Antoni Malczewski. Literackie mitologizacje biografii

Abstract

The dissertation is the result of research on mythologisation of the biography of Antoni Malczewski in the Polish literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. It discusses texts that undertake motifs from the biography of Antoni Malczewski and works dedicated to the author of Maria, in which he appears as the protagonist. The first chapter of the dissertation analyses the process of transformation and mythologisation of facts from the life of the author of Maria in biographies and monographs created in the 20th century. The focus of the second chapter is the autobiographical character of Maria and the autobiographical elements in all texts by Antoni Malczewski: letters, poems such as: Oda do wojny [Ode to war], Jeżeli jest istota prawie doskonała [If there is an almost perfect being], Wiersz pisany z Wołynia do Chodkiewicza [Poem written from Volhynia to Chodkiewicz]; prose texts: Portret Idalki [Portrait of little Ida], List do Profesora Picteta [A letter to Professor Pictet], and Zdarzenie prawdziwe [A real event]. The third chapter of the dissertation deals with the problem of perception of the author of Maria in texts of Romantic writers, i.e. in the letters of Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński, and Cyprian Kamil Norwid, as well as in the Parisian lectures of Adam Mickiewicz. The fourth chapter is the result of studies on establishment of the legend of Antoni Malczewski in the Polish lyric poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries. This chapter discusses the works of poets of the first and second half of the 19th century (Dominik Magnuszewski, Jan Nepomucen Jaśkowski, Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński, Lucjan Siemieński, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Samuel Henryk Merzbach, Teofil Lenartowicz, and Adam Asnyk) and the 20th century poem of Jan Lechoń. The fifth chapter is dedicated to the drama by Antoni Lange, poet and writer of the Young Poland movement, entitled Malczewski. The last chapter centres on three contemporary novels: Biała Góra by Jerzy Żurek, Mariasz by Artur Daniel Liskowacki and August Antoni Jakubowski by Julek Łyskawa. In the biography of the author of Maria, we can highlight a number of elements particularly prone to mythologisation: Ukraine as the „little homeland”, education in Volhynian Gymnasium, service in the Napoleonic army, participation in the defence of the Modlin Fortress, numerous love affairs, being the life and soul of the Varsovian elite society, love of his life – relationship with Franciszka Lubomirska, travels, ascent to Mont Blanc, love affair with Zofia Rucińska – an attempt to treat her with magnetism, emotional blackmail by a woman, the process of creation of Maria – the underestimated masterpiece, Malczewski as homo unius libri, and finally his death in poverty due to malignant disease. Among those elements, there are events that have no sufficient confirmation in documents and about which little is known. These include Malczewski’s meeting with Lord Byron, a love affair that resulted in the birth of an illegitimate child, or the meeting and relationship with his son. This indicated that the biography of Antoni Malczewski was subject to mythologisation and his life was related to the motifs of the Romantic revolt against the world, children of the century, and crossing the boundaries, including moral boundaries. Antoni Malczewski became the symbol of a tragic artist – underestimated, condemned to ostracism, who died alone in poverty. An enormous influence on the process of mythologisation of the biography of Antoni Malczewski was exerted by his biographers. Each of them created a slightly different vision of the poet’s life based on the same events. The dissertation discusses the autobiographical topics present in Maria. The ideological shape of the Romantic tale was influenced by the reading experience of the poet, his journeys, ascent to Mont Blanc, his sad return to the country, illness, financial ruin, loneliness, people’s indifference, lack of fulfilment in love, and engagement in the relationship with Zofia Rucińska. Studies on the autobiographical character of Malczewski’s writing lead to interesting conclusions. Preserved letters present the last stage of the poet’s life as a period full of suffering, loneliness and humiliation related to the need to earn money in the face of extreme poverty. Zdarzenie prawdziwe constitutes a valuable material in the study of the poet’s biography. It sheds a new light upon key events, especially on the story of the author’s relationship with Zofia Rucińska. In Malczewski’s works created before Maria, we can observe a significant evolution of his worldview. An analysis of those works points to the fact that a pessimistic reflection on the history, interpersonal relations, existence, vanity of life and vanity of the world in which everything awaits death was shaped long before creation of the Romantic tale, already in the poet’s youth. In his poetic letter addressed to Aleksander Chodkiewicz, we can see contempt for human egoism and a certain lack of faith in the sense of sacrifice for the country. In the author’s view, Poland was inevitably overridden by the fatalism of history that even “the greatest of