 17 to April 21, 2023 Dr Laura Castor of The Arctic University of Norway is visiting our department. Students have the chance to meet her in Culture 2 seminars and in some other classes.  Dr Castor teaches classes in American literature, indigenous studies, and life writing. She is the author of Facing Trauma in Contemporary American Literary Discourse: Stories of Survival and Possibility (2019). If you would like to meet Dr Castor for a consultation about a topic that is of interest to you, please contact Anna Světlíková and she will help you arrange a meeting.

The English Department is proud to invite you to

a public lecture followed by a sing-along session with the banjo

by

David Livingstone, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Head of the Literary Section of the Department of English and American Studies
Palacký University, Olomouc

Shakespeare('s) Lives: Adaptations of the Bard in Contemporary Literature

April 19, 2023, 6.00 pm, P005

Like Hamlet’s father’s ghost, Shakespeare is still very much around today, but not always in forms we might expect. This talk will primarily explore Shakespearian themed books from the last fifty years. This will cover not only novels which are contemporary adaptations of the plays (especially novels in the so-called Hogarth Shakespeare Series), but also books dealing with Shakespeare the historical person. There will also be references to the development of this tradition as well as a brief discussion of the film adaptations and TV series (Shakespeare in Love, Upstart Crow).

David Livingstone is an American who has been living and working in the Czech Republic for more than thirty years. He teaches Shakespeare, modernism, Czech culture, children’s literature and American folk music at Palacký University, Olomouc. His doctoral dissertation, entitled Subversive Characters and Techniques in Shakespeare's History Plays, attempted feminist and cultural materialist readings of the first Henriad in particular. He has recently published a book, In Our Own Image: Fictional Representations of William Shakespeare, which looks at the wealth of novels, plays, short stories, films, television series and even comics focused on Shakespeare as a character.

The English Department is proud to invite you to

a public lecture

by

Anna Zsubori, B.A., M.A., M.Litt., PhD.

University Teacher in Communication and Media
Loughborough University (UK)

The Good, the Bad and the Disney: Tweens’ Negotiation of Gender through the Disney Princess Phenomenon in Anti-gender, Post-socialist, "Illiberal" Hungary

April 13, 2023, 14.20 pm, P201

This interdisciplinary talk, as part of a bigger project, examines Hungarian tweenagers’ negotiation of gender after engaging with diverse scholarly works from several fields – such as communication, cultural, feminist media, film and tweenhood studies – on the one hand, and conducting audience research with Hungarian informants on the other. It does so by investigating the concept of ‘the’ princess, including, but not limited to, Disney Princesses, while offering unique theoretical contributions and discussing the complexities of the academically-overlooked Princess Phenomenon. This talk gives an overview of the links between fairy tales and animation, followed by a brief history on audience research with children. Further, it covers the historical, social, and political context in contemporary Hungary and finally it analyses Hungarian children’s notions of gender by discussing their ideas about ‘the’ princess as a concept.

Anna is a communication, media and social studies scholar specialised in conducting audience research with international child participants, and a university teacher in communication and media. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Leicester under its Graduate Teaching Assistantship Scheme at the School of Media, Communication, and Sociology, and is a published researcher with a monograph under contract, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a media expert with management experience in film distribution. Anna achieved her B.A. in Media Studies and M.A. in Teaching Literature and Grammar in Hungary, and her M.Litt. in Film Studies from the University of Dundee, Scotland