One can find the same features in Chopin’s correspondence as in his music. They share a wealth of emotions, expressivity and lightness, and also narrative and speech-like qualities. Far from programmicity and illustrative explicitness, Chopin the composer articulates musical content with an almost verbal force of transmission; his letters, meanwhile, bear the same distinct stamp of his personality that marks out his piano works. In both domains, Chopin may be called a narrator, but particularly interesting proves to be analysis of his correspondence, from the point of view of the narration of a Romantic ironical poem. Although one would be hard pressed to speak of an exact equivalence, it is worth taking into account the strong subjectivity, combined with irony and the writer’s self-irony, but above all his affinity with Schlegelian Romantic irony. This notion is of fundamental significance for changes to the subject in Romantic poetry and for the emergence of the form of the ironical poem. The creativeness of the text, the exposure of the subject, digressions, humour, leaps of thought and style, and a variability and transformation of content - those are just some of the characteristics of the ironical narrator. Also crucial to these considerations is the Romantic aesthetic of the fragment.
The study offers an interpretation of Borges and Cortázar in the light of romantic irony, in particular Friedriech Schlegel’s concept from the Athenaeum fragment 37 where irony is defined as an art of controlled enthusiasm. This is something that can be found in Borges, at the level of language, in the figure of litotes, in his penchant for brevity and a relative disdain for novels. In Cortázar, the taming of enthusiasm manifests itself more openly, as a contrast of two alternating modes of speech. Thus, Borges and Cortázar embody two answers to the question of enthusiasm.
Liczne opracowania na temat utworów wchodzących w skład Vade-mecum potwierdzają, że choć wiersze te cechują się ogromną wrażliwością etyczną i silnym rygoryzmem moralnym, trudno jest jasno określić światopogląd dzieła Norwida. Autor artykułu proponuje interpretację Vade-mecum z uwzględnieniem problematyki ironii romantycznej. Poeta posługuje się ironią jako narzędziem dochodzenia do nieuchwytnej Prawdy. Dystans ironiczny nie jest u niego dystansowaniem się od poglądów głoszonych w poszczególnych utworach, ale świadomością niedoskonałości języka, który może te poglądy fałszować. Ironia pomaga mu w dążeniu, by „odpowiednie dać rzeczy słowo”, nie pozwalając językowi upraszczać bądź redukować wyrażanych w poszczególnych utworach twierdzeń o charakterze moralnym.
EN
Numerous studies on the works composing the volume Vade-mecum confirm that although the individual poems are characterised by great ethical sensitivity and strong moral rigour, it is difficult to clearly define the worldview of Norwid’s work. The author of the article proposes an interpretation of Vade-mecum, taking into account the problem of Romantic irony. The poet uses irony as a tool to reach the elusive Truth. For him, ironic distance is not distancing himself from the views professed in particular works, but an awareness of the imperfections of a language which may falsify those views. Irony helps him in his quest to “give the right word to the thing”, not allowing the language to simplify or reduce the moral statements expressed in individual works.
Artykuł jest próbą określenia miejsca niedokończonego utworu Adama Mickiewicza, pochodzącego z późnego etapu twórczości poety, tytułowanego jako [Królewna Lala] w historii literatury, a tym samym w historii badań naukowych, oraz próbą naszkicowania możliwości interpretacyjnych utworu, z wykorzystaniem kategorii ironii romantycznej i idei konceptu. Finezyjny pomysł artystyczny [Królewny Lali] polega na zastosowaniu złożonych kontrastów, łączenia baśniowości z realizmem, powagi z komizmem, prostoty języka z kunsztem poetyckim, dialogu z tradycją literacką. Jest to wirtuozowski pokaz pisarza, tworzącego efekt komiczny, który bliższy jest poetyce absurdu (pure nonsense) niż komizmowi w czystej postaci. Utwór odsłania nowe brzmienie i nową jakość estetyczną, nieznaną we wcześniejszej twórczości Mickiewicza.
EN
The article attempts to define the place of Adam Mickiewicz’s unfinished work from the last stage of the poet’s artistic life, titled [Królewna Lala] [Princess Lala], in the history of literature, and thus in the history of literary research, and to outline the possible interpretations of the work using the category of Romantic irony and the idea of concept. A fine artistic idea behind [Królewna Lala] consists in using complex contrasts, combining fairy tale with realism, seriousness with comedy, simplicity of language with poetic mastery, dialogue with literary tradition. It is a virtuoso performance of the writer who creates a comic effect that is closer to the poetics of the absurd (pure nonsense) than to pure comedy. The work reveals a new aesthetic quality, unknown to Mickiewicz’s earlier works.
The article reviews Agata Seweryn’s book titled Between the Worlds. Studies in the Literature of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, accounting for the composition of the book, examining research problems raised in it in greater detail, and discussing essays included in the publication as supplementing existing interpretations of selected Romantic works. Seweryn is argued to draw attention to those aspects that reveal the richness inherent in the discussed works, which are demonstrated as not having been exhausted yet. These works are analysed in the reviewed book by pursing references to the baroque tradition, or by reflecting on their relationship with normative poetics and rhetoric.
Numerous studies on the works composing the volume Vade-mecum confirm that although the individual poems are characterised by great ethical sensitivity and strong moral rigour, it is difficult to clearly define the worldview of Norwid’s work. The author of the article proposes an interpretation of Vade-mecum, taking into account the problem of Romantic irony. The poet uses irony as a tool to reach the elusive Truth. For him, ironic distance is not distancing himself from the views professed in particular works, but an awareness of the imperfections of a language which may falsify those views. Irony helps him in his quest to “give the right word to the thing”, not allowing the language to simplify or reduce the moral statements expressed in individual works.
This is a deconstructive reading of Juliusz Słowacki's Lilla Weneda, focusing on Ślaz, an enigmatic character usually marginalized in interpretations of this quasi-historical Romantic drama. Drawing on Professor Marta Piwińska's study of ‘Lilla Weneda’ in Dramat polski: Interpretacje (2001), this article explores the gaps and fissures in Słowacki's text. While complementing her analysis with a number of alternative readings, this article also uses deconstruction to challenge some of the points that are embedded in the traditional reception of the drama.
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