Król-Duch jak wszystko, wszystko jak Król-Duch

Abstract

The article introduces the issues of the volume Studia o “Królu-Duchu” by Juliusz Słowacki. The author presents the reasons why he decided to organise the first ever scientific conference devoted to the hermetic, fragmentary work of the Polish Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki (1809–1849) under the title King‑Spirit (the First Rhapsody was published in 1847, others were in manuscripts). The National Polish Academic Conference “Juliusz Słowacki’s King-Spirit. Text – history – interpretations – comparative contexts” was convened on the “170th Anniversary of the First Rhapsody (1847–2017)” in Białystok on May 6–7, 2016. It was the first ever session exclusively about this work by Słowacki; it was organised at the initiative of Białystok researchers, but in cooperation with the Warsaw academic community. The organisers were: “East-West” Department of Philological Research, Faculty of Philology at the University of Białystok, Department of Comparatistics, Studio for Applied and Reference Literature, Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz Literary Association. Management Board, and the Łukasz Górnicki Książnica Podlaska in Białystok. The meeting brought together forty researchers of The King-Spirit, mainly from Poland, but also from Ukraine, Holland and Italy. The introduction also contains a mention of outstanding literary and theatrical researchers, experts in Słowacki’s work, who left just after the Conference: Prof. Jacek Brzozowski, Prof. Marek Kwapiszewski, Prof. Jan Ciechowicz and Prof. Halina Krukowska.