Norwid – Schiller – Novalis
Norwid – Schiller – Novalis

A Comparative Analysis of “Assunta”

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the text is to investigate two comparative tropes by exploring relations between Cyprian Norwid’s "Assunta", Friedrich Schiller’s “Der Handschuh” [The Glove] and "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" by Novalis. Shiller’s ballad translated by Adam Mickiewicz is subtly referred to in Norwid’s narrative poem, where the nineteenth-century salon ethos of chivalry and selfless love undergo a trial that differs from the one in “Der Handschuh” arena. "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" and "Assunta", on the other hand, share the figure of a miner. Though a direct influence in this case is highly doubtful, Novalis’s miner had already been critically recognized in Polish literaturę mainly due to works of Mochnacki. The miner figure, then, becomes a part of romantic “underground imagination”. But as it turns out, Norwid’s miner is not at all a romantic miner à rebours. A comparative analysis of both figures allows for a conclusion to be drawn that Norwid did not copy or apply romantic motifs or metaphors, but rather poetically misread and modified them to enter into a subtle dialogue with them and sometimes argue against the contemporary values and worldviews that he could not accept.

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