Zofia Sinko
"Oświeceni wśród pól elizejskich.
Rozmowy zmarłych recepcja
-twórczość oryginalna", Zofia Sinko,
Wrocław 1976 : [recenzja]
Literary Studies in Poland 4, 152-154
152 Book Reviews
Lectures) K opczyńska studies one o f the leading m otifs o f Mic- kiewicz’s lectures in the French Sorbonne, viz. the qu estion o f the character and significance o f the Slavonic languages. Special atten tio n is paid to M ickiew icz’s conception o f the W ord (verbum, French parole), which form ed the m ain elem ent o f his belief in the organic an d creative ch aracter o f language. T he a u th o r stresses also the special place which the Polish language occupied in M ickiew icz's conceptions.
The last study o f the volum e —“Poezja jest sztuką przez języ k ” (Poetry Is A rt T h ro u g h W ords) —does not deal w ith Polish m aterial. The subject o f analysis here is H u m b o ld t’s definition o f poetry, contain ed in his treatise Ueber Goethes "''Hermann und D orothea,” 1798, and the conception o f two m ain varieties o f poetry, connected with different ways o f conceiving and treatin g the language by poets.
Sum. by the author Transl. by M aria-Bożenna Fedewicz
Z o f i a S in k o , Oświeceni wśród Pól Elizejskich. Rozmowy zmarłych:
recepcja — twórczość oryginalna (Dialogues of the Dead in the Polish Age of Enlightenment), O ssolineum , W roclaw 1976.
The study deals w ith the Polish reception o f the W est-E uropean dialogues o f the d ea d and w ith w orks belonging to this genre w ritten in P oland in the second h a lf o f the 18th century. The opening ch ap ter gives an outline o f the history o f the genre in E urope at the end o f the 17th an d in the 18th ce n tu ry ; it also discusses the basic features and form ulates the poetics o f the dialogue o f the dead. F u rth er chapters (II to V) con tain a detailed discussion o f the Polish tran slatio n s o f the dialogues by B. Fontenelle,
F. Fenelon, V oltaire, E. V attel, G . L y ttelton an d a few other unidentified foreign au th o rs. The tran slatio n s ap peared chiefly in the literary and m oral periodicals: “Z b ió r R óżnego R o dzaju W iadom ości z N au k W yzw olonych” (1770), “Z abaw y Przyjem ne i P ożyteczne” (1770—1777), “ M o n ito r” (1765 — 1785). T here were also separate editions in pam phlet form , an d an edition o f F enelo n's dialogues
Com ptes rendus de livres 153 in two volum es in 1785 — 1786; it was dedicated to king Stanislas A ugust P oniatow ski.
A m ong the dialogues o f the dead which were p rod uced in W estern E urope th ro u g h o u t the 18th century Polish tran slato rs co n centrated their atten tio n on the m ost pro m in en t w orks and presented them to our reading public in a successful an d faithful way. Fenelon w ith 67 dialogues tran slated into Polish stands at the head o f the list: he owes his p ro m in en t position to the didactic ch aracter o f his w orks an d also to his ideas which corresp on ded w ith the views p ro p a g ated by the spokesm en o f o u r Enlightenm ent. These very reasons explain the lim ited popu larity o f F o nten elle’s dialogues in spite o f their fine form . The a u th o r’s scepticism and searching unrest, his am bivalent form u latio n s an d his love o f p arado x did no t altogether corresp o n d w ith the ed ucatio nal purpo se o f o ur literature o f the period.
O riginal Polish dialogues o f the dead w ritten in the second h a lf o f the 18th century fall into two groups: those serving as a chronicle o f the day an d as an occasion for topical political discussion, and those o f a distinctly literary character. D ialogues o f the form er group often b ordered on jo u rn alism an d h ad their origin in the trad itio n o f older Polish literature as well as in the inspiratio n by G erm an dialogues o f the 18th century (Ch. VI). W orks in the second g ro u p were m ore elabo rate as literature an d m ore care was given to the aesthetic values o f the dialogue which did not im m ediately deal with cu rren t events. O u r “literary” dialogues concentrated upon fiie key-problem s o f the Polish enlight ened thought, such as e.g. the critique o f vain glory o f fam ous heroes, o r the creation o f a new m odel o f peaceful an d cultured ruler according to the prevailing ideals o f the age.
T he chief au th o rs o f dialogues o f the second type were F. Bo- hom olec and I. K rasicki. The form er published in 1758 the dialogue Rozm ow a o ję z y k u polskim (A Conversation upon Polish Language — discussed in Ch. V II), the latter w rote in the seventeen-nineties 30 dialogues which app eared p osthum ously in 1804 (Ch. VIII an d IX). K rasick i’s dialogues are close to the great E u ro p ean p attern s o f the genre which were form ed a t the end o f the 17th an d elabo rated in the 18th century, b u t there is no im m ediate dependence. They express the a u th o r’s reflections an d m oral opinions as presented
154 Book Reviews
earlier d uring his long literary career in satires, epistles, essays an d novels, thus form ing a sum m ary o f his rich and varied activities as a m an o f letters. In the dialogues as well as in his to tal o u tp u t, he ap p ears as a m o ralist an d a great ed u c ato r o f his contem poraries, as a spokesm an o f the ph ilosophy o f m o d era tio n an d o f the attitu d e o f the “golden m ean ” in priv ate an d public life, finally as a cham pion o f clear th o u g h t an d o f straig h tfo rw ard action. H e also displayed in his last w ork his ever-present dislike o f sham an d affectation seconded by his ability to expose falsehood disguised as virtue in lofty phrases.
T he publication o f K ra sick i’s dialogues m ark s an end o f the history o f the genre in o u r literatu re o f the E nlightenm ent. It owed its grow th an d p o p u larity to the prevailing trend o f Classicism , b u t also, p erhaps even chiefly, to the high ed u cational asp ira tio n s o f o u r literature o f the period.
Sum. and transl. by the author
K a r y n a W i e r z b i c k a - M i c h a l s k a , T ea tr w Polsce w XVIII wieku
(Le Théâtre en Pologne au XVIIIe siècle), Państw ow y In sty tu t W y
daw niczy, W arszaw a 1977. C o ll.: Dzieje T ea tru Polskiego (H istoire du T héâtre Polonais), ss la dir. de T. Sivert, T. I.
Teatr w Polsce w X V I I I wieku est la p artie intro du ctiv e d ’une synthèse en cinq volum es. Les tom es suivants de la p u b licatio n co n d u iro n t l ’histoire du th éâtre polonais ju s q u ’aux années soixante du X X e siècle. Ce sera la prem ière tentative de m ettre au p o in t une m onographie facto logique de l’histoire de la scène polonaise sur l’espace de deux siècles. C e sera, après le livre de Z. R aszew ski (Bogusławski) *, la seconde position im p o rtan te paru e d ans l ’après- -guerre sur la théâtrologie polonaise.
1 T. I —II, PIW , W arszawa 1972. En tant que com pendium pour les deux ouvrages cités on peut recom m ander la partie de la m onographie annoncée sur la com édie avant Fredro, de la plum e de S. Durski, intitulée: Kom edia okolicz- nościowo-polityczna i historyczna łat 1 800—1830 {La Com édie politique de circonstance et historique des années 1800 — 1830), W rocław 1974.
