„Dwubarwny światła […] promień”, czyli o barokowych żywiołach w romantycznym świecie „Lambra”
“Two-coloured ray of light”, or the baroque aesthetic in Juliusz Słowacki’s „Lambro”

Author(s): Karolina Kaiser
Subject(s): Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: The guiding principle of the study consists in tracing the signs of baroqueness understood as a set of literary techniques derived from 17th century imagery. Such elemental baroqueness has pervaded the entirety of Juliusz Słowacki’s work even since his earliest poetic attempts, which are first freed from any Byronic or sentimental influences in his verse novel Lambro, written after the November Uprising. One’s attention is drawn to picturesque portrayals with sparse use of colour and contrasting lighting effects emphasizing the vertical axis of the word-painted image. What comes to the foreground is the consistently repeated visual antithesis of clear radiance and misty twilight; its associated meaning remains constant throughout the piece. Consistency in the use of colour integrated into an antithesis – a device undoubtedly appreciated in the Baroque period – and assignment thereto of contradictory meanings enables the creation of a dynamic space within the novel, one which is based on conflicting values (both sensual and semantic), but also subject to intense theatralization – a Baroque space, which, once identified, transforms into an interpretative key for the analyzed work.

• Details
• Contents