Żyć (z) utraconym księciem. Melancholia w prozie Elizy Orzeszkowej

Abstract

In autobiographical writings of Eliza Orzeszkowa, for example in “Dnie” [Days] (2001), there are passages describing the melancholic states of the author of “Jędza” [Shrew], when she experienced unfounded sadness or emptiness. They allow to make statements about the melancholic personality of Orzeszkowa and look for the characteristics of this disposition in the creations of men, and especially, women – not only in the two-volume set entitled, significantly, ‘Melancholics’ [Melancholicy] (1896). Referring to the psychoanalytic concept of melancholia proposed by Julia Kristeva, I want to show how the Orzeszkowa’s heroines: Emilka from “Pamiętnik Wacławy” [Wacława’s Diary] (1871) and Janka from “…I pieśń niech zapłacze” […And let the song cry] (1905) carry out the life haunted by a loss. Life image of the beloved, who was lost as an object of love – from whom it is impossible to achieve erotic satisfaction.