Neznámá ze Seiny. Ke kořenům Nezvalovy básnické skladby
Neznámá ze Seiny (The Unknown of the Seine). To the Roots of Nezval’s Poem

Summary/Abstract: In 1929 Vítězslav Nezval wrote the poem The Unknown from the Seine. This poem has three documented sources of inspiration: Nezval’s experience of his childhood; an episode with a drowning person in the 1920’s Prague, and the famouse motive of the „Unknown of the Seine,“ a girl, whose death mask has a mysterious smile. The study offers another source of Nezval’s inspiration: Jean Arthur Rimbaud’s Ophelia, which Nezval actually translated into Czech. In this poem Rimbaud explores the cult of Ophelia – a beautiful drowned girl. Nezval’s poetic composition can be seen as a belated tribute from the Czech poetist to the European cult that deeply inspired symbolism and decadence.

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