Juliusza Słowackiego theatrum mortis – wizja ułagodzona (na przykładzie Kordiana, Balladyny i Beatryks Cenci)

Abstract

A subject of the article is the presentation of the most important linguistic methods applied by J. Słowacki in order to evoke a softened vision of death in three dramas from the pre-mystic period: Kordian, Balladyna and Beatryks Cenci. The semantic-lexical analysis that the excerpted linguistic material had been subject to, comprised only real meaning contexts regarding human death. It has been found out that the tamed image of mors presented in the discussed works has been achieved due to a rich range of euphemisms naming individual Thanatos designates. What particularly deserves attention, however, is the fact that the process of decreasing Thanatos severity is pursued in two manners in J. Słowacki’s works: he either restricts himself to weakening negative emotions evoked by talking about death expressis verbis or omitting proper names is accompanied by the introduction of specified conceptualizations: metaphoric or metonymic. Nevertheless, the vision of human ultimate destiny they convey is not characterized by sophisticated originality because among “positive” depictions there prevail references to culturally elaborated traditions of taming Thanatos, even though it happens that based on them J. Słowacki creates extremely interesting poetic pictures. It should be emphasized though that “the theater of death” presented by J. Słowacki in the discussed works is of an ambivalent nature since “positive” uncovering of mortal experience is accompanied by its negative depictions. They have been described in the article: Juliusza Słowackiego “theatrum mortis” – wizja negatywna (na przykładzie “Kordiana”, “Balladyny” i “Beatryks Cenci”).