Annotations
| Nr. | Topic | Annotations |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Antisemitism at the turn of the 20th/21st century in Slovakia. Historical and ethnological analysis | The topic of anti-Semitism in Slovakia in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century is a pilot research of this issue. As a starting point, it assumes an orientation in the issue of left-wing anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism from the Communist Party (KSČ) environment of the normalization period. Theoretically, it will draw on the analyses of Róbert Wistrich, Daniel J. Goldhagen, Zygmund Bauman and other theoretical concepts. Methodologically, it will be based on the heuristics of contemporary sources (periodical press, media outputs, political documents before and after the EU accession, etc.) and biographical method/oral history of public and political figures. An important part will be the analysis of the memoir/autobiographical literature "after November". Interpretation of sources presupposes discursive analysis. |
| 2. | Visual Representation in the Context of the Gülen Movement. | The Gülen or Hizmet movement is an Islamist fraternal movement. It is a sub-group of Sunni Islam based on the theological teaching of Said Nursi as reflected in Fethullah Gülen's religious teachings. The movement is considered conservative in Turkey but some have praised the movement as a pacifist, modern-oriented version of Islam, and an alternative to more extreme schools of Islam such as Salafism. Following the 2016 coup attempt, the Gülen movement is classified as a terrorist organisation in Turkey, but still very active outside Turkey, especially in Europe and the US. It has a strong economic background and a globally connected organisational structure. The movement is publishing and disseminating its teachings throughout the world in Turkish, English, German and many other languages. These publications show us Gülen's teachings not only in textual form but also in visual representation. The covers of the books and the illustrations of the movement's magazines represent an original visual reception of Islam and the world and therefore deserve to become the subject of scholarly investigation. |
| 3. | The relationship between man a4nd nature in ancient Maya culture from the perspective of Viveiros de Castro's controlled equivocation. | The relationship between man and nature among the ancient Maya was very close, based on extant records. Yet the nature of this relationship is burdened with Western categories and concepts that take us away from understanding it. The aim of this thesis will be to examine the image of nature in both pre-Columbian Maya records and contemporary Maya communities, from the perspective of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's so-called controlled equivocation. Rather than attempting to eliminate ambiguity (equivocation) between concepts in Maya and Western culture altogether, this method consciously manages it and uses it to reveal different ways of thinking. The aim will not be to translate cultural concepts mechanically, but to try to reveal the natural world of the Maya from the perspective of their own culture. |
| 4. | The object and its fate. The contextualization of Maya artifacts and their interpretive transformations in European museums. | The aim of the dissertation will be to focus on a selected range of Maya artefacts in a wide range of European museums and to map their 'fates'. By fate is meant the linking of the original contexts of the objects in their original culture, through their journey to Europe, and the new contexts they acquire over time. The work focuses on the stereotyping of meanings, the westernization of semantics and the reinterpretation of symbolism. Through the transformations of European cultures over time, Maya objects will be mirrored as a reflection of their own cultural expectations and social needs. The aim of the thesis is to show the complexity of interpreting an object from a foreign cultural context and our abilities and possibilities to understand it correctly. |