The Echoes of Polish Romanticism in The Nigger of the “Narcissus”
The Echoes of Polish Romanticism in The Nigger of the “Narcissus”

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the following study is to situate The Nigger of the “Narcissus” in a consistent constellation of Polish-Romantic references, as well as to demonstrate that even though Conrad’s plotline evokes reminiscences of his continuous readings of Mickiewicz’s epic Pan Tadeusz, his text overcomes Mickiewicz’s influence, in Harold Bloom’s sense. Numerous references to Juliusz Słowacki and Pedro Calderón de la Barca are evidenced here. Even though, formally speaking, James Wait is constructed in the image of Mickiewicz’s Jacek Soplica from Pan Tadeusz, these seeming influences are deceptive. The stylization of Calderón’s Don Fernando from The Constant Prince (which Juliusz Słowacki translated into Polish), and the martyr and Carmelite prophet, Marek Jandołowicz, from Słowacki’s play Father Marek [Ksiądz Marek], turn out to be more decisive and more deeply grounded influences on the Wait character.

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