Umysł uwięziony w sidłach szaleństwa i nieokreślony status ontologiczny we wczesnej prozie Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego („Wieczerza Cagliostra”, „Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie”, „Śmierć szaleńca”)
The mind trapped in the snares of madness, and an indefinite ontological status in the early prose by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski („The evening meal of Cagliostra”, „The Świętomichalski Church in Vilnius”, „The death of a madman”)

Author(s): Ewelina Justyna Krzykała
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: What are extremely intriguing problems undertaken by the researchers and creators of the nineteenth century are issues concerning an indeterminate ontological status and Romantic madness. The first of the motifs manifests itself in the pluralistic forms of a character of a Jew, the Eternal Wanderer, a doppelgänger or a mysterious visionary-clairvoyant, combining the features of both a man of ‘flesh and blood’ and a prophet playing with black magic. The second one — in a ‘dead for the world’ insane who out of love, loneliness or social stigma falls into the abyss if idiosyncrasy and madness. The purpose of the author’s deliberations is not only to endeavour to distinguish a tuning fork of the dominants characteristic of this type of characters that are inscribed especially deeply in the rite of Dark Romanticism, but also to present little-known juvenile works by Kraszewski. The object of the research comprises three texts out of the early writings of the writer that are the most representative of this issue: „The evening meal of Cagliostra”, „The Świętomichalski Church in Vilnius”, and „The Death of a Madman”, which are included in two volumes: „Inspirations for my friends: a booklet for lighting pipes” and „Literary journeys: fantastic and historical”.

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