Mały Mickiewicz : studia mikrologiczne

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.