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Deboning the Audience: Sarah Silverman’s Shock Comedy
By Blanka Šustrová What makes people laugh? Is there still a space for racist and rape jokes in today’s comedy? Why do comedians even go into this realm of taboo comedy material and what is their point? These questions and many more were discussed towards the end of September 2017 in an intensive course taught…
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Arbitrary Humanity: The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
By Michaela Medveďová A crew comprised of four different species, the universe governed by a galactic government, a wormhole-making spaceship travelling light years away to an unknown world. The setting for Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet provides a seemingly perfect opportunity for a breathtaking space adventure, filled with chases and…
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Sounds like Something Written by Margaret Atwood
By Petra Polanič The political climate is eerie. You might wish to use a clever literary reference to illustrate just how dystopian the future could be. Orwellian, by now, is a well-enough known term, present in most major dictionaries. With the increasing significance of The Handmaid’s Tale, both the 1985 novel and the new award-winning…
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Howdy! A Letter from Central Texas
By Tomáš Kačer, PhD. The best thing about going to the United States as a research affiliate is that you have time for research only and don’t have to deal with students. Well – it’s not true. I may have got plenty of time to carry out research and to spend with my family, but…
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“I Don’t Repeat Courses. That Would Be Freaky!” Interview with Hanjo Berressem
By Blanka Šustrová The English Department at the University of Cologne in Germany has been a popular ERASMUS+ destination for many of our students. I have spent my summer 2017 semester at the Englisches Seminar I. (department focused on literature, culture and linguistics) and to anyone thinking about studying abroad at this department I can…
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Fighting for the “Right” Version of America: Timeless Review & Analysis
By Tereza Walsbergerová Time-travel, popular historical figures, and light humor, but also mystery, conspiracy, and corruption at the very root of America’s past… The American TV series Timeless, created by Eric Kripke (Supernatural) and Shawn Ryan (Lie To Me), is a seemingly straightforward time-travel procedural packed with popular history trivia, stereotypical characters, and overused television…
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Labels and Beyond: On Queer Liminality and Fuzzy Edges of Identification
by Tereza Walsbergerová As most societies still struggle to fully accept gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans people, new sexual and gender identities keep entering the discourse, filling the gaps in representation and aiming to secure a niche in the queer community. While on one hand, these “new” identification labels will perhaps in time lead to…
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“During the time of my career, there have been some very extraordinary changes”: Interview with Her Excellency Barbara C. Richardson
By Makéta Šonková and Anna Formánková Although not as much talked about as with the U.S. or the U.K., Canada, too, shares long-cultivated ties to our country, and these ties have been growing strong recently. Partly, it might be thanks to the charismatic Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, it might also be thanks to…
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American Presidential Crises
By Pavla Wernerová While the president of the United States can be considered to be the most powerful person in the world, they are still not free to do anything they want. The president is still limited by many factors such as the Congress and the Supreme Court and even by such factors such as…
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Public Sculpture and Nationalism: The Not-Only-Visual Re-Birth of Irish Identity
By Markéta Šonková The summer of 2017 saw many upheavals. The U.S., too, experienced many. One of them was a public fight over the fate of Confederate statues and monuments. It was the white supremacists’ rally in Charlottesville, Va. which turned violent that renewed attention to these statues. Since then, they have been coming down…