Ścieżki wyobraźni. O wrażliwości i estetyce w literaturze XIX wieku

Abstract

The book presents another new interpretation of such literary masterpieces as Maria by Antoni Malczewski, Nachtwachen by Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann but also of lesser known works by Zygmunt Krasiński (The Poet) or Cyprian Kamil Norwid (To Famous Dancer – Unknown Nun) and eventually lesser texts by the Romantic poets: Seweryn Goszczyński and Ignacy Pietraszewski. In all those works we can find common quest to understand human existence, the truth of unclear aim of human pilgrimage. All presented authors are empowered in imagination which can express the pain of existence and find the remedy for this malady. Imagination becomes here the subject of analysis in the thematic criticism, so it takes into consideration possible inspirations and the circumstances, especially those which are not expressed verbatim. The themes, symbols, motives and plots are the key to literary imagination, they may lead to new meanings of different works and recognition of their apparently trivial layers which were not necessarily recognized by the readers so far. The problems connected with art, aesthetics, religion, history and the philosophy of existence became dominant theme of the discussed works and the essence of reading literary text here was based on recognition of such details as light, colour, travel or dance. The leitmotif here was death understood as the passing phase towards spirituality, the hero’s loneliness in the world on the verge of self-destruction, the question about God and the lost paradise, and the apocalypse as the transition to a different world order in which God will no longer be mysterious or fearsome. The humanity in Maria by Malczewski, Nachtwachen by Klingemann or The Poet by Krasiński lost their way to God and can no longer dialogue with Him, and the main heroes’ tragedy becomes the call of the whole mankind, losing the remains of hope. The quest for salvation from nothingness is a common motif of all the works analyzed in this book. If we cannot count on salvation from outside, because we encounter only the ironic apocalypse there, so the only solution maybe human inside, the kingdom of spirituality and imagination – also of this kind that helps to deliver on the outside the image of longed-for salvation.