„Przed nami przepaść, za nami otchłań krateru niezgłębiona”. Motyw wulkanu w prozie Teodora Tripplina

Abstract

The article introduces the volcano theme present in the prose of Theodor Tripplin, author of immensely popular adventure and travel books in the 19th century. Geology, of which disciplinary framework began to emerge at the turn of the 19th century, was a subject discussed not only at university debates, but also in private lounges, especially since one of the biggest natural disasters caused by volcanic eruption occurred at that time. Therefore, geological and volcanic themes appeared in Tripplin’s works; the writer used them mainly as an element of landscape descriptions, explaining the processes which formed the landscape or the climate of the region. Volcanoes, on the other hand, appeared in his novel Nowa podróż na około Ziemi [A New Journey Around the Earth], where climbing to their summit or the consequences of their eruption were part of the local colour and allowed the reader to feel the exoticism of the distant lands visited by the protagonist of the book. The end of the article mentions Tripplin’s use of the metaphor often also chosen by other authors of the Romanticism period: volcano as a symbol of vehemence, a demonstration of nature’s power which is impossible for a man to subdue.