Slovo a Smysl (Dec 2015)
Polymorphe Männerkörper in Bohumil Hrabals Werk Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále als Gegenentwurf zum Sozialistischen Realismus // The Polymorph Male Body in Bohumil Hrabal’s I Served the King of England as a Counter-Concept to Socialist Realism
Abstract
The essay inquires into the literary presentation of the male body of selected protagonists of Bohumil Hrabalʼs Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (I Served the King of England). Concentrating on the cultural-political situation especially at the time of the genesis of the novel and on the postulates of Socialist Realism regarding the male body, the analysis illustrates how the literary constructed male body of Hrabal works as a counter-concept to the aesthetics of Socialist Realism. Measured against the normally healthy and normalised male body in Socialist-Realist art, the bodies of Hrabalʼs male protagonists appear not merely deficient and grotesque but rather polymorphous. The immoral behaviour, erotic gestures and physical ineligibility of Hrabalʼs figures reduces the model of the hero of Socialist work effort to an absurdity.
