Romantyczność i filologia. Wileńskie kręgi Adama Mickiewicza. Studia

Abstract

The volume documents the jubilee celebrations of the Year of Polish Romanticism, proclaimed by Sejm of the Republic of Poland on November 17, 2021, on the bicentenary of the publication in Vilnius of the 1st volume of Poetry by Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), the national Polish poet. It featured, among other things, the poetic cycle “Ballads and Romances,” which is still a significant part of Polish culture. The Sejm’s proclamation reads: „Adam Mickiewicz’s ‘Ballads and Romances’ were published in Vilnius in 1822, as part of a poetic volume that marked the beginning of Polish Romanticism. It was then that „Romantyczność,” „Powrót taty,” „Świtezianka” and „Pani Twardowska,” without which it is difficult to imagine the last two hundred years of Polish culture, first saw the light of day. What followed was something unprecedented in Polish history. The book gave birth to an era that produced brilliant artists, thinkers, and political activists who, in a situation of national bondage, created a country of spiritual freedom, developed programs that envisioned regaining independence by Poland, and at the same time elevated Polish literature, music, and painting to the rank of the leading achievements of European culture.” In the birth of Polish Romanticism, a special role was played by Vilnius, particularly by its scientific community (not only philological). As part of the celebrations of the Year of Polish Romanticism, on the initiative of Professor Jarosław Ławski, it was decided to organize a Polish-Lithuanian conference session devoted to the Vilnius inspirations for Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian Romanticism. The International Interdisciplinary Conference „Adam Mickiewicz and the Romantics in the Vilnius Philological Tradition (1795–1864). Personalities – Ideas – Works – European Contexts” was organized by the following institutions: Chair of Philological Research „East-West” in Faculty of Philology of the University of Bialystok; Faculty of Philology of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences; Academy of Education (Vilnius) of the Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas); and the Lukasz Górnicki Library in Bialystok. The conference and the resulting volume addressed the following research questions: • Philology/philologies in Vilnius and their history: the Vilnius Academy, the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Main School of Vilnius, and the Imperial University of Vilnius • The influence of Vilnius philology on Adam Mickiewicz and the milieu of Polish writers from the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania • Mickiewicz and the Vilnius Romantics vis-à-vis classical philology • Great personalities of Vilnius philological research (of various disciplines: from classical philology to neo-philology, oriental studies): Golański, Groddeck, Borowski, Lelewel, Sękowski, Euzebiusz Słowacki, and others • The Polish language, literature, and culture in the research of Vilnius philologists, historiographers, and scholars of other disciplines until 1864 • Vilnius philological research and the revival of Lithuanian culture, language, and philology • Echoes of Vilnius philology in the works of Polish and European Romantics (Słowacki, Norwid, Krasiński, and others) • Imaginaries of Vilnius philology: visual arts and music • The legacy of Vilnius philology in Central and Eastern European cultures: Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian • Vilnius University and its philological, literary milieu in the eyes of Russians, Germans and others • The traditions of Vilnius philological research (1795–1864) in the research of historians of science and philologists from 1864 to the present • The birth of Romanticism in Polish culture and the Vilnius University milieu of philologists • Philological passions of the Philomaths, Philarets, and others • Philology in the provincial centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the development of literature and art in these lands The event took place on 21 June 2022, simultaneously in Bialystok and Vilnius. The two centers were linked online. The conference was chaired by Professor Andrzej Baranow (VDU, Vilnius), Professor Anna Janicka, and Professor Violetta Wejs-Milewska (UwB, Białystok) in the hall of the Łukasz Górnicki Library in Białystok. The Jubilee Conference was officially opened by a representative of the co-organizer Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Lucjan Suchanek. The meeting was attended by 8 researchers from Lithuania and 16 from Poland. The present volume groups the submitted papers into three chapters: 1. Ideas, Cross-sections, and Syntheses; 2. Among the Texts: Interpretations; 3. Reception of Vilnius Romanticism (see Table of Contents in English at the beginning of the volume). The volume was edited by Professor Andrzej Baranow, the University of Bialystok (where he heads the Cultural Comparative Research Unit) and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (its Academy of Education in Vilnius), and Professor Jarosław Ławski from Chair of Philological Research “East-West” in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Bialystok (he is also the author of the introduction to the monograph). The organization of the conference was possible thanks to funding from a program of the Ministry of Education ‚Regional Initiative of Excellence’, implemented in 2019–2022 at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Białystok, which published the present monograph.