Wizja przestrzeni eschatologicznych w "Teatrum myśli..." Wenantego Tyszkowskiego

Abstract

The considerations undertaken in the article are drawn upon a collection of prose dialogues by Wenanty Tyszkowski published in 1780. An analysis of this work presents the manner of selection as well as the ways of confronting contradictory opinions and ideas of fictitious interlocutors about the afterlife, in particular the method of undermining arguments of both infidels and nonbelievers utilized by the author. The major goal of the reflection is to crystallize the eschatological visions outlined by Tyszkowski, and to determine their functions, and finally to embed them in the contexts of philosophical and social conventions of the times of the reign of Stanislaus II. There are also indicated the interconnections between elements and social facts co‑creating those images, and anti‑Semitism and belief in ghosts — the social attitudes and images characterizing the people of that time, remaining in stark opposition to the ideas of the Enlightenment.