Between „the Real” and „the Ideal”: Criteria of the Comparative Thought in Maurycy Mochnacki’s Crirical Writings

Abstract

Maurycy Mochnacki’s comparative thought is to be seen in the context of pioneering refl ections that constitute the modern, post-Kantian comparative approach. In order to evaluate Mochnacki’s contribution, one cannot limit it to the opposition between national and foreign literatures, or what is universal and classical versus what is regional and romantic. Mochnacki developed concepts and methods that made it possible to analyze and understand romantic works without referring to classical criteria and rules, which were successively repeated in normative poetics, but were less and less relevant. His extensive, innovative comparative analyses of romantic works were very original in the Polish context. He employed the concepts of „reality” and „ideality,” borrowed from German philosophy, as the main criteria of comparative readings.