„Pan Tadeusz” z Onikszt? „Pan Tadeusz” z Jeżewa?
“Master Thaddeus” from Onikshty? „Master Thaddeus” from Jeżew?

Author(s): Jarosław Mariusz Ławski
Subject(s): Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: The author of this essay reflects on the extraordinary reception of the Poles’ national epic, Master Thaddeus by Adam Mickiewicz. Published in Paris, the poem has lived to see numerous imitations and sequels of both parodic and serious nature. Its echoes in Polish literature are collected in an anthology edited by Professor Andrzej Zakrzewski, entitled The Offspring of "Master Thaddeus". The author of the essay engages in a polemic with the presentation of the history of reception of the epic presented in the anthology. He shows that an important role in it was played by works referring to the cultural tradition of the Republic of Poland, consisting of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Two 19th-century poems serve as examples: Anykščių šilelis (Thicket in Onikshty, 1861-1862) by the Bishop of Sejny Antoni Baranowski (in Lithuanian: Antanas Baranauskas), written in Lithuanian under the influence of Pan Tadeusz (Baranowski was a Polish poet as much as a Lithuanian one), and The Dream of a Loner. A Manorial Poem from 1887 by Zygmunt Gloger, in which the poet combines a dream of restoring the Old Polish universe with positivist postulates of reforming, renewing this world. On the example of both works, the author shows the political manipulation to which the heritage of the Republic of Poland has been subjected, inscribed in the nationalist narrative, in the ideology of the state, or re-created as part of trans- and post-national utopias created by scholars of regional literature.

• Details
• Contents