Katastrofa naturalna – Boża przestroga. Zapał srogi góry neapolitańskiej Fryderyka Szembeka
A Natural Disaster – God’s Warning. A Violent Eruption of the Mountain in Naples by Fryderyk Szembek

Author(s): Janusz S. Gruchała
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Vesuvius; eruption; natural disaster; report; Jesuit literature; moralistic approach; Fryderyk Szembek
Summary/Abstract: The aim of the dissertation is to show Fryderyk Szembek’s A Violent Eruption of the Mountain in Naples (1633) in several important aspects. The description of Vesuvius eruption is analysed as a sign of cultural curiosity. Since this phenomenon was quite exotic for the Poles, the author could be certain of great interest it would arouse in readers. Another matter is the relation of Szembek’s text to the Italian sources describing the disaster. The analysis shows a reporting character of the text and such a way of conducting the discourse that Szembek can be considered a very interesting prose writer of the time. His work combines different perspectives: a pioneering, reporting structure also includes a moral commentary characteristic of post-tridentine pastoral style. This duality is the result of the approach of the 17th century author and his readers to a natural disaster in baroque piety context and, in broader meaning, of the relation to wild nature, ruled by God and within his domain. On the one hand, the dissertation seeks to confirm the old Polish tendency to perceive natural disasters in the archetypical, biblical context; on the other hand, it attempts to show a seminal form in Polish literature.

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