men”, i.e. Napoleon, had not been able to overcome. In Portret Idalki in turn, we can sense boredom with conventions and a bitter reflection on the world of appearances and hypocrisy. List do Profesora Picteta offers description of the moment when the human being approaches the sphere of transcendence and realises the insignificance of his own existence. The poem entitled Jakże smutno do swoich wracać bez nadziei [How difficult it is to return to homeland without hope] can be classified as a lamentation poem. This composition of extremely autobiographical character tells us about the poet’s loneliness, disappointment with his return, and awareness of the imminent end. Letters of the greatest Polish authors of Romanticism – Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński, and Cyprian Kamil Norwid – suggest that the process of mythologisation of the life of Antoni Malczewski was developing along with the career of his poetic tale. In the letters of authors of the epoch, we can note the indispensable elements of the mythical biography of Antoni Malczewski: romantic journeys, inspiration with the works of Lord Byron, convergence of the facts from his biography with events from the life of the author of The Corsair, unhappy love, loneliness, underestimation by the contemporaries, and death in poverty and oblivion. By evoking the person of Antoni Malczewski in their letters, Romantics in a way likened their own experiences with the existential experiences of the author of Maria. In the Paris lectures, Adam Mickiewicz presented the work of the author of Maria from several different perspectives: biographic (showing key – in his opinion – events from the life of Antoni Malczewski and their influence on the creative attitude of the poet), comparative (with regard to contemporary artists from Western Europe, as well as Slavic authors), historical (presenting Malczewski’s contribution against the background of the history of Poland and Europe at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, in particular against the background of the Napoleonic times), ethnic studies (assessing Malczewski’s poetic tale from the perspective of vulgar sources of poetry), and poetic (focusing on the artistic qualities of Maria). In poetic texts of the 19th and 20th centuries, the author of Maria is presented as the eulogist of Ukraine – the man of the south-eastern borderlands of the Republic of Poland. It was claimed that his work had arisen out of the very soul of the Ukrainian land, where the achievements of the ancestors were still echoing. We witness equating the existential experience of Malczewski with the vision of the world contained in Maria. In the lyric poetry of the 19th century, Malczewski was perceived also as the second bard – the greatest poet of his epoch next to Adam Mickiewicz. Maria was seen as the creation of the great national literature. Glorification of Antoni Malczewski in Polish poetry is related to the exceptional popularity of Orpheus myths in Polish culture, both of the first and the second half of the 19th century. In the context of studies on the biography and work of the author of Maria, the drama Malczewski by Antoni Lange is a very valuable work. By selecting facts from the life of Antoni Malczewski and elaborating on only some of them, Antoni Lange tried to show not only the portrait of Malczewski, but also of a genius whose personality accumulates the traits of a Romantic poet. The biography of Malczewski also fits in with the reflections on the literature and artists, characteristic of the era of Young Poland. Existential experience of Antoni Malczewski undergoes universalisation, and his personality, presented in the drama of Antoni Lange, reveals constitutive traits of the condition of an artist. In contemporary novels dedicated to Antoni Malczewski, namely Biała Góra by Jerzy Żurek and Mariasz by Artur Daniel Liskowacki, we deal with exegesis of the biography as a type of cultural text containing the cultural context of epoch and the moment of transgression – crossing of borders set by the historical location and temporality of the protagonist. Looking at the life of Malczewski from this perspective allows for a universal reflection on man’s attitude to the world. In the novel by Jerzy Żurek, we can distinguish certain areas of demythologisation concerning events from the biography of Malczewski, as well as creation of the main protagonist, who is presented not as a Romantic hero as such, immersed in the world of spiritual dilemmas, but as a human determined by sexual instinct. In the fate of Malczewski – the protagonist of the novel by Artur Daniel Liskowacki, we can see the truth about pain and despair, decay and death, struggle with the separateness of others, and about the sense of all inquiries and aspirations. In his novel August Antoni Jakubowski, Julek Łyskawa goes once again back to the Romantic paradigms. The author of Maria and the father of August Antoni Jakubowski is presented here as a man with turbulent biography, romantic wanderer, recluse, individualist, patriot and poet from Ukraine. Facts from Malczewski’s life have been subject to numerous transformations and interpretations. The image of the author of Maria, imprinted in the Polish culture, is based on ideas created on the pages of literary and biographic texts.