W blasku słonecznym i w milczeniu. Fauniczność przyrody w sonecie Kazimierza Przerwy-Tetmajera W Arkadii
In the Sunlight and in Silence. Faun-Related Elements of Nature in the Sonnet by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer W Arkadii [In Arcadia]

Summary/Abstract: This work attempts to present one of the most popular characters in the Young Poland imagery – the faun, which the artists treated as equivalent to the god Pan and the satyr. The subject of this work is the analysis and interpretation of the sonnet W Arkadii [In Arcadia] by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer. The results indicate that the poem reveals the spaces of nature and the philosophical thinking about the natural world, which are characteristic of the period. It exposes sensuality in the perception of the world. There are no secrets there. The most important secret has been revealed. That secret is life that is love. This is the essence of happiness or the Arcadian nature. The exposure of the sun, which somehow “patronises” things that happen on the earth, attracts attention. The entire Arcadian landscape is penetrated by the power of life. Each individual element of the landscape indicates fertility. Moreover, it may simultaneously be the emblem of femininity and masculinity. Gender and sexuality define not only the last stanza of the poem with the tangled figures of the faun and the girl, but also the entire sonnet. As in the works of Arnold Böcklin, so appreciated by Tetmajer, nature occupies the foreground. On the other hand, positioning a barely visible faun in the depth of it may suggest that it is characterised by faun-related aspects (gender and sexuality). The poem is evidence that the bright solar fascination of the Young Poland authors also occurred during the 1890s, announcing the slow replacement of catastrophism with vitalism.

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