The article takes up the issue of presence of J. W. Goethe and Lord Byron in the literary and cultural reflection of A. Mickiewicz, with a special emphasis on his Paris lectures on the Slavic Literature (1840-1844). Two diametrically different individualities, the classic from Weimar and the rebellious romanticist, are equally respected by Mickiewicz. He confronts their writings and author attitude in his most important programme statements at various stages of his work. Also in his creative practice, this artistically versatile poet leads a dialogue with Goethe and Byron (e.g. Crimean Sonnets, Konrad Wallenrod, Part III of The Forefathers’ Eve, a translation of The Giaour). In the Paris lectures, Goethe and Byron are still regarded by Mickiewicz as the most important authors of modern literature. They represent important fields of the Slavic culture’s dialogue with the West. Here, the author of Faust becomes strictly a literary authority, ceasing to play an equal role with the English romanticist, the Napoleon of poetry, who fits in the political history of Slavic nations and reveals the secrets of the “literature of the future” to them.

For a long time, the romanticist Orientalism has been an important interpretation problem in the study of the Crimean Sonnets. In the field of intertextual relations, researchers have emphasized the importance of Byronic inspirations to Mickiewicz; although the Crimean cycle has been preceded with a motto taken from the West-Eastern Divan, the inspiring role of Goethe is poorly known. The sketch is intended to examine whether the Crimean Sonnets realize not only Byron’s programme of a romanticist’s flight to the East but also Goethe’s universalistic project from the West-Eastern Divan, situated above the classicism-romanticism alternative and on both sides of this cultural dichotomy. It brings a comparative analysis of a range of motifs constituting the poetic exoticism of Goethe and Mickiewicz. The search for Goethean inspirations in the poetry of the Polish author reveals both secret and revealed traces, as well as common places in the works of both writers, leading to a wider approach to the European contexts of Mickiewicz’s Orientalism

The article makes an attempt to redefi ne the scope and kind of inspirations exerted by F.R. Chateaubriand’s René on the works of Juliusz Słowacki. The author analyzes Słowacki’s literary dialogue with the French poet’s work in his output from 1832–1835: An Hour of Thought, Kordian, Horsztyński. She also enters a polemic with Władysław Folkierski’s thesis on the Renéic origin of the Arab.

The text is an attempt to look at the traces of the presence of Jesus in the Biblical drama Maria Magdalena. Attention has been paid, in particular, to the account of John the Apostle who had been a direct witness of the deeds of the Master from Nazareth, e.g. during the calming of the storm in the Sea of Galilee. One can fi nd much theological depth in the words of Ostrowski’s heroes. Christ is not only the Saviour, the Messiah, a giver of light, a miracle worker, a healer, but also a man who knows how to speak to a crowd, to win the favour of people, and, having heard of the death of Lazarus, he cries in sorrow. Jesus is viewed differently by his opponents who do not conceal their dislike for the prophet from Nazareth. Expressing their criticism, they simultaneously bear witness to Christ’s deeds, becoming his witnesses.
Ostrowski transforms the Biblical motifs, dramatizes them to a larger degree and reaches for romantic imagery; he also often downplays the pompous, solemn tone, e.g. through irony. He departs from the canonical view of John as a hot-tempered man, but simultaneously he shows how this apostle lived on the truth of God. In the scene just before the crucifixion, the playwright introduces a Jesus’ letter to Judas, therefore referencing apocryphal traditions. According to the spirit of the epoch, he seamlessly combines various elements, yet creates a Christian vision of the world as a result.

The article is an attempt to sum up the aesthetic concepts laid out in the essay The Immediate Erotic Stages, or the Musical Erotic by Søren Kierkegaard. The philosopher opens his considerations with a question of the definition of classicism. A criterion for what is classic is a similarity, or even identity, of the idea and the medium that expresses it. This criterion leads Kierkegaard to advance a thesis that a work fully deserving this name is the opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Its idea of ‘sensual genius’ with an abstract character is expressed by the most abstract medium, which is, in the philosopher’s opinion, music.

The sketch is an analysis of the short stories of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński from the viewpoint of the subject matter of the malum. The author proves that the writer’s attitude to evil shifted from the perception of the malum in its moral aspect, or – referencing the terminology of Gottfried Leibniz – considering of evil as an effect of actions of a human endowed with freedom of choice, to a perception of evil in the metaphysical aspect, in which its sources are considered to be superhuman, difficult to grasp and often irrational. According to the author of the sketch, a turning point for the change of the way the writer perceived some ethical and metaphysical concepts was the story The Exorcist’s Brief Confession, constituting a point of departure for Herling’s interest in the issue of evil as a power overcoming a human and making him a victim.

