Posudek Na Magisterskou Diplomovou Práci Název Práce: Ian Mcewan/'s ...
Posudek na magisterskou diplomovou práci
Název práce:
Ian McEwan's "Enduring Love" and Postmodernity
Studijní obor:
Mgr - Anglický jazyk a literatura
Autor/ka práce:
Kateřina Čechová
Vedoucí práce:
Milada Franková
Oponent/ka:
Stephen Hardy
Předkládaná práce je hodnocena
1. Z hlediska obsahového záměru, naplnění zadání a zpracování předepsané literatury
C - dobře
2. Z hlediska požadavků na jazykovou správnost (pravopisné a jiné jazykové chyby)
B - velmi dobře
3. Z hlediska požadavků na formální úpravu, požadovaný rozsah, dodržování citačních
norem, odkazy a bibliografii
B - velmi dobře
4. Připomínky, náměty, otázky k rozpravě:
The thesis analyzes a single novel by Ian McEwan, 'Enduring Love', considering how it
stages a confrontation between modern, determinate reason, in the form of science, and
'postmodern' forms of anti-rationalist thinking, by means of the way in which the main
character and narrator of the novel, Joe Rose, negotiates his tragic and mystifying relation
to the love of Jed Parry and the impact on his view of the world and his relationship with
his partner Clarissa. In order to provide a theoretical context for its discussion the thesis
presents a wide range of theoretical perspectives which attempt to characterize aspects of
postmodernity and postmodernism as well as including thorough coverage of
contemporary receptions of the novel in question. I found the thesis a stimulating,
generally well-written and thoughtful piece of writing whose quality was, however,
marred by a number of limitations. Firstly, given that McEwan's later, most recent novel,
'Saturday', covers eminently comparable territory, in terms of the confrontation between a
science oriented main character threated by elements of dramatically irrational behaviour
on the part of another main character, with a literary-oriented female character occupying
a similar position to that of Clarissa in 'Enduring Love', I was surpised that the opportunity
was not taken to produce a more substantial analysis by providing a comparison of the two
novels and a discussion of how McEwan had developed his position. Or, failing this,
inclusion of an analysis of 'The Child In Time', which again affords significant elements
for comparison. McEwan's other fiction is briefly referred to in the second chapter but the
treatment provided here is so limited that no significant context for the novel discussed is
provided in a way that might have been possible with a more detailed analytical context in
this respect. Secondly, the author provides a reasonably extensive discussion and
characterization of aspects of modernity and postmodernism but presented in a haphazard
and sometimes superficial fashion, employing various elements, often rather basic
secondary representations, of post-structuralist theorists of very different kinds, such as
Derrida, Lyotard, or Deleuze and Guattari, to take three examples, in her discussion of the
thematics and representational mode of the novel. Here, a more organized approach, with
a chapter devoted to making more precise distinctions between pre-modern, modern and
post-modern forms of discourse and social and cultural practice, and the differences
between the variety of perspectives covered under the notoriously broad heading of the
postmodern would have been helpful in providing a more precisely focused analysis,
given the stated aims of the thesis. The first section of the third chapter purports to do this
but tends towards being as much a discussion of McEwan's novel, if interspersed with a
few references to aspects of postmodernism. The distinction in the two main sections,3:3
and 3:4, is essentially that between content and form, and is legitimate enough, but the
two tend to blur into one another and the overall result is a series all of which tend toward
making very similar points in slightly varying fashion. Having made these criticisms, I
would stress that I found the discussion of Roses's ethical dilemmas and McEwan's
presentation of them to be frequently very stimulating and pertinent. I would evaluate the
thesis as considerably competent but am not quite convinced that it merits one of the
higher grades.
Celkový návrh hodnocení1:
C - dobře
V Brně dne 23. ledna 2007
Stephen Hardy
1 Dílčí hodnocení nemají stejnou hodnotu a celkové hodnocení tedy není jejich průměrem.
