Philosophy inspiration in selected works by Ladislav Fuks

The aim of this diploma theses is to find philosophical, religious and ideological motifs in the work of Ladislav Fuks and subsequently interpret their origin, intertextuality and meaning in the text. The emphasis is put on proving the semantic functionality in the story. For our research, we have selected following works: Mr. Theodore Mundstock, The Cremator, and Addressing from the Darkness. We will study philosophical and theological literature, as well as materials from the archives and from the estate of Ladislav Fuks in order to base all the findings on the biographical author, too. The thesis is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter we deal with basic literary characteristics of the selected books and their literary reception. The second chapter discusses Ladislav Fuks' relationship to philosophy, being anchored in both his friends' testimonies and the archival research of his estate. The third chapter is the most important and the most comprehensive one since it deals with the interpretation of philosophical motifs in each of the selected books. In the fourth chapter we compare individual philosophical motifs from different works with each other. We summarize the findings at the end of the theses