Anabasis ciała. Biografie Jarosława Haszka i Józefa Szwejka

Abstract

THE ANABASIS OF THE BODY. JAROSLAV HAŠEK’S AND JOSEF ŠVEJK’S BIOGRAPHIES

The main topic of the article is the relationship between the biography of Jaroslav Hašek, the writer, and Josef Švejk — the protagonist of his famous novel. It is, in fact, a peculiar kind of biography — the biography of the body. Firstly, the parallels between the experience of the writer’s Hašek’s body and the experience of the character’s Švejk body are drawn. Next, the films based on The Good Soldier Švejk are compared. The article attempts to present the treatment of the relationship in four aspects.
The first one presents the body in an absurd situation, the second one — when confronting the reality of a hospital, the third — relates to the war and the army, and finally, the fourth one develops in the context of Hašek’s possible homosexuality.

Translated by Olga Knopińska