Ludzie i motyle w „Nad Niemnem”. Imponderabilia Elizy Orzeszkowej
Humans and Butterflies in "Nad Niemnem": Eliza Orzeszkowa’s Imponderables

Summary/Abstract: The butterfly motif, discreetly evocated in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s novel "Nad Niemnem", refers the reader to the sphere of ideal, points out to a subtle question of the role and place of imponderables in the complex realities past the January Insurrection of 1863/4. In the symbolic genealogy of the Korczyński family, ‘wingedness’ assumes various forms depending on the historic circumstances. In the plot’s plan, butterflies accompany the characters gifted with a deeper spiritual sensitivity, those to whom human and civic values are close – the ones shared by Orzeszkowa herself. The novel read in this way expresses affirmation of imponderables, of their invigorating poetic beauty, unconditioned by the reasons discussed in the then-topical world-view disputes.

• Details
• Contents