The given article is an analysis of Władysław Wężyk’s Travels to the ancient world taking into consideration the most important problems and components of the 19th century Romantic worldview. Particular attention will be paid to the great Romantic themes such as folklore, art, music, spontaneous literary works and concepts of new humanity. Wężyk’s memoir reveals his openness towards the Other and the understanding of foreign cultures which is by far the most important feature of a Romantic intellectual.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the lyrical poetry of Evdokiya Rostopchina, who was considered in the late 1830s – early 1840s as one of the most talented Russian poets. The main object of investigation is her strategy of self-representation. It is shown how Rostopchina builds her individual myth: the poetess treats herself as the heiress, the successor to Pushkin and Lermontov; she creates this myth, relying on the facts of her biography. She creates her own version of the romantic myth about the poet, varying the motives of the lyrics of these authors, as well as of Baratynsky’s poems. In the 1850s, trying to resist the realistic tendencies of the new era, she presents herself as the guardian of a high literary tradition and enters into a conscious confl ict with time, making literary “archaism” her own principle. If earlier she cultivated elegiac poetics, now she turns to satire.
The author reconstructs the Romantic concept of imagination, drawing attention to its relations with the esoteric tradition, and then presents the significance of the idea of imagination for pedagogical reflection in the period of Romanticism. What is also undertaken is the motif of the continuity of Romantic ideas in the 20th century, with special regard to the 20th century youth counterculture and the relations between the countercultural concept of imagination and the discourse on education.
Maria Janion (1926–2020), an oustanding humanist, scholar, critic, historian of literature; a professor at the Institute of Literary Research in the Polish Academy of Sciences, author of twenty books and several hundred articles; expert on Polish and European Romanticism; the tutor of the many generations of humanists. She died in Warsaw on August 23rd, 2020.
Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz (in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray), the national epic poem, was first published in June 1834. It was perceived as a idyllic work, full of happiness and very ideal heroes. However, one of the most problem of this poem is treason! It is very important to put a question: what is treason in the strict sense of the word? There are a lot of kinds of treason or only one? Is it possible to betray own country on account of favouriting strange fashion, customs or painting? In Pan Tadeusz Mickiewicz intended to stand up for the Polish tradition. He had a high opinion of loyalty, steadiness and the selfless sense of duty.
Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz (in English: Sir Thaddeus, or The Last Lithuanian Foray ), the national epic poem, was first published in June 1834. It was perceived as a patriotic work, full of very ideal heroes. However, one of the most problem of this poem is love! Pan Tadeusz is the poem about love. There are many kinds of love: erotic love and maritial love, also familiar love (between parents and their children), love for country and others. My article applies not just to love affairs, but the very essence of love. What is love in Mickiewicz’s poem – is it “love that moves the sun and other stars” (Dante)?
The article presents selected literary texts of Russian Romanticism, which can be classified as utopian or dystopian literature. Attention was drawn to the fluidity of borders between the species of positive and negative utopia. Works by Utopian writers were divided into two groups: those sympathizing with decay (A. Ulybyshev, W. Küchelbecker) and those representing the Pushkin era: J. Senkovskij and V. Odojevsky. The analysis of utopian texts showed that they belonged mainly to escapist utopias, and Russian Romanticism significantly influenced the development of negative utopias, which were open to the literary experiment. It was also shown that the works in question are related to the genre of travel literature and scientific fantasy.
This article attempts to follow the dynamic process of body communication between the characters of Juliusz Słowacki's Samuel Zborowski (1845, published 1903). An analysis of some passages at the beginning of the drama and in the penultimate act indicates that in the world of the drama the body functions as a medium and body language is at least as important as the spoken word; or, to be more precise, the two types of communication complement one another. In the encounter between Eolion and the Maiden the bodies act as repositories of spiritual memory (a key idea of Słowacki's Genesian philosophy) and can trigger the process of anamnesis, which combines elements of heterosexual eroticism and the affective touch of physical interaction. Moreover, the ensuing scene of judgment hints at a nostalgic relationship between the spirit and the body, the latter acting as a guarantor of a coherent identity, though to some extent undermined by the new model of polyphonic identity. Finally, these scenes are analyzed from the point of view of the performative-persuasive functions of the body.
This article takes a look at the development women’s press in the first half of the 19th century. A comparison of the press market in the Romantic Age in France, Poland and the United States shows that usually women were eager to take up journalism as a sideline to their literary careers. The article discusses the journalistic work of three women writers — Delphine de Girardin, Wanda Malecka and Margaret Fuller. While each of them was inspired by Romantic and Preromantic writers, their journalism was for the most part a continuation of the Enlightenment models of journalism.
In this article Maurycy Mochnacki’s martyrological and messianic declarations in the Preface to the Uprising of the Polish Nation in 1830–1831 are examined in the context of the martyrological discourse in the literature of the Great Emigration. Such an affirmation may appear puzzling given Mochnacki’s rejection of martyrological interpretations of Poland’s history or messianic readings of his political philosophy, let alone his reputation of being radically opposed to Adam Mickiewicz’s idea of the sacrifi cial victimhood of the Polish nation. In this study the ideological and rhetorical aspects of their statements are compared and analysed. There can be little doubt that in the Preface Mochnacki’s phrasing is steeped in patriotic pathos which seems to be at odds with the tone of his other writings. This article claims that it was a tactical move on his part: he chose the familiar martyrological loci merely as a means to enlist the readers’ support for his own pragmatic programme of restoring Poland’s independence. A general conclusion to be drawn from this apparent inconsistency is that already at that stage (The Uprising was published in Paris in 1834) the logosphere of the Great Emigration had become so dominated by the martyrological discourse that Mochnacki could not afford to ignore it.
The article attempts to outline Adam Mickiewicz’s concept of subjectivity. He introduces it in his visionary poetic drama Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) where a radically ambivalent situation is presented through the duality of the main character Gustaw/Konrad. The article describes this duality in terms of Paul Ricoeur’s distinction between cogito exalté and cogito brisé. In Dziady Mickiewicz dramatizes the transition from exaltation to dejection, the condition of cogito brisé (living with a wound). His romantic subject cannot throw away his past, but because he is acutely aware of his failings and his inadequacy he is able to free himself from delusions of grandeur and self-centered pride. The condition of uncertainty, inadequacy and chronic insatiability is like a gaping wound or a lack which may lead the ‘I’ to open up and seek the Other. It is a vision of man who knows he is deeply flawed but capable of pursuing a noble desire; vulnerable and fallible, beset by ‘endless error’ and yet able to act and get his act together; self-centered and yet, because of the relational nature of the human identity, capable of redirecting his emancipatory energy to Others. It can be summed up the concept of homo capax (homme capable) which, as this article argues, provides the key to Mickiewicz’s anthropology.