Interpretacja i nadinterpretacja. Przykład: Balladyna Juliusza Słowackiego
Interpretation and overinterpretation based on Balladyna by Juliusz Słowacki

Author(s): Anna Kurska
Subject(s): Semiotics / Semiology, Translation Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Słowacki; Balladyna; interpretation; overinterpretation; semiotic analysis
Summary/Abstract: The author ponders over the reception history of Słowacki’s Balladyna in order to respond critically to Eco’s theory, especially to his approach towards overinterpretation. Taking this particular case into consideration, the article focuses on the fact that, for many years, the audience have demonstrated disregard for the text’s intention. Therefore, the paper contrasts entirely opposing interpretations, which are also strongly ideologized and, according to Eco, paranoid, so as to reveal a complex as well as frequently unpredictable process of the identification of the text’s intention. The interpretation history of Balladyna proves that the old literary work not only requires ‘Eco’s encyclopaedia’ but also consideration ingrained in the knowledge and experience of recipients, who explore the old text to learn about themselves, their world and art. Only then can interpretation lead to a proper understanding as it results from the genuine communion with a literary work. In the author’s view, this very form of overinterpretation, criticized by Eco, provides an old text with an opportunity to enter the contemporary audience consciousness.

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