Publication at Faculty of Humanities |
2021
Abstract
The paper presents an interpretation of a pair of motifs from Hrabal's epic Beatiful Poldi, which are understood as a congenial application of the so-called mythical method (Eliot, Joyce) to the author's experience during his temporary work in the Kladno's steelworks in the early 1950s. On the one hand, it is the motif of the Sicilian bull (Bull of Falaris), which is probably the leading metaphor of the steelworks as a whole, and - on the other hand - the motif of the blind muse, making her epiphany through the famous trademark of Poldi Kladno and also taking on the form of anonymous female prisoners who served their sentences there.
Both motifs show how poetry, beauty, pain and suffering are interconnected in Hrabal's perspective.