Rzeki historyczne / rzeki pamięci. Kilka przykładów z literatury polskiej pierwszej połowy XIX wieku

Abstract

Geographical names of rivers frequently occurring in Śpiewy historyczne by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz represent a kind of imagined water system, which is closely connected with the past of the nation. As such it was considered an important element of not only mental geography but also national identity, which became a hotly debated topic after the Congress of Vienna (1815), when the Polish people were promised a chance of cultural autonomy at last. In Niemcewicz’s work an emphasis is placed on border rivers, which are seen as a basic element of the natural nonhuman world, and which can function as state borders only if they were won through conquest. The riverbanks in Śpiewy historyczne are, therefore, depicted as a terrain of bloody battles while getting across the river is seen as a crucial test for the national leaders. Two rivers play a particularly important role in Niemcewicz’s text – the Dnieper and the Dniester, which are seen as a boundary between the West and the East, the civilized and the barbarian. Due to the didactic and therapeutic functions of Niemcewicz’s work, all “historical” rivers also play a role of the rivers of memory. They were thought of as instrumental in remembering the lost homeland (analogically to the rivers of Babylon) and envisaged as bedrocks of the enduring Polish self-consciousness and identity. The historical rivers in Śpiewy historyczne are similar to the images in other works of the period, e.g. by Woronicz. They can also be seen as a useful point of reference for the idea of “domestic” rivers in the works of Mickiewicz and Syrokomla, whose meaning, in contrast to historical rivers, derives from personal and autobiographical experiences.