The unique composition idea of Juwenilia i Senilia, a tome by Leszek Elektorowicz, is to contrast the unknown early wartime poems with the most recent works by the outstanding poet. The reader may become acquainted with the beginnings of Elektorowicz’s work, but also grasp the link of the „juvenilia” with his mature output. Of special signifi cance is the permanence of the struggle for humane values, both during World War II and in the era of the post-modern ethical crisis. In the Juwenilia, the experience of the disaster of war, loneliness, the sense of being surrounded, stands out in the first place. From the melancholic states, the poet shifts to attempts to rebuild the world after a defeat and to suspend temporarily the contemplation on trauma. In Juwenilia, the ardour of confessions is contrasted with the poetry of experience. In the second part, titled Senilia, the author of the article presents such poetic topics of Elektorowicz as criticism of our time’s culture, memoirs, lyrical confessions in subtle love poems, considerations of history, ruminations on the ultimate matters. Leszek Elektorowicz connects ethical obligations of the art of word with an aesthetic programme, with restitution of ‘high speech’ and psalmic nobleness.

In the article, the author presents the disappointment, as recorded in the literary texts of the Solidarity emigration, with the Western world, particularly the USA, the myth of which used to be very persistent in the People’s Republic of Poland as well as in early nineties. One source of this disappointment were the egalitarian ideas shared by the generations that grew up in Communist Poland. As a result, the American experience of authors of the Solidarity emigration has brought a gradual deconstruction of American myths in their artistic output.

The sketch discusses the metaphysical poetry of Andrzej Busza. A deepened refl ection over it was inspired by the latest, English-language poems in which the poet muses over the phenomenon of death, as well as asks questions concerning the existence/nonexistence of God in the universe. The philosophical reflections appearing in many poems help us to formulate a hypothesis that Busza searches for answers to the questions disturbing him in two opposite poles – metaphysics and philosophy. The reading of the last tome, under the title Niepewność [Uncertainty], broadens the field of interpretation, since the poet shows a third sphere – the scientific one, where he will search for the answers to questions of being. Andrzej Busza’s reflections focus on three areas which reveal anxiety and uncertainty, still keeping company to the lyrical hero of his poems. The article was intended to present one of the most important motifs in the works of the poet from Vancouver, illuminating them from three different perspectives which intertwine in his poetry.

The author analyses fragments of the journalism and quasi-memoire of Jan Błoński, a distinguished critic of the Polish and foreign literature, expert on the work of, among others, Gombrowicz, Mrożek, Proust and Ionesco, and reflects on his creative legacy. He proves that Błoński did not finish his memoire due to the inability to express his own experience of life in the PRL due to the lack of an adequate language to describe the post-war reality. According to Błoński, the thread of tradition connecting the worlds of the consecutive generations was abruptly broken upon the emergence of the communist and fascist totalitarianisms, and the old concepts, such as the truth, religion and patriotism, lost their previous importance. Under the circumstances of radical falsifi cation and superfi ciality of everyday life in the PRL, in the author’s opinion, Błoński sees a chance to maintain the identity in remaining faithful to the old tradition, custom and religion. At the same time, aware of the impossibility to recreate the old world, to be protected from the nihilism of the time, he investigates laughter – Błoński’s sadness remains a cheerful kind of sadness.

Rok ognistego smoka [The Year of the Fire Dragon] by Ewa Sonnenberg is a tome original not only in comparison with her own poetry, but against the background of the newest Polish poetry as a whole. It has originated from the poetess’s inspiration by the Far East, particularly by Japan and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, and focuses on the figure of Matsuo Bashō, a 17th-century Japanese poet, master of the poetic form of haiku. The tome has been built as a collection of Sonnenberg’s letters to Bashō and Bashō’s letters to Sonnenberg. It is a dialogue between the values of the European culture and the Far Eastern sensitivity and philosophy. The poetess puts herself in the position of a disciple learning from the master. She learns, above all, the attitude of sacrifice, as understood in many ways. In her tome, Sonnenberg often references Far Eastern, particularly Japanese, metaphors and symbolism, creating a colourful, almost fabulous poetic landscape, yet it is only a background for important considerations of existential and philosophic nature.