Ofelie wiecznie żywe, czyli literatura w fotografii (infrazy czeskie)
The Ever-living Ophelias – Literature in Photography (the Czech Inphrases)

Summary/Abstract: The article describes examples of inphrases whose purpose is to arouse emotions evoked through the reading of a literary text and to recreate those emotions in an artwork, in this case, in the works of three Czech photographers. The starting point for the analysis of the three selected photographs is, first and foremost, the character of Ophelia from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and the description of her tragic death. This description is subsequently set against a painting titled Ophelia, created by a Pre-Raphaelite artist, John Everett Millais. Further analysis focuses on the photographs by Martin Faltejsek (the Weightless series), Jan Faukner (the Nemesis series), and Barbora Bálková (the Literary suicides series). The analysis of the photographs which represent Ophelia concerns, among others, their symbolism (femininity, water, nature archetypes), and highlights the similarities and differences between the three media, i.e. literature, painting, and photography. Apart from covering the issues of visual experience, the article addresses the question of whether the particular photographs escape the Shakespearian context and fit within the fine-art context, as well as whether the artists propose their own, new reading of the myth of Ophelia.

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