Antywzór sarmackiej rycerskości : Coś nowego Łukasza Opalińskiego

Abstract

The article examines the debasement of the Sarmatian ideal of a knight, which was shown in the satire Coś nowego (Something New) written by Łukasz Opaliński – a 17th‑century erudite and aristocratic writer. Purposely refering to various literary traditions, styles and genres, Opaliński mocks not only specific individuals but also various phenomena taking place in the 17th‑century Polish political and social reality. He is focused on ridiculing and unmasking the political and military chaos. Literary resources of ridicule vary from the picaresque style with its poetics of parody, absurd, play on words, use of vulgarities and augmentative forms, to the lofty or even bombastic style (which features elaborate metaphors, epithets, refined irony and hyperbole). In creating this stylistically varied literary form, which is parallel with the tradition of the so‑called Mennippean structure („something new” in Polish literature of that period), the author does not abandon the position of an insightful and aristocratic writer who not only aptly comments on the world that he is describing, but who consciously juggles words, moving freely within various literary conventions.