Mistyczny sens mitu w "Królu-Duchu" Juliusza Słowackiego

Abstract

The book is an attempt to interpret King-Ghost by Juliusz Słowacki. The centre of attention constitutes symbols and mystic images fascinating Romantics that the author of an epic poem treated in a special way. He collects them, transforms, and, finally, breaks their structure to reveal their mystic sense. Thus, a hidden order reveals from discontinued, fragmentary and complex narration. The method of a fenomenological description was used to present mythic motives (Gerardus van der Leeuw, Mircea Eliade) whereas hermeneutics served to uncover the mystic dimension, both in the oldest version (Orygenes) and the contemporary one (Paul Ricoeur). Subsequent rhapsodies in King-Ghost on the level of the mythic sense reveal subsequent stages of the cosmogenic myth, starting from “the dark epoch”, and light creation to world creation. On the mystic level they have their counterparts in subsequent stages of the spiritual development, from purification through enlightenment to unification. The spiritual development is perfectly accompanied by the improvement of substance, from the dark and heavy one, enslaving the spirit to the luminous one, completely subordinate to the spirit. The substance transformation is presented in King-Ghost in a way similar to the icon theology. The author also interprets mystery motives, showing the transformations of the King-Ghost from experiencing closed existence to complete freedom. A mystery of self-awareness, understood as a means of discovering the image of God in oneself constitutes a mystic dimension here.