Department of English and American Studies
Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University                                     
Křížkovského 10, 771 80 Olomouc, Czech Republic 
telephone: +420 58-5633103,  fax: +420 58-5633101

Opponent's Review of Petra Wenzelová´s master thesis
Postcolonial rewriting of master texts by Charlotte Bronte 
and Katherine Mansfield

When attempting to summarise the thesis' statement at the beginning of my review I have encountered the first of my many difficulties with the presented text:

A) The title of the thesis is Postcolonial Rewriting of the Texts Postcolonial rewriting of master texts by Charlotte Bronte and Katherine Mansfield.
Issue no.1) While the thesis contains quite extensive analysis of the master texts, the "rewriting" of Mansfield - stated in the TITLE of the thesis - is covered on, scarcely, 5 (!) pages. 

B) "This thesis deals with postcolonial rewriting of the canonic text Jane Eyre ... and post-colonial response [to K. Mansfield's stories] by a contemporary New Zealand writer, Witi Ihimaera..." (5)
Issue no. 2: Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is not an attempt to rewrite Jane Eyre - rewriting stated in the TITLE of the thesis again - but, as the author herself several times confirms, a "post-dated prequel" to it (31)

C) While the above mentioned thesis statement(5) and Conclusion (57) - as well as the TITLE itself - claim as its main topic the act of rewriting, only the English annotation describes (more appropriately) the aim of the thesis to be "a close look at the rewritten master texts ... (etc.)" (62), radically shifting the focus of the presented text.
Issue no. 3: The analysis of the rewritten texts represents a much larger part of the thesis which is in contrast with the thesis title and topic statement

D) When quoting unpublished student theses and dissertations, the MLA system follows the following rules:
The MLA System for citing unpublished theses, dissertations and student projects:  
The reader needs to know: Author’s surname, author’s first name. “Title” (in inverted commas) Type of project (i.e. MA thesis, dissertation etc). Institution, date.

Example:
Bowly, Tim. “Bristol's Trading Networks with Ireland in the Later Middle Ages.” BA thesis. University of the West of England, 2005.
Issue no. 4:  Since the principle of referencing is that the reader can locate the source of information solely from the reference that is provided, the author proves the lack of elementary understanding of the purpose of referencing. 

With these formal reservations I wholeheartedly share the concerns expressed in the review by the thesis' consultant and expect them to be addressed at the oral defence. 

Olomouc, September 3rd, 2010
PhDr. Libor Práger, opponent