„Imaginarium” polskie: Norwidowska lektura Anhellego

Abstract

The aim of the article is to answer the question how Cyprian Norwid understood Juliusz Słowacki’s poem entitled Anhelli (1838). Norwid’s interpretation of Anhelli, which was put forward in his lectures O Juliuszu Słowackim (1961), was significantly different from the previous ones. Before Norwid, the critics of Anhelli admired its aesthetic layer and appreciated the documentary motifs, but could not make sense of its extremely pessimistic message. Norwid, however, interpreted Anhelli as an allegorical reflection of what Charles Taylor would have called the Polish social imaginary. Emphasising the role of the metaphorical meaning of a few motifs in the world presented (especially the one of Siberia as the „negative pole” of the Polish civilisation and the picture of characters as supporters of particular ethical views), Norwid interpreted Słowacki’s poem as an allegory of a grave crisis of the Polish collective consciousness as well as a picture of the decay of the national community. In this way, Norwid’s reflection on Anhelli gave him the opportunity to criticise the qualities of the 19th-century Polish culture and the mentality of the then emigrants.