Between Historical Reality and Poetic Imagination

Abstract

This article is a literary-historical interpretation of the works of the Polish Romantics. Many of the outstanding Polish Romantic writers were fascinated by the 1821 Greek Revolution. Poland had been subjugated since the end of the eighteenth century so the uprising was an important revolutionary model for Poles. The space and time of the poetic vision of the Greek War of Independence in those Romantic texts was of great importance for historiosophical and existential reflection. The Polish Romantics mentioned many different places that were connected with the Greek Revolution, such as Psara, Chios, Jassy, Kleisova islet and Messolongi. The choice to focus on these places, as well as the contexts of their representation, are significant. A variety of interpretations of the Greek War and Greek heritage emerge from these texts, such as the Greek Uprising as an important event integrating the European tradition and as the embodiment of the main existential and political problems of the nineteenth century, as well as the heroic interpretation of the revolution as an ideal to be emulated by enslaved nations. The Polish Romantic texts under discussion contain various poetic images of the space and time of the Greek War of Independence.