Abstrakt: | The present work consists of two parts. The first one (In the circle of masquerade - like customs) is devoted
to an analysis of masquerade elements in the province of the morals of the Enlightenment: while the second part
(In the circle of literary masquerades) concerns a description of masquerade motifs in the literature of the Enlightenment.
Both phenomena have been presented in the European, not merely Polish, perspective.
In the first part, the author described the following phenomena related to the province of customs: fancy -
dress balls, the aristocratic society theatre, masquerade happenings, dressing-up and mystifications, and also the
masquerade "creations" of adventurers and cheats, and instances of "masquerade transvestism". The picture of the
situation sketched out in the present work shows that the customs of the Enlightenment were permeated with
masquerade elements. For the representatives of the upper classes of the time, the masquerade "games" became an
important form of entertainment, endowed with almost therapeutic qualities, they were an important instrument to
fend off boredom.
The literature of the Enlightenment abounds in masquerade motifs, which was duly recorded in the second
part of the present work. An attempt has been made to provide the reader with a comprehensive survey of the
writers of the Enlightenment. In general, 22 literary works (including novels, poetical, and theatrical works,
representing Polish, French, and English literature) have been discussed.
It is possible to notice a far - reaching correspondence between the masquerade phenomena, described in
part one, and the masquerade motifs in literaty works, characterised in part two. This proves that the writers of the
Enlightenment w'ere careful observers of the social reality of the time, and that they faithfully recorded the most
important phenomena that took place in it. The present work has striven to emphasise this dependence of the
literature of the Enlightenment on the extraliterary reality.
Both parts of the book: one concerned with customs, and the other with literature, are completed with remarks
on masquerade motifs in the painting and architecture of the Enlightenment. Together they form a clear
picture of one the cultural phenomena of the Enlightenment, i. e. of the phenomenon that deserves to be called
"masqueradomania." |