Abstract: | The book is devoted to Adam Mickiewicz’s oeuvre. It consists of nine essays
which are linked by the theme and the research method. It is a “little” monograph
in which the oeuvre, the life, and the reception of the great poet have been presented
in a new way, which may be called “micrological”. This means a departure from
the traditional, “monumental” approaches to Mickiewicz which are usually aiming
at synthesis, the vision of the whole, the canon of masterpieces, the heroic image of
the author, and the universal context of his work. What I suggest instead is to
concentrate the attention on the textual details, fragments, biographical particularities,
marginalia, peripheral contexts, and the various peculiarities which usually
evade interpretation. Giving up the perspective of “greatness” for the sake of “littleness”
I do not deal with simply “having a say” as I do realize that I am talking about
things which are important, though underestimated or simply ignored. I present
those programmatic assumptions in the essay which is reminiscent of a manifesto to
which I have given a slightly provocative title Mickiewicz and the Worms. It is only
in this part of the book that I offer a broad methodological and sociological/literary
panorama. In the remaining studies I discuss the problems connected with the
particular pieces of work. I concentrate on the texts of the minimal size (To Escape
with the Soul to the Leaves.../Uciec z duszą na liście...), unfinished works (A Fraction
from a Polish Woman’s Diary/Urywek pamiętnika Polki), the works given up at
the stage of the project (A Poem on Animals/Poemat o zwierzętach). I concentrate
on the works “discriminated” by the author himself (To a Distant Stranger.../Nieznajomej,
dalekiej...) and the works overlooked by critics (The First Battle/Pierwsza
bitwa, Conversations of the Sick/Rozmowy chorych). Those works are frequently
untypical for the poet’s oeuvre, published anonymously, written in prose, sometimes
even in a foreign language (in French). They are peculiar also for the reason
that they present the world seen from a “different”, corpuscular perspectives — of
children, women, animals. What is particularly privileged here is the context of the
“insect world” (my distinguished predecessors — Zofia Stefanowska and Jan Kott
— dealt with “worms” earlier). Most of the works analyzed were created at the time
when Mickiewicz was bidding farewell to writing, and completely gave up writing
poetry. There are also among them the enigmatic late notes of the poet, probably
put down in Constantinople. I am trying to reveal their rank which results from the
fact that they are the last ones of Mickiewicz’s literary expressions, endowed with
a nimbus of a liminal situation, of a farewell, even of a testament. This impression of
sublimity is brought down by the grotesque aesthetics. 1 frequently attempt at
explaining the phenomenon of Mickiewicz’s lapse into silence. I realize that the act
of “breaking the pen” has a dramatic dimension which both fascinates and troubles
the admirers of his talent. First of all it is an intriguing riddle.Little Mickiewicz is thus an attempt at writing about the phenomena which are
attractive to the reader, sometimes even sensational, also in the biographical dimension
(psychological speculations and psycho-analytical investigation occur here and
there in the book, though they are not its domain). The author’s concern is the
vividness of narration. For this reason I have collected here studies which vary
in their poetics: from the textual analysis to a free, multithematic essay, from literary
history to the areas close to the horizon of literary theory. Each of the essays
is characterized by a different style, expression, and even the emotional tone. I am
trying to prove that the great poet is also intriguing on the micro-scale. |