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This study presents a comparative and cross-linguistic (English and Czech) examination of female and male characters in contemporary British and Czech fiction texts written by female and male authors. We approach the texts within the corpus stylistics framework using four broadly comparable corpora of British and Czech fiction. Our focus is on the most frequent nouns occurring with the possessive pronouns his and her and jeho and její, respectively. By examining the nouns we look at how female and male characters are linguistically represented: what are the main differences between their representation and to what extent they are similar. We also aim to look at whether the author’s gender plays a role in the process of characterisation. Further, we aim to pinpoint the differences in characterisation by comparing the British and Czech fiction texts.

The article examines the book "L'Histoire de la sultane de Perse et des quarante vizirs" by François Pétis de La Croix. The author skillfully handles this contrast and the narrative adventures that result from it, depending on the notion of gender of women and the complexities that this reverse perspective entails.

The majority of characters in Victor Hugo's plays are male. Can we, based on how they are represented, identify common traits that would allow us to understand in what sense and according to what criteria Hugo's imaginary develops a certain portrait of masculinity? A dynamic concept, desire, leads us to analyze a number of portraits of men, allowing us to define this dramaturgical masculinity in terms of who and what they resemble, their differences, and their complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is questioning concepts of masculinities in Laurent Mauvignier's novel Des hommes. The title can be read in a double context, On mankind and On men. We try to point out that both variants appear in the novel. First of all, we are eager to point out the links between gender and decolonization. As the colonies were a highly sexualized space where fetish, transgression and sexual deviance were possible, decolonization can be considered as a ritual castration. It is thus perfectly clear that de Gaulle with his new constitution in 1968 returned to a strong head of state, a man able to control the imaginary. The first part of our text Des hommes focuses on Feu-de-Bois a marginalized village-dweller, incapable of integrating into French society after his return from Algeria and Paris. Around his person a cruel portrait of the French countryside is being painted. The second part "De l'Algerie" emphases the collective experience of the Algerian war, Feu-de-Bois took part in. The Algerian war is being represented as a carnival of masculinities, an archaic form of combat "man against man". The third part "De la France" focuses on Feu-de-Bois and his missing integration into French rural society after he returns from Paris, where he decides to live after his return from Algeria. Feu-de-Bois can be considered as emblematic for a whole generation of mal Frenchmen born in the early 1940's, suffering from the war and from the end of the economic growth in the 1940's–1970's. The text therefore is also a text about a shift in the perception of masculinity in rural France.

Maurice Maeterlinck develops the Bluebeard tradition in many regards: by linking it with other myths, especially - in a constant play of mirrors - with the mythological model of Ariane, by rethinking some of the traditional elements (the first female victims are not dead but prisoners) or by reworking them in light of symbolist aesthetics (colours, doors with hidden jewelry). The curiosity which Perrault stigmatizes (tongue in cheek) turns into a serious metaphysical inquiry, a real quête du savoir. The underlying structure of Ariane et Barbe-Bleue can be defined as a binary one: a double deliverance responds to a double transgression. As symbolized by the two keys, the plot unveils the double faces both of the female and the male principles. The play contrasts the strong and 'progressive' woman, Ariane, with the weak and anxious other wives. Bluebeard, beardless and captured in the end, prevails as far as he can deter his former wives from following Ariane into liberty. Maeterlinck's version can be considered as a turning point, giving rise to the modern avatars of Bluebeard [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which explores the writings of Lawrence R. Schehr about gender, food and sexuality. It examines the arguments of Schehr regarding the role of a pluridisciplinary approach on the development of coherent cultural politics. It discusses the critical engagement from the works of Schehr.

The article is questioning concepts of masculinities in Laurent Mauvignier’s novel Des hommes. The title can be read in a double context, On mankind and On men. We try to point out that both variants appear in the novel. First of all, we are eager to point out the links between gender and decolonization. As the colonies were a highly sexualized space where fetish, transgression and sexual deviance were possible, decolonization can be considered as a ritual castration. It is thus perfectly clear that de Gaulle with his new constitution in 1968 returned to a strong head of state, a man able to control the imaginary. The first part of our text Des hommes focuses on Feu-de-Bois a marginalized village-dweller, incapable of integrating into French society after his return from Algeria and Paris. Around his person a cruel portrait of the French countryside is being painted. The second part “De l’Algérie” emphases the collective experience of the Algerian war, Feu-de-Bois took part in. The Algerian war is being represented as a carnival of masculinities, an archaic form of combat “man against man”. The third part “De la France” focuses on Feu-de-Bois and his missing integration into French rural society after he returns from Paris, where he decides to live after his return from Algeria. Feu-de-Bois can be considered as emblematic for a whole generation of mal Frenchmen born in the early 1940’s, suffering from the war and from the end of the economic growth in the 1940’s–1970’s. The text therefore is also a text about a shift in the perception of masculinity in rural France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]