Univerzita Palackého V Olomouci
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PALACKÝ UNIVERSITY OLOMOUC Faculty of Education Department of English Bc. Karel Chladil Teaching English at Lower Secondary Schools Teaching the Foundations of Social Sciences and Civics in Secondary School and Basic School Classes 6 to 9 The Recency of A. Huxley‘s and R. Bradbury‘s Ideas from the Selected Works in Comparison in Historical-Contemporary Context Diploma Thesis Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Andrea Hoffmannová, Ph.D. OLOMOUC 2014 Declaration I declare that I worked on my diploma thesis, titled The Recency of A. Huxley‘s and R. Bradbury‘s Ideas from the Selected Works in Comparison in Historical- Contemporary Context, on my own and that I used only the sources mentioned in the bibliography, references and web sources. In Olomouc, …………………….............. Signature …………………….............. Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. A. Hoffmannová, Ph.D., for her professional support and valuable advice during the writing process of this thesis. Next thanks belong to Bc. Dis. Lenka Richterová, Václav Andrš and Mgr. Martin Zapletal for their correction of this thesis. Contents INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. - 1 - THEORETICAL PART .......................................................................................... - 3 - 1. Chapter I: Development of sci-fi until early 20th century .............................. - 3 - 1.1. The first work considered sci-fi ................................................................ - 3 - 1.2. Pioneers of the sci-fi genre: Jules Verne .................................................. - 4 - 1.3. Pioneers of the sci-fi genre: Herbert George Wells.................................. - 7 - 1.4. Sci-fi in the late 19th and early 20th century ........................................... - 9 - 2. Chapter II: Aldous Huxley ............................................................................ - 14 - 2.1. Analysis of Brave New World ............................................................ - 15 - 2.2. Abridged Analysis of Brave New World Revisited............................ - 20 - 3. Chapter III: Ray Bradbury ......................................................................... - 22 - 3.1. Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 ................................................................. - 23 - 3.2. Abridged Analyses of The Martian Chronicles and other stories .......... - 27 - 4. Chapter IV: Comparison of Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury ................ - 32 - 4.1. Comparison of the writing style and language ................................... - 32 - 4.2. Comparison of the historical and social context ................................. - 33 - 4.3. Comparison of the conception of the head theme............................... - 34 - 4.4. Comparison of the story‘s characters.................................................. - 35 - 4.5. Comparison of the story‘s setting ....................................................... - 36 - 4.6. Comparison of the story‘s ending ....................................................... - 37 - 4.7. Comparison of the authors‘ personal conceptions and opinions on various themes ........................................................................................................... - 38 - 4.8. Supplement: Differencies and similarities in general ......................... - 42 - 4.9. Future reference ...................................................................................... - 44 - PRACTICAL PART ............................................................................................. - 46 - 5. Chapter V: Practical use of Huxley‘s and Bradbury‘s ideas ......................... - 46 - 5.1. Expectations of the teaching practice ..................................................... - 46 - 5.2. Lesson plan: Teaching of the 4th-year students in the English seminar - 48 - 5.3. Lesson plan: Teaching of the 2nd-year students in the English lesson .. - 51 - 5.4. Summary of the teaching practice .......................................................... - 54 - CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... - 56 - BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES ............................................................. - 58 - WEB SOURCES ................................................................................................... - 62 - APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... - 67 - ANNOTATION .................................................................................................... - 78 - INTRODUCTION The reason to write diploma thesis about Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury is because the author of this thesis believes that the ideas and concepts from the selected works can be found useful and valid in the 21st century. Even though these two authors are representantives of the same literary genre, they belong to different time periods. For the author of this thesis it is a challenge to compare two authors from different period whose writing is based on different background. Nonetheless, it is remarkable to see the similarities and differencies in their works which were published either between the world wars or after the World War II. The diploma thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The main theme of the theoretical part is comparison and analysis of the selected works of A. Huxley and R. Bradbury. Focus of this thesis is aimed on the works concerning the society or describing the society in which some of the sci-fi elements are incorporated, such as Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. However, the actual analyses and comparison of Huxley and Bradbury in Chapters II-IV must be first set in the historical and social context which is, for the sake of this thesis‘ credibility, described in further details in Chapter I. In essence, Chapter I serves as an introduction of Chapter II (Huxley) and Chapter III (Bradbury). The reader of this thesis is then equipped with closer comprehension of Huxley‘s and Bradbury‘s authorship and is able to better understand the analyses of the selected works. Chapter IV then summarizes, in a form of comparison, the aim of this thesis where several themes are compared individually in order to describe the similarities and differencies in Huxley‘s and Bradbury‘s selected works. Firstly, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 will be compared individually from various perspectives. Secondly, both authors will be compared from the broader perspective which is derived from other works as well. Thirdly, it will be described on some examples how much impact both authors had on other authors or influenced formation of some sci-fi subgenre. - 1 - The last part of the thesis, Chapter V, is focused on practical application of some of Huxley‘s and Bradbury‘s ideas and concepts from the selected works. Such task will be performed via teaching in English lessons in the upper secondary classes of grammar school (Gymnázium Šumperk). In summary, students‘ feedback in a form of questionnaire, supplemented by the diagrams, confirms the 21st century‘s usefulness and validity of some ideas and concepts from Aldous Huxley‘s and Ray Bradbury‘s selected works. The bibliography, references and web sources, which helped the author of this thesis to elaborate such piece of writing, are placed after the Conclusion on pages 58 – 66. - 2 - THEORETICAL PART 1. Chapter I: Development of sci-fi until early 20th century As it is portrayed in many historical schoolbooks, literature belongs to cultural manifestation of people since the ancient times and since people learned how to write when they realized that they would like to distribute their ideas and opinions among others. Like other cultural manifestations, literature barged its way through many cultural periods developing many genres and styles, forming number of nations, groups, societies and people. One of these genres is science fiction. According to definiton of the teacher Lisa Storm Fink, this genre of fiction is exclusively based on science, technology of the future and its current achievements (Finding the Science Behind Science Fiction through Paired Readings - Definition of Science Fiction, 2005). In essence, it uses science and its discoveries in a manner to make society look advanced, developed and mostly changed for the better which is basically the fundamental definition of utopia. There are two ways of implementing science into the literature. Either the author applies science based on reality with an urge for a potential discovery in future such as Jules Verne‘s works, or the author uses science as a tool to create something totally new, never heard before or very unrealistic in a way of potential discovery in future, such as Herbert George Wells‘ works. 1.1. The first work considered sci-fi Before defining H. G. Wells‘ and Jules Verne‘s contributions to literature, it is necessary to mention first to be called sci-fi work and why it was such a breakthrough later on. The first such work is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley, wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Frankenstein belongs to Romantic period but is considered a first gothic novel rather than first sci-fi novel. The work was not well received by the audience in the time of its publication. But the reason why Frankenstein being sci-fi is simple. The - 3 - book presents scientific elements used in a form of unrealistic realisation. Even today scientists are not able