Andersen, B.; (2007) Ideology and narration: the works of Vaclav Rezac. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

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Abstract

The aim of my thesis is to investigate the interplay between ideology and narration in the novels by the Czech writer Vaclav Rezac (1901-1956). Rezac is a controversial figure in Czech literary history because of his association with the Party after the Communists' take-over of power in February 1948. In the 1930s and during the German Occupation, Rezac developed into one of the most highly regarded authors of Czech 'psychological analytical' fiction. In June 1945, Rezac joined the Party and, subsequently, began to propagate Socialist Realist modes of writing. This fact appears to have made it difficult for academic critics to approach Rezac at all objectively. My thesis constitutes a new interpretation of Rezac's novels which has the texts themselves as its primary focus. It represents a dialogue with previous literary criticism. I do, however, acknowledge that texts belong within a given context. I address this fact by defining the interpretive horizon of my analyses in terms of a semiotic definition of ideology, as ideologemes. In my view, ideology is to be understood as the text's production of significations which are simultaneously evaluated within a given process of narration. I define the ideologeme as a structuration of semes which has a nodal function between the text and its intertext it is both intrinsic to the text and links up the text with its context. I assert that it is possible to identify the ideologemes on a textual level through an approach based on a theory of narration.

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