„Ogromna pamięć, z myśli uwita łańcucha”
“Huge memory, from the mind will welcome the chain”

Metempsychosis and Autobiographism in "Godzina myśli" by Juliusz Słowacki

Author(s): Kamil K. Pilichiewicz
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Juliusz Słowacki; autobiographism; metempsychosis; memory
Summary/Abstract: The subject of the article is the poem "Godzina myśli" (“An Hour of Thought”) by Juliusz Słowacki. Two distinguishing features of the work are subjected to clarification: autobiographism and metempsychosis. The autobiographical threads of Słowacki’s adolescence are cited, with particular emphasis on his friendship with Ludwik Spitznagel, and unfulfilled love to Ludwika Śniadecka. Memuaristic tendencies are confirmed by fragments of letters to Słowacki’s mother referred to in the article. The poem reveals not only the fate of the poet, but also his reflections, views in which metempsychosis is an important factor. The key factor integrating autobiographism and the aforementioned faith in the journey of souls in the Geneva poem turns out to be memory, in its dual role (the material from which the poet formed the “poem of the heart” and a component of the metempsychosis concept).

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