Darwinism and Surrealism: The Case of Juliusz Słowacki’s "Samuel Zborowski"

Abstract

Juliusz Słowacki has been acknowledged as a precursor of the Young Poland poets and recognized as one of the “Three Bards” of Polish Romanticism. A visionary of mystical experience, his later works took a focus on Polish history, including the drama Samuel Zborowski, which has been referred to as one of the boldest visionary dramas in world literature. This paper explores the relation of Juliusz Słowacki’s drama Samuel Zborowski to Darwinism and Surrealism. As a contemporary of Darwin, this paper presents several overlapping points in time between the lives of Słowacki and Darwin, as well as Słowacki’s relations to both Darwin and his predecessors. It has been argued that Samuel Zborowski is the first surrealistic work in Polish literature. It employs varied scenic tricks that can be termed surrealistic. The textual images of the work include several cinematographic special effects, and the subjects explored in Samuel Zborowski reflect a condensed, symbolic shorthand sign of cosmic experience and historiosophic meditation. At times impressionistic, the concepts therein are formulated by analogy, allusion and synthesis, with signs and images point to infinity. Taken together, we have a dramatic exposition of fundamental Genesis philosophy, interwoven and ultimately subordinate to the perennial Polish Question in the context of Romantic Messianism. The rich philosophical sources of Samuel Zborowski reveal a wealth of influences. The end result is a strange symbiosis of Poland’s national history, Słowacki’s messianistic historiosophy, and the scientific heritage of Darwin’s predecessors.