Dzieło literackie wobec wydarzeń historycznych : losy Katarzyny Radziejowskiej w polskiej prozie XX wieku

Abstract

Katarzyna Radziejowska, a daughter of the Płock Voivode Andrzej Radziejowski, was a well-known historical figure, resulting from the fact that in 1526 she was accused of poisoning the last princesses of Mazowsze – Stanisław and Janusz. The reasons of Piast dynasty descendants’ death remain so far unexplained. The historians (since the 19th century) as well as 20th-century writers have been trying to establish facts about what happened in the third decade of the 16th century in Mazowsze and what was Katarzyna Radziejowska’s role in it. Historical novel (also those in any way concerning the figure of Voivode’s daughter) realize various strategies; psychological (the author stresses feelings and psychological motivations), mask (he is focused on rapid and dynamic course of events in the novel), political (when he wants to present important and interesting events of the age, solve the mysteries of the past, and he does it believing that people of different times are generally alike), and last but not least, anthropological (if he is aiming at reconstructing a model of man of the age). The last one demands form the author not only creative imagination but also solid knowledge about the rendered era.