Z rodziną komedii do „rodzinnej Europy”
With a Family of Comedies Towards “the Familial Europe”

Summary/Abstract: The text discusses a challenge that the eighteenth-century European civilisation posed for generations of the Polish Enlightened and some consequences of their decisions. In fact, there was no alternative for them: in order to become part of the European civilisation and the progress whose path had just been set they had to bring about a multifaceted transformation of the Polish society dominated by noblemen, to make a turn that would completely change its world view, mentality and customs. Because one cannot be a part, and then heir, of the Enlightenment without being modern. And so the Polish enlightened elites fashioned their theatre as a transforming medium based on French models and classicist aesthetic—the most modern in Europe and most suited to their general educational intentions. The task of nationalising the progress was undertaken by Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, whereas the standard of comedy was proposed by a Jesuit playwright, Franciszek Bohomolec. The main burden of modernisation was to be borne by comedy, due to its qualities being the genre most suitable for the purpose. “The familial Europe” (a reference to memoirs by Maria Czapska) serves here as a metaphor of the cultural situation. On our way to our “familial Europe” we were accompanied by a whole family of comedies of several intertwining lineages: the didactic comedy “of purpose”, the emotional comedy, the comedy of manners, the aristocratic comedy, and political comedy.

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