Notatki gimnazjalisty zastrzelonego przez niego samego księcia W. Mieszczerskiego: estetyczny model samobójcy

Abstract

Prince Meshchersky was a zealous conservative and the publisher of the periodical “Grazdanin”. Notes... is a melodramatic, reflective and philosophical composition. Before the release of the complete edition (1875), its fragments were published in Gravina in 1873 (No. 38, 39, 40). The frame of the work is the motive of suicide. The story was written as a memoir fiction. The main character – Serioseum – is a 17-yearold middle-school student who explains what led him to make the decision of selfdestruction. Vladimir Meshchersky had a great insight into the psyche of the suicide. Through the aesthetic creation of the suicide character, he expressed his view of the spreading at his time the plague of suicidal acts, rooted in the nihilistic negation of spiritual values. His point of view fully coincided with the teaching of the Church.