Czar i zaklęcie Sienkiewicza. Studia i szkice

Abstract

In the prelims to the book the author expounds that the ten essays and studies the volume is composed of, written in the years 1996-2003, albeit do not form a classic monograph, even accentuate their poly-subjectness, form a certain whole. This integrity stems from, in the first place, the intention of the author who endeavours to attend to the phenomenon of Henryk Sienkiewicz' s writings, secondly, because it is an attempt to unearth the writer's image apart from heretofore pursued interpretational practice, in a way, "from the inside" . The author of the studies seeks to get at the "genuine" Sienkiewicz, relieved from the masks stuck on him by a train of infatuated admirers, contending with ghastly receptional patterns reducing the significance of his multidirectional and multi-style literary output to socio-national issues, but also getting to grips with his own inadequacies - as it is difficult to imagine a writer belonging to a nation condemned to inexistence who would resist the allurement of international illustriousness and commercial success. On the one hand Sienkiewicz is indisputably such as the nineteenth-century Polish reader - thirsting for Polish word and craving for the times of glory (which he could find in the Trilogy), wanted to perceive him. On the other hand, however, also such as is preserved in private documents (letters to the family and friends), as well as his own writings, particularly when he makes use of the possibilities the confessional narrative provided (Bez Dogmatu - Without Dogma). Sztachelska reads those texts with insight, searching for their new interpretation. On the one hand she makes for exploration of the existential problems in Sienkiewicz' s output, on the other - towards the description of the cultural background of his writings and personality. She tries therefore in-depth, inward reading, focused on the "pulsation" of the meaning, recurrently demanding immense intuition in probing intertextual connections. In the first essay Czar i zaklęcie Sienkiewicza (The Charm and Spell of Sienkiewicz), the author starts with the Young Poland's perception of Sienkiewicz, which was the first to pay attention to the exceptionality of his aesthetics and attempt to reason out his extraordinary popularity with the reading public, endeavours to reach to those features of his writing which were decisive for his success. In her opinion it is a writing of great synthesis, smoothly linking the oldest, even highly outdated threads (love and adventure) and constructional schemes with elements marking the coming of a new epoch (melodramatism, grotesque) typical for so called mass culture.The second essay, "Listy z podróży do Ameryki" a XIX-wieczne tradycje polskiego reportażu ("Letters from America" and the Nineteenth-Century Tradition of the Polish Report) shows this well - known and many a times interpreted collection, unfortunately still not accessible to foreign readers, not only as a variant of the early Polish report (as a lection of the text), but also as a work of art. By emphasizing this very characteristic of young Sienkiewicz choice, the author wants to remind the readers, that it is in America, where the artist’s penmanship ripens; his literary plans and breaking with journalism finally crystallize. In the third article, Henryk Sienkiewicz - portret dekadenta (Henryk Sienkiewicz - a portrait of a decadent), Sztachelska ruminates over the image of the writer emerging from his letters and literary works on modern problems. lt is surprising, that the writer considered to be the spiritual leader of the Polish society of the times of partitions, symbolic "Father of the Nation", presents himself in these documents as a neurasthenic, a decadent, a man of shallow sensitivity, eternal seeker of thrills suffering from bovarism, a man shunning crowds and hardly suffering tremendous popularity, and at the same time dreaming about great eminence. In other words a Janus - faced writer of unrecognized countenance. The next chapter Nagie twarze i maski (Bare Faces and Masks) deepens the mentioned above problem, describing astounding relations between Sienkiewicz and his sister-in-Iaw, Jadwiga Janczewska, recorded in one of the most beautiful Polish collection of private correspondence of the XIXth century. Over 500 letters, exchanged by writer and his intimate during more than 30 years provide not only an inspiring evidence for both parties friendship, but also a kind of un discours amoureux, the more interesting perhaps being a clandestine and placed under a moral taboo (in view of relation). Janczewska besides was an exceptionally vivid personality, a kind of cultural "institution", exerting a significant influence on the