Epika rycerska Samuela Twardowskiego wobec przemyśleń i praktyki literackiej Torquata Tassa

Abstract

In the article the author brings up the issue of the epic model represented by Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberała, popularised by Piotr Kochanowski’s translation, on Samuel Twardowski’s epic poetry. On the basis of the comparison of the poetic premises of the two writers it can be concluded that their conceptions of epic differ considerably. Unlike Tasso, the Polish poet thought contemporary events the most suitable subject matter, he rejected fiction and romance in favour of the mimetic principle, eliminated the supernatural (also in its Christian substitute), and instead of a religious he proposed a secular epic. His approach to the structure of epic was also different in that he opted for the plurality of parallel actions rather than for the unity of action, he also accepted the chronological instead of the cause-effect ordering of epic. In this way Twardowski aimed at the creation of an independent, yet originally national, form of epic.