The paper studies the relationship between body and word in works of Bohumil Hrabal and Jáchym Topol. Attention is paid particularly to images dealing with the incorporation and liquifying of the written word, which are understood as explicitely poetological metaphors. It further suggests that we understand the protagonist and narrator of Topol’s debut novel Sestra, Potok, not as a genuine literary character but rather as an allegorized reference to Hrabal poetological imagery.