Romantyczna hermeneutyka wolnej ziemi. Anatolia w poemacie Karola Brzozowskiego i w filmie Nuri Bilge Ceylana

Abstract

The article describes the symbolist space metaphors of Anatolia, a region in Turkey, which feature in both Karol Brzozowski’s Romantic poem entitled Noc strzelców w Anatolii (The Night of Shooters in Anatolia, Paris, 1856) and in the film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a Turkish film director (“Golden Palm”, Cannes 2011). The composition of the article is divided into two parts. First, the literary work is examined and then the film, without references to common thematic aspects. The author shows that the poem contains elements of the anthropological transition rite and the worldview metamorphosis, which reveals the deep‑seated memory of Polish expatriates – their patriotic and cultural image – who were involved in the activity directed at regaining independence of their homeland during the Crimean War (1853–1856). In the poem, the natural and wild expanse of Anatolia becomes a symbol of free and independent life, perceived as more beautiful, authentic and long lasting than social and civilizational institutions, which are based on monetary power, material wealth and self‑interest of the ruling elites. Anatolia with its lush wilderness of a primeval forest triggers physical and moral rebirth of Polish patriots, as it epitomizes universal values and creates a spiritual bridge between them and their lost native country. Anatolia in this poem is an expressionist fairy tale, which generates an oneiric, nocturnal vision, intensifying the feelings and experiences of these „forest people”, i.e. the characters of the literary work who recall Poland and its eastern borderlands of Southwest Lithuania. The Night of Shooters in Anatolia, an expression of these people’s attitudes and worldview, features a theme of rebellion and a meta‑poetic motif of exalting nature and free life away from the civilization, construed here as an unfair, glittering and deceitful world. The film by Ceylan, a co‑winner of the Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, is very complex aesthetically and has an intricate composition. The paper attempts to uncover the discourse of the film, influenced by the Romantic transcendental philosophy, a much older genre of the morality play, and other archetypes and archetexts of the European culture. The paper examines the links between the film and symbolic art and painting of the Renaissance, Baroque and Romanticism. All these serve to demonstrate the situation of a contemporary human, lost in the reified civilization and traumatically alienated from nature.