Nostalgiczny turysta: Zenon Fisz w Stambule

Abstract

The article examines the works of Zenon Fisz (1820–1870), a long‑forgotten prose writer from the period of Romanticism. He lived in Prusy estate near Czerkasy, Ukraine, from where he would send correspondence to Polish press in Warsaw, Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Vilnius, as well as to Russian magazines in Moscow and Kiev. He is the author of the three volumes of outstanding travel writing Listy z podróży [Letters from Travels] (Vilnius 1859), in which he gives an account of his longest journey from Żytomierz to Istanbul, passing Dresden, Paris, London, Nice, Rome and Naples. Assuming the role of a modern journalist, Fisz confronts stereotypical images of the Occident and the Orient with reality. He is both overwhelmed and petrified by the civilizational changes in Europe. Seen from this perspective, Istanbul becomes an Asian city, full of contradictions. But Istanbul is important for the Polish traveler for one more reason: it is here that the greatest Polish poet, Adam Mickiewicz, died in 1855. Fisz notes down the traces of that tragic moment, which unveils his own melancholic nature: one of the man yearning for his estate near Czerkasy.