Co mówią zwierzęta?
What do animals say?

Animal tombs in Old Polish literature

Author(s): Dariusz Chemperek
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: epitaph; zoothanatology; Jan Kochanowski; Zbigniew Morsztyn; Jan Gawiński
Summary/Abstract: The research was conducted on one hundred Old Polish animal tombs by different authors, from Jan Kochanowski to Jan Ludwik Plater (18th century). As a result, it was possible to define five paradigms of perceiving animals in Old Polish literature: 1. on the moral level (animals are subordinate to man, opposed to him only when they show solidarity with each other), 2. in the utilitarian context (their beauty and other features serve men), 3. in connection with the sphere of eroticism, 4. in the sacrum space and 5. on an equal footing with man (few epitaphs). Zoothanatology, present on Old Polish tombs, is dominated by functional perception of animals. The epitaphs serve as moral and, more frequently, immoral examples, far from the Christian vision of reality, but very useful to express “the law of the jungle” of the human world. Objectified animals occupy a separate, usually lower than that of a human, place in the order of nature as they are jokingly or seriously perceived from the angle of human sexuality. They are used as a pretext for writing panegyrics addressed to people and as objects of praise only when their beauty corresponds to the sense of aesthetics of man and their behaviour (mammals and domesticated animals) becomes like that of a human or serves the work and fun of their owners. The more animals discard their natural features, the more they are valued by people, becoming their companions, friends and, in the most extreme cases, the heroes of a battle (knights’ horses), who are treated equally with fallen soldiers. Even the reflections on the death of animals per se does not exempt Old Polish poets from the anthropocentric attitude. Only Zbigniew Morsztyn and Jan Gawiński, albeit in few cases, stand in their epitaphs on the animal side, which allows them to see the emerging sensitivity to their death and human cruelty.

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