By Anna Formánková
Three years after the 50th anniversary of James Bond on screen, the franchise continues with what is expected to be the most successful Bond movie yet: SPECTRE. The embodiment of what Ian Fleming always desired to become returns on silver screen in the 24th instalment, the fourth adventure starring Daniel Craig as the iconic MI6 agent.
by Anna Formánková
Ian Fleming, the man who introduced the world to one of the biggest British heroes: Bond. James Bond. Though best known as a successful author of the Bond novels, Fleming drew inspiration for 007’s adventures from his own experience which he gained while working at the British Naval Intelligence Division. His life before Bond, including the WWII espionage period, is now uncovered in the four-part dramatisation ‘Fleming’, starring Dominic Cooper as the iconic personage.
By Lucie Horáková
Butler’s Severance is an unexpected take on the format of a short story collection. It contains sixty one very short texts that all adhere to some rather specific rules. Each short story has exactly 240 words. Why? Because Butler used some interesting facts as his starting point. First, “After decapitation, the human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for one and one-half minutes.” And second: “In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute.” This suggests that a decapitated head should be able to deliver a 240-word-long inner soliloquy and this is the content of Butler’s short story collection – sixty one 240-word-long inner monologues inside various severed heads. Keep Reading
by Melissa Upton
As language students, we are familiar with the impact that language has on cultures and peoples. We are fluent in how it has shaped history and continue to learn how it affects our own generations. As a resident who was born and raised in Quebec, I am no stranger to this ever growing conversation and have tried to capture if nothing but a brief portion of it below.
By Šárka Panochová
There are new signs on the lawns tonight. As if nobody cared about tomorrow’s midterms anymore, the “Parking $10” signs ruthlessly replaced the names of politicians I had seen flying above the front yards. Tonight they are irrelevant. The usually empty streets of the campus and its surrounding neighborhoods are already packed with cars and yet there is still a long line of headlights desperately looking for empty spots. Tonight, Lawrencians who live within a mile radius around Allen Fieldhouse start making their vacation money on basketball fans by charging them for parking in their driveway. And I heard this was one of the unimportant games… Keep Reading
By Anna Formánková
Wet pavements. Red busses. BICYCLES. If you thought that a city centre without cars is a calm and silent city centre you would be terribly mistaken. The narrow lanes, broader streets, hidden passages: all the places are buzzing with life. From lectures into the libraries, a stop by the college to pick up the mail from the pidge, pop into the café for a quick snack and get back in time for the tute: the Oxford student never stops!
To all people wishing to see their articles published in our magazine: Re:Views is currently looking for external contributors! Whether interested in writing a single article or seeking long-term cooperation, do not hesitate to contact us. Tell what you are interested in writing about and if you have had any experience working in a magazine.
Drop us a line on Facebook or write us an e-mail at re.views.magazine@gmail.com, we are looking forward to hearing from you!
By Barbora Orlická and Tomáš Varga
It all began in 1965 in a small village called Cikháj when a nice lady from Scotland got an idea. She was none other than Jessie Kocmanová. Jessie arrived in Czechoslovakia after 1945 with her husband, a Czech airman Vincenc Kocman. She became a member of the Department of English and American Studies and she was also involved in a theatre production at the British Council in Brno in 1947. After it closed down in 1948, she turned her attention elsewhere. Eventually, her interest in theatre found its practical outlet during one of the intensive English weeks in Cikháj where she decided to chase away boredom with the very first production of the Gypsywood Players (although the name was adopted only a year later). “So on the spot she just decided let’s do a play. So she picked out a five or six actors and found a text of some kind and they put on this play there,” recalls Don Sparling. As it turned out, it was the most remarkable thing she could have done. Keep Reading
By Tereza Pavlíková and Blanka Šustrová
The Department of English and American Studies (KAA) has been here for more than 95 years. Following the establishment of the university in 1919, it was one of the founding departments of the Faculty of Arts. However, finding out the precise day of the founding of the English Department has proven to be a task more complicated than we imagined. There are no official records accessible. This we learned after checking a number of webpages, the whole Faculty of Arts library, and underneath the KAA couch. Failing in this task miserably, we decided to pay a visit to Don Sparling, who became a member of staff in 1977, to interview him in the hope that he would tell us where we could access the information we were so desperately seeking. Keep Reading
By Tereza Pavlíková, Martina Krénová, Markéta Šonková, Blanka Šustrová
As we are writing these articles, almost 4 months have passed since Scotland’s independence referendum (or Indyref, as it is sometimes adoringly nicknamed) took place. The heated discussion and strong emotions have cooled down and it has become possible to look at the referendum from a bigger distance. Which we did, and doing this, were trying to see the bigger picture. How was the situation leading up to it? How was the voting and what was it that swinged the scales in favour of Better Together? What are the outcomes? Are the promises being fulfilled and are Scottish people still interested in getting more independent? These were just some of the questions we asked ourselves and attempted to find answers for. Keep Reading