Echi Danteschi nel Romanticismo Polacco

Abstract

The presented article deals with the specifics of the impact of the artistic motives of Dante Alighieri’s literary achievement on Polish romanticism. The particular attention was focused on the undeniable significance of the ideological component of the “Divine Comedy”, the lyrical motives of which were creatively rethought by the Polish romanticists and proposed in their author’s adaptation according to the historical and social realities of the time. It was stated that the culmination of Dante’s success in the Polish literary environment actually coincided with a difficult period in the history of the state: namely, with the national tragedy of 1795, when the third and the final Partition of Poland occured. It was then that the prominent Florentine artist played for the Polish romanticists the role of a special spiritual guide and teacher, who demostrated the captives some ways to confront the painful reality and to achieve the future liberation of the nation. Dante’s patriotic ideals and hopes for a better future were reflected in the original romantic works of the Polish writers. It was noted that in the context of the growing interest towards the religious issues during the Romantic era, the apocalyptic motives and millenarian vision of the world in Dante’s works served to strengthen the messianic ideas of the Polish romanticists, most of whom put an emphasis on the prophetic and eschatological character of the “Divine Comedy”. It was found that for the authors of the time, the figure of the great Italian was associated with Catholicism or Protestantism. It was accentuated that the creative achievement of Dante Alighieri became one of the greatest sources of artistic inspiration for Polish writers of the Romantic movement. In fact Dante echoes were invented in the works of Adam Asnyk, Zygmunt Krasiński, Adam Mickiewicz, Cyprian Norwid, Juliusz Słowacki, Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and others. At the same time it was underlined that the consideration of the Polish romantic literature as a result of the blind imitation of Dante’s lyrical motives is incorrect. In contrast to the Florentine artist, who represented his own reality in the afterlife, the romanticists aimed to find the afterlife in their everyday life. It is the peculiarity of the establishment of the locus horridus to be a characteristic feature by which Dante can be distinguished from the Polish writers.