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.
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