Czech Literature

The objective of the PhD program in Czech Literature is to provide its students with vocational education, as well as practical skills, in the field of Czech Literary Studies at a level designed to prepare them for independent work in research. The offered courses, which reflect the current state of scholarly knowledge in the primary disciplines of Literary Studies (such as literary theory, methodology, history, criticism, or comparative literature), shall guide the student toward independent and innovative scientific, as well as critical, thinking. There is a strong focus on the all-round development of student’s professional skills and their competence in research and study of primary and secondary sources, which they would later be able to integrate into the body of a scholarly text, as well as present that text in academic discussions on various scientific forums at home and abroad. In this respect, there is also a focus on student’s readiness to join the international academic community through their own work. The program also provides opportunities for enhancing one’s practical skills and independent teaching of, predominantly, specialized seminars, in which the student can assess the practical use of their research results, and boost their own didactical skills.

The PhD program offers two specializations, which shall provide the student with profound knowledge, skill, and expertise in areas of their deep interest, in an interdisciplinary perspective:

The specialization Historical Languages of the Czech Lands is designed as a combination of Latin, Germanic, and Czech Studies (it is carried out by the Department of Classical Studies, the Department of German, Scandinavian and Netherland Studies, the Department of Czech Literature, and the Department of Czech Language). It is designed for students interested in Paleo-Czech Language Studies, which shall represent Old Czech in the pertinent Latino-Germanic and Czech context. The specialization’s objective is to provide a complex linguistic and literary insight into medieval writing. Part of the required and selective courses is concerned with issues that every scholar of medieval Czech sources comes across. The emphasis is put on both theoretical and practical aspects of working with medieval sources: apart from the methodologies of classical and modern textual criticism, the sudent shall be introduced to the basic approaches in editing manuscripts and early printed sources. The syllabus of the selective courses shall introduce the students not only to the issues of medieval Latin and German writing, but also to the queston of the status and development of Medieval Latin and German in Central European context. Apart from explaining the important aspects of the individual histories of Medieval Latin and Medieval German, and their respective writings, the focus shall be also put on the history of the scholarship in the said fields.

b) the specialization Intermedial and Intercultural Communication incorporates Literary, Translation, Intermedial, Adaptation, Visual, and Cultural Studies. Its objective is to provide an understanding of the ongoing changes in the status of literature in cultural communication, as well as explore the complexity of its strategies and devices. In this specialty, the traditional Literature Studies are therefore complemented by innovative courses in literary theory looking into issues such as multilinguism and cultural frontiers. The course structure aims at illuminating the contemporary theoretical concepts and interpretational approaches to the PhD students, as well as getting them acquainted with key methodological questions of literary and cultural history.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• - to analyze and interpret artistic or scholarly texts within a chosen theoretical framework;
• - to assess and resolve scholarly problems independently by the aid of reliable sources;
• - to present the findings of their research in the form of papers delivered on domestic and international academic forums;
• - to pass on the gained experience in the form of didactic activities.
• - the post-graduate specialized in Historical Languages of the Czech Lands is qualified to describe and apply approaches of textual criticism on medieval manuscripts
• - the post-graduate specialized in Historical Languages of the Czech Lands is acquainted with the main features of Medieval languages
• - the post-graduate specialized in Historical Languages of the Czech Lands is acquainted with the main features of Medieval literature
• - the post-graduate specialized in Intermedial and Intercultural Communication is qualified for independent work in the field of Czech Literary Studies and their relation to Intermedial and Cultural Studies.
• - the post-graduate in the specialty of Intermedial and Intercultural Communication shall obtain a complex overview of contemporary trends in the theory of literature and culture
• - the post-graduate in the specialty of Intermedial and Intercultural Communication shall obtain a complex overview of contemporary methods in the theory of literature and culture
• - the graduate in the specialty of Intermedial and Intercultural Communication shall be able to adequately apply the models of multilinguistic mapping of post-national spaces

The post-graduate of the study program shall be qualified for conducting research in the field of Czech literature. Their prospect lies within academic communities engaged in the study or teaching of Czech literature, as well as in any department that is concerned with literature and its applications in general. They can pose as scholars and workers at specialized academic institutions, or institutions of public memory. The post-graduate is prepared for specialized or managerial jobs in media, publishing houses, cultural institutions, in both the public and the private sector.

The post-graduate specialized in Historical Languages of the Czech Lands is qualified to work professionally in scholarly and academic institutions, as well as institutions of public memory both at home and abroad, which are specialized in the said field.

The post-graduate specialized in Intermedial and Intercultural Communication is qualified to work not only in the field of arts and academics but also on managerial positions at cultural institutions and institutions of public memory, both home and abroad.

The standard duration of studies is eight semesters. For admittance to the final state examination, students must earn a total of 240 ECTS credits. During the course of their studies, students should follow the study catalogue valid for their year of matriculation. The study catalogues for the individual years of matriculation are available at the faculty website.

The standard length of the doctoral thesis is determined by the character count, which comprises the main text with footnotes/endnotes and contents. Bibliography, the title page, or the declaration of honour, are not calculated in the character count. The recommended length of the doctoral thesis is 180,000 characters. The question of whether appendixes are calculated into the count is decided upon by the supervisor.

The doctoral thesis deals with a specific problem from the theory of literature that corresponds with the type of the study programme. In it, the student is to demonstrate their ability of independent academic work, including setting up a hypothesis, an outline, and a time frame of the thesis, searching for and working with relevant literature according to the thematic focus of their thesis, collecting relevant research material by the use of adequate methods, and all of this within the appropriate context of the current developments in the field. The dissertation thesis has to be submitted in the set length, as well as on the prescribed level in terms of contents, language, and formatting, which are required for a doctoral thesis.

The thesis is assessed on the basis of the supervisor's and two reviewers' reports.