Iwona Puchalska

The point of departure of the article is the Goethean assumption that intercultural exchange within Weltliteratur can result in mutual “adjustments” of understanding, assessment and evaluation. Lambro and Kordian, two specifically related texts by Słowacki, were therefore situated in the French context, understood not in the genetic sense, but in the sense of reception. Two literary commentaries of various types were analysed, one of which is an example of the reception mediation of a representative of Polish culture in exile, the other, an element of French literary studies (these are: the introduction by Wenceslas Gasztowtt to the French translation of Słowacki’s works from the 1860s and the article Le drame romantique : le héros et l’histoire dans « Le Prince de Hombourg » de Kleist, « Kordian » de Słowacki et « Lorenzaccio » de Musset by Danièle Chauvin from 2000). These texts, created for different purposes and in different periods, share a common field of comparative references (including George Sand’s Essai sur le drame fantastique), but at the same time are differentiated by their cultural contextualisation and different location in relation to Mickiewicz’s legend, meaning that they provide non-standard interpretative impulses which are refreshing in relation to today’s dominant ways of reading Lambro and Kordian.

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of improvisation which is a characteristic aesthetic feature of the Romantic culture. Many nineteenth century artists regarded it as an embodiment of the issues that were of key importance for their period – among them, one finds the concept of genius or correspondence between the arts. On a few examples taken from the works of Chopin, Mickiewicz and Orłowski, the author reveals both the ways and the conditionings of the reception of the improvisory works, as well as the relations between the Romantic myth of improvisation and its artistic practice.

The essay is devoted to a very specific and interesting example of intersemiotical link between the scene of the Senator’s ball in the third part of „Dziady” by A. Mickiewicz and „Don Giovanni” by W. A. Mozart. Analysis of some elements of the opera included by Mickiewicz in his text, in the way of ‘bricolage’, leads to the conclusion that the similarities in both compositions are not restricted to the construction level, but they also seem to have ideological consequences which have an impact on the overall force of the work by Mickiewicz. Its connection with Mozart’s and da Ponte’s work, even if visible in just a few parts of „Dziady”, is a guide to the simultaneous reading of both texts. This read develops their interpretation and understanding as well as expresses the idea of providence present in Mozart’s and Mickiewicz’s masterpieces.

From the point of view of the world literature studies music—as the most “abstract” art—turns out to be also in this respect very different from literature, which is strongly connected with the locality. The article discusses the universalising potency of musical themes and motives in literature.

The article analyzes the specifi c character of The Death of Klinghoff er as a collective work with strong political connotations, as well as the controversies around its performances, from the perspective of the evolution of opera theatre poetics. The main reference point is the tradition of the Romantic theatre, with special emphasis on two novelties introduced within that tradition: using contemporary history as material for dramatic elaboration, and giving the voice to negative characters and presenting their arguments as equally important within the dramatic structure. Romanticism, in the name of a right to an individualized vision of the world, held the truth of art beyond the truth of facts, just like it went beyond the traditional axiology and morality in search for a true nobleness of spirit (by e.g. creating the type of a “noble knave”). This, in turn, led to seeing art as a realm of myth, which even if genetically connected to real events, had lost this relation long ago and opened a possibility to interpret them freely and out of context. The case of The Death of Klinghoff er shows that even if such assumptions have already been accepted in theory of drama, the artistic practice still regards them as problematic..