Motiv utonulé dívky v poezii německého expresionismu // The theme of a beautiful drowned girl in the poetry of German expressionism

The motif of a beautiful drowned girl or, generally, a young woman related to the water environment has appeared in European art since antiquity. The crucial turning point in the approach to the figure of a girl tragically related to the water element came with Shakespeare’s Hamlet: it features the strong female character of Hamlet’s lover Ophelia, who goes mad and tragically drowns after the Prince’s refusal. Her death became a popular subject in the field of fine arts and literature, with its popularity culminating in emotionally charged eras; i.e. Romanticism and, later,Symbolism and Decadence. J. A. Rimbaud’s poem Ophelia had a far-reaching influence on German poetry where the motif of a drowned girl became a frequent subject. This relationship was initiated by the translation of Rimbaud’s poems into German by Karl Klammer. The paper examines his influence on the poems of the expressionists Georg Heym, Georg Trakl, and Gottfried Benn.