Rozsądek i szaleństwo około 1833 roku
REASON AND MADNESS AROUND 1833

Author(s): Jan Tomkowski
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Polish Romanticism; Adam Mickiewicz; reason; madness
Summary/Abstract: Adam Mickiewicz wrote an article O ludziach rozsądnych i ludziach szalonych [On Men of Reason and Madmen] in May 1833. It was published in the emigration journal Pielgrzym Polski [The Polish Pilgrim]. In the article, he distinguished two different groups of people: men of reason, who were inclined for compromise and used the language of treason, and “madmen”, who were devoted patriots – that is to say, ‘mad patriots’. Perhaps patriotism is a kind of madness. At the same time Mickiewicz worked on Pan Tadeusz, the national epic poem which was first published in June 1834. In my opinion there is no contradiction between a realistic, ‘reasonable’ poem and a prophetic journalism included in Pielgrzym Polski [The Polish Pilgrim]. From a patriot’s standpoint it is impossible to be reasonable.

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