The article presents interpretations of various manifestations of “negative cognition” (apophatic) in the literature of early modernism (Young Poland). Negative cognition (which has a rich tradition and dates back to ancient times) on the threshold of modernity, emerged as a response to the crisis of scientist and religious awareness. Found in works by Tadeusz Miciński, Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer, Bolesław Leśmian, Jerzy Hulewicz, it takes many forms: from agnosticism, through diverse approaches to the category of “Mystery” to the principle of silence as evidence of belief in the inability to express not only the Transcendence, but any knowledge of reality. The author examines the issue of “the unknowable” in three thematic areas: the subject (I), God, and the world. The final part of the paper contains reflections on silence as the equivalent of shouting, significant for expressionism.
The article presents interpretations of various manifestations of “negative cognition” (apophatic) in the literature of early modernism (Young Poland). Negative cognition (which has a rich tradition and dates back to ancient times) on the threshold of modernity, emerged as a response to the crisis of scientist and religious awareness. Found in works by Tadeusz Miciński, Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer, Bolesław Leśmian, Jerzy Hulewicz, it takes many forms: from agnosticism, through diverse approaches to the category of “Mystery” to the principle of silence as evidence of belief in the inability to express not only the Transcendence, but any knowledge of reality. The author examines the issue of “the unknowable” in three thematic areas: the subject (I), God, and the world. The final part of the paper contains reflections on silence as the equivalent of shouting, significant for expressionism.
The article analyses the motifs of the Virginity and the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in Young Poland poetry. They appear in the writings of many poets, i.e. Maria Konopnicka, Leopold Staff, Jan Kasprowicz, Bronisława Ostrowska, Kazimiera Zawistowska, Józef Ruffer and others. The interest in the Motherhood of God in this period stemmed mostly from a general increase in religiousness but it also had its national and patriotic roots. The expansiveness of the motifs of Virginity and the Annunciation of St. Mary after 1900 was also connected with the 50th anniversary commemoration of the announcement of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The changes in the world-view in the era initialized by vitalism, the fascination with spirituality, broad-sense purity, folk nature and the Franciscan philosophical trend were also significant for the poetic presentation of St. Mary.