„Wielkie odkrycie” – obraz Polski w Wycieczce do Pionin Paulina Święcickiego

Abstract

This sketch aims to present an interpretation of the story by Paulin Święcicki (1841–1876) titled An Excursion to Pioniny (1869), treated as a parable representing a heterogeneous world comprising multiple layers: realistic and fabulous, historical and universal. The writer offers an analysis of condition of society in the 19th century, recognizing a number of tensions posed by the differences in national affiliation, confession, and social status. The metaphorical structure of presented world leads to an in-depth and modern observation of reality that provided the writer with a source of anthropologic knowledge. This work, heterogenous in its genre, emerging from romantic prose, integrating the components of realism and phantasy, predicts novel trends in modernist prose.