12 lipca 1842 roku – czy na pewno początek przemiany?
Was it really the beginning of the transformation?

The place of the poem "Tak mi, Boże, dopomóż" in the spiritual biography of Juliusz Słowacki

Author(s): Anna Rzepniewska-Kosińska
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 19th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Juliusz Słowacki; Andrzej Towiański; Tak mi Boże dopomóż; breakthrough; conversion; midlife crisis; spiritual transformation
Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the work "Tak mi, Boże, dopomóż", written by Juliusz Słowacki a day after his meeting with Andrzej Towiański in 1842 and considered a testimony to the transformation that the poet underwent under the influence of the Master. Contrary to the dominant research tendency, the poem is treated here as a document of a transitional state and a record of Słowacki’s identity struggles caused by a long-lasting – and not sudden, as it is often assumed – spiritual transformation. The main area of interest is the nature of this metamorphosis. The interpretation of the poem mentioned in the title and other works as well as the correspondence, supported by the findings of psychology and psychology of religion (concerning the midlife crisis and conversion), proves that the beginnings of this process can be seen as early as 1835, and its sealing – in 1843 or 1844. The suddenness of the breakthrough, emphasized by Słowacki in the poem, seems to be an element of his own postulative biography – drawn during an identity crisis, and therefore in an uncertain way, and therefore requiring reliance on other entities, including Andrzej Towiański. Ultimately, the conversation with him turns out to be much less important than the whole reflection that followed, which was recorded, for example, in "Tak mi, Boże, dopomóż".

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