Sienkiewicz's biography and writings. In his letters to her a reader can find a confirmation of the writer' s high artistic competence. The two following texts describe Sienkiewicz' s cultural background. The first one constitutes an extensive study on Słowacki's influence (Sienkiewicz wobec Słowackiego - Sienkiewicz Compared to Słowacki), from the shaping of his literary pencraft up to inspirations in historical novels and forming a particular literary attitude, susceptible to various heterogenic influences, but still preserving also internal autonomy and critical, even ironic distance. In the second, titled Dlaczego Hamlet a nie Faust? (Why Hamlet not Faustus?) the author seeks the unity of attitudes of Sienkiewicz and Goethe, pointing at the most significant differences in the choice of cultural patterns. In a way, the sketch on Goethean threads, focused mainly on Sienkiewicz's novels written after 1890 prepares to the reading of the study titled Szekspiriady Sienkiewiczowskie (Shakespearean Threads in Sienkiewicz's Works), illustrating a deep and lasting captivation of the Polish author with Shakespeare' s writings. Sztachelska reconstructs here the nineteenth - century interests in "tragic stories" by the English playwright and analyzes particular references to Shakespeare in Sienkiewicz's works. This "Shakespearian Homerid" (as the Polish author is referred to) found not only prototypes of his heroes - personalities torn by passions and tossed by contradictory feelings - in "the Bard's of Avon" works, but also picturesque and fantastic scripts of fictious events and situations. Sienkiewicz' s Shakespearism manifests itself also in an ironic attitude towards reality and changeability of human fate as well as incessant clash of sacrum and profanum, the laugh and tragedy. A category by itself, as Sztachelska points out take Shakespearean characters present in Sienkiewicz' s embodiments, above all Hamlet, situated between a romantic patterns of "a child of the century" and Nietzsche' s Dionysian Man. The sketch Dwie powieści o końcu wieku (Two Novels on the End of the Century) stresses the significance of personal myths characterizing according to Sienkiewicz basic dilemmas of a fin-de siècle-man even more. Extremely significant interpretational trope in the sketch seems to be a statement that the main text of his writing is erotism bravely linked to the problems of sacrum and national matters. The next extensive study, Sienkiewicz - Witkiewicz, czyli kładki, na których spotykają się ludzie z różnych światów (Sienkiewicz - Witkiewicz, that is two foot¬ -bridges on which people from various words meet) is a confrontation of two artistic personalities typical of the nineteenth-century Polish reality, treated also as creators of two languages (traditionalism - avant-garde) which were used by the Polish art of the era. Oddly enough, Witkiewicz - a devoted patriot, unshaken moral authority and at the same time courageous and uncompromising critic and vanguard artist highly priced Sienkiewicz and was - as it seems - his most outstanding commentator, able to read his texts in a modern, eidetic manner. Both had much in common: dire beginnings, love to the same woman, and a passion towards art and Zakopane, idea of independent Poland. They differed in nearly everything: the lifestyle, the way each of them understood career, self-attitude, and relations with other people. The last and most extensive study - Sienkiewicz - pogański i chrześcijański (Sienkiewicz - pagan and Christian) shows one of the most significant problems of Sienkiewicz writing - his attitude towards religion. The writer' s struggling with transcendence and forms of its artistic depiction are discussed here against the background of generational researches as well as based on very vast sources - from the first literary sketches of the Trilogy author to the last novels. Sztachelska's intent here is to show not a dogmatic Sienkiewicz but leaning towards traditionalism, what marks significantly in forming of his fictious world. It does not mean, of course, that Sienkiewicz is a prayer of the world without contradiction, conflict and sin - just the opposite - only a few of his texts bring the thought of shaping unanimous hierarchized world' s order with a clear system of values. In their majority the fight between contradictory man' s desires and, social compulsion and moral norms and free will still carries on. In the deep sense of loneliness of a man torn between the charm of life and sensual appearance of abundance and dramatically sensed horror of death, Sienkiewicz draws near modernism, and his anxieties revealed in imitating Hamlet characters of Płoszowski (Without Dogma) and Groński (Currents), inevitably foretell the end of the century.