KATEDRA ANGLISTIKY A AMERIKANISTIKY FF UP V OLOMOUCI
Hodnocení diplomové práce

Autorka: Simona VIČAROVÁ
Název práce: „Sarah Kane’s Plays in the Context of the Czech Republic”
Vedoucí práce: Mgr. David Livingstone, PhD.
Oponent: PhDr. Matthew Sweney, M.A.

	Hodnocení A,B,C, D, E a F (nevyhovující)	Poznámky	
1/ Cíl - záměr: vymezení	C	See comments below.	
                         splnění	B		
2/ Argumentace (schopnost formulovat východiska a závěry, logická koherence, schopnost generalizace a konkretizace)	C	I was a bit confused. See comments below.	
3/ Znalost primární literatury 
	A		
4/ Znalost sekundární literatury (rozsah, adekvátnost)
	A		
5/ Samostatnost (schopnost odborné polemiky, kritický úsudek), originalita			
6/ Formální úroveň (dodržování zvolené bibliografické normy)	B-	Missing citation for her earlier thesis on Kane. Also missing a list of Czech performances of Kane’s plays, which should have formed an Appendix.	
7/ Jazyková a stylistická úroveň práce
	B		
8/ Jazyková a stylistická úroveň resumé
	N/A		
9/ Typografické provedení, úprava
			
10/ Poznámka k práci
	See below.		
Připomínky a otázky k obhajobě:

I would like to point out at the beginning that the author should be commended for her initiative and the work she has done in tracking down sources and taking the time to interview translators, actors, etc. - the Aura-Pont agency, Jaroslav Achab Haidler, Lenka Kolihová-Havlíková, Tomáš Kout, and those theatres and individuals she attempted in vain to contact. The research here is impressive and original.

The author attempts to map the Czech reception of Sarah Kane’s plays; in reality it is more like a list of productions, with comments on the translations. I found the commentary less successful than I had hoped: for example, comments about the translator omitting the numbers from one to fifty-two (p. 17-18), seems more like saving space on paper and time typing than an omission—as the author herself later concedes (p. 23). Also, perhaps it is because I am a foreigner, but I do not see so much difference between “mrtvýho” and “mrtvého” (20). I understand what dialect is, but this kind of small nuance can be left to the delivery of the actor in question, can it not? 

Without at least a brief description of the plays at the beginning of the thesis, I often found myself lost, as for instance why the “meaning of the title [4.48 Psychóza] is so notorious” (22). This is because it is finally explained on p. 58.

Also, an appendix of a list of Kane’s plays, their openings in English and their dates and locales of Czech production would have been very easy for the author to compile (since this is the gist of this thesis) and as a reference would have helped the reader to orient themselves quickly. This to me is a major omission.

The focus of the work seems more suited for Theatre Studies than English Literature, however. While there is lots of information on who directed, who acted, who commissioned what translation by whom, etc., there is almost no information on the plays themselves or why they should be performed in Czech theatres, aside from the fact that they feature “cruelty,” and that they are “shocking” and “poetic.”

But I see (through the miracle of STAG and thanks to the author’s comment on p.40) that she has already written a B.A. thesis on Kane entitled “Beauty in the Cruelty of Sarah Kane’s Plays,” where she has analysed the prosody of Kane’s works. [This thesis should have been cited in a footnote or in the bibliography.] Despite that, I think that some information on the literary qualities of Kane’s works here would have been helpful for the reader.

For while I now am well-informed as to the stagings of Kane’s works in the Czech Republic, I am still unsure of its reception, despite the reviews quoted in this M.A. thesis. Therefore my questions for the candidate are coming from the sphere of literature:

1) What is “coolness drama” as mentioned on pages 10-11, 42? What is “cool” and how does one translate that word into Czech? Can “coolness drama” be translated onto the Czech stage? 

2) Does the age of the audience have something to do with the reception of Kane’s plays in this country, as the author seems to suggest? If so, why? Does it have to do with “coolness”? Or with a lack of preconceptions of what theatre should be?

3) Since Kane’s plays have been performed in this country since 2000, has she become “mainstream” in Czech theatre today?

Závěr: Práce je - není - doporučena k obhajobě. 
Navržený klasifikační stupeň: B
V Olomouci dne 28.8.2012							        Vedoucí - oponent diplomové práce