Świat to za mało, czyli romantyczne odkrywanie "nieskończoności tego, co skończone" w świetle myśli Sorena Kierkegaarda

Abstract

The common field of interest of the Romantic literature and Søren Kierkegaard’s thought, among other things, consists in the exposure of an individual who desires to cross the border between the mundane and the eternal and to free oneself from the shackles of finiteness. In this article, the aforementioned motif (occuring, among others, in Faust, romantic ballads, Byron’s writing and Genesis-related works of Słowacki) is analysed precisely through the prism of the Danish philosopher’s anthropology. Crossing the limits created by the brevity of life and corporeality, and dreaming about metamorphosis or transformation into an angel, all correspond to the category of „repetition” and to the preservation of the dramatic uniqueness of the always developing and defective existence; for “a leap” towards “the other” unlimited world is not tantamout to the renunciation of “I”. The author of the article illustrates the role that the idea of the radical paradoxical decision played in Romanticism, indicating sacrifice one has to make, in order to retrieve oneself and much more beyond the incapacitating limits.