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Stalinův pražský pomník a jeho tvůrce ve francouzské románové inspiraci: Le Monument Elsy Trioletové, jeho (literárně)historické a kulturně-politické souvislosti

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Košnarová V.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

2025

vol. 32

issue 1

137-174

The study explores the cultural and political background of the creation of the novel Le Monument by the French writer of Russian origin Elsa Triolet (1896-1970). The novel, first published in 1957 in the journal Les Lettres françaises and by Gallimard, is particularly noteworthy from a Czech perspective because it was inspired by the tragic fate of the Czech sculptor Otakar Švec (1892-1955), the creator of the (in)famous monumental Stalin statue on Prague's Letná hill. The author presents the complex and ambiguous personality of Triolet, both a literary figure in her own right and the lifelong partner of poet and writer Louis Aragon (1897-1982) - with whom she visited postwar Czechoslovakia several times - and examines the ambivalent reception of her work within the Czech cultural milieu. Special attention is paid to the novel itself: its content; the dilemmas faced by its protagonist, the sculptor Lewka; the novel's reception in France; Triolet's own interpretation of her work, as well as its ambiguous correlation with the doctrine of socialist realism, which influenced many leftist artists in France in specific ways. The analysis is framed within the broader ideological and artistic context of the work of French authors aligned with the Communist Party, either as official members or, as in Triolet's case, as sympathizers. At the same time, the novel opens up further thematic avenues, particularly the history of the Stalin monument itself - unveiled with great pomp in 1955 and silently demolished seven years later - as well as the artistic and personal trajectory of the sculptor Švec, who committed suicide shortly after the monument's unveiling. The study briefly discusses other Czech treatments of the subject in literature, film, and music. All these works share a central theme with Elsa Triolet's novel: the irreconcilability of ideological and political dictates on the one hand, and the freedom and integrity of artistic creation on the other.

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1 Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

1 Košnarová V.

1 2025

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Stalinův pražský pomník a jeho tvůrce ve francouzské románové inspiraci: Le Monument Elsy Trioletové, jeho (literárně)historické a kulturně-politické souvislosti