Discursive typology of characters and the contemporary Czech novel

The primary aim of the present work was to design a typology of the novel characters based on the distinctive features of the genre itself. For this purpose, a close analysis of the characteristics of the genre was performed, concentrating especially on the attributes of the discourse in novel. The possibility to model the discourse on the base of symbolic and temporal principles provided the fundament for distinguishing three elementary "horizons" of characters in the discourse, thus creating a simple discursive typology. The suggested discursive typology allows viewing the characters as a complex set. Moreover, it opens way to the description of their relations and interaction (or their "constellations"). Finally, it helps to indicate their function and role with regard to the world of the novel as such. The secondary aim of the dissertation was examining the possibility of actual application of the suggested typology. This was carried out by concrete interpretation of contemporary Czech novels related by four discursive concepts. The concrete concepts were the hypothesis of "the new coming transcendentalism" within contemporary culture, authored by Zdeněk Mathauser, an autonomous concept of "the female novel", the notion of "stream of existentialist phenomena" present in the 20th century Czech..