Adam Karpiński
"Biblijno-apokryficzne narracje w
literaturze staropolskiej do końca XVI
wieku", Maria Adamczyk, Poznań
1980 : [recenzja]
Literary Studies in Poland 13, 97-101
1985
Book Reviews
Comptes rendus de livres
M a r i a A d a m c z y k , Biblijno-apokryficzne narracje w literaturze staro
polskiej do końca XVI w. (Biblical-Apocryphal Narratives in Polish Literature to the End of the 16th Cent.), P oznań 1980.
The fascination with m edieval and 16th-century biblical and a p o cryphal w orks, to which the a u th o r adm its in the in tro du ctio n, is n o t the only or even the m ost im p o rtan t cause o f her scholarly interest in this extrem ely com plicated group o f biblically based stories. T he need for a com prehensive study of this area o f literature seems significantly m ore im p o rtan t. T he studies, articles, an d editorial achie vem ents o f A. B rückner, S. D obrzycki, S. V rtel-W ierczyński, J. K rzy żanow ski and o ther earlier scholars have not been continued. T heir highly-respected studies were usually limited to individual works, and they seldom attem pted a m ore synthetic outline o f the apochryphae. M oreover, these scho lars’ interest did not include problem s connected w ith the peculiar “literariness” o f the apocryphal w orks (the creative rules em bodied in them , the norm s, the ensem ble o f directives) that gives these w orks their own narrative technique and m anner, ch a racteristic o f the belle-lettres treatm ent o f the canonic plots that were sym biotically joined to the apocryphal m aterial.
M aria A dam czyk’s book was intended to fill this gap, using detailed research to establish the characteristics o f the class o f w orks described in the title as biblical-apocryphal narratives. The starting p o in t fo r establishing a typology as well as for a historical poetics, is, as we read :
T he recreation o f the g en o ty p e , c o m m o n to the ap o cry p h a l w orks, c o m p o se d o f the differen t n orm s and rules gen eratin g the p o etics o f its particular p h en o ty p ica l rea liza tio n s. T h e su p erord in ate, g en o ty p ic a l norm s that stim u la te the individual c r e a tio n s in clu d e a sso cia ted rules o f varyin g o rig in s that derive co lle c tiv e ly from the m a n n er s o f o rg a n iza tio n su g g ested by bib lical gen res, by so -c a lle d ap och ryp h ae proper (u n d e r sto o d as the m arginal tex ts o f the H o ly Scriptures in their full, co m p lex ,
98 B ook R eview s
h isto rica lly ch a n g in g v ersio n ), by literary (esp ecially o n e s c lo se to h isto r io g r a p h ic fo rm s) an d q u asi-literary c o n v e n tio n s , sh ap ed m ainly by the w ritten an d oral art o f th e church.
T he first grou p o f problem s concerns the general po stu lates for o rd erin g the typology and genology. The drive to separate out a set o f principled and m utually co m parab le w orks is jo in ed to an a tte m p t to m ake uniform o r at least to organize the function ing genre nam es. T he initial view o f Polish apochryp hae ad o p ted , against the back g ro u n d o f the then co n tem p o rary n arrative form s, p ra c ti cally forces the a u th o r to m ake a critical review o f the previously p ro p o se d classifications and term inologies. (This is particu larly the case as regards Julian K rz y żan o w sk ie Rom ans p o lski X V I wieku.) T he final body o f w orks selected, called arb itrarily apo ch ryp hae, includes Rozmyślania p rzem y skie, H istoria trzech kró li (in the Polish version by Jan o f H ildesheim ), Istoryja o św iętym Józefie, Patry- ja rsze Starego Zakonu, H istoryja bardzo cudna. .. o stworzeniu nieba i ziem ie by K. Pussm an, Sprawa chędoga o M ęce Pana Chrystusowej, Ewangelia N ikodem a, Kazania o M aryi Pannie czystej by P aterek, Ż y w o t Pana Jezu K ry sta by B. Opeć, and the recently discovered R ozm yślanie dom inikańskie. The term inology problem s tu rn ed o u t to be unusually com plicated. The a u th o r questions the ap p ro p riaten ess o f som e o f the genre designations (romans) and indicates o th er m ore ap p ro p ria te ones {historia). U ltim ately, how ever, she accepts the existence o f a varied term inology th a t results directly from the im possibility o f giving unam biguo us definitions for this g ro u p o f narrativ e works. Even if “there is no d o u b t th a t in the case o f the w orks concerned we are dealing w ith n arrativ es th at, in the bro a d est sense, m ake biblical plots with the ap o cryp hal tran sm is sions they stim ulated the object o f their tales.”
F u rth e r definitions an d orderings w ithin the area o f Polish ap o cry p h ae are connected with reconstru ction s o f the ap och ry p h a category itself, exam ined in the historical process o f its sem antic changes. The problem o f the ap o chryp hae in ch urch history is not only a variously fo rm ulated op positio n o f canonic and non- -canonic writings. F rom the point o f view o f literatu re the m ost im p o rtan t problem is the b ro ad en in g o f the m eaning o f the concept
ap o c h ry p h a, which a t first (up to the 15th cen tury A. D.)
C o m p te s rendus de livres 99 volum es. Later during the final stages o f the history o f the genre, how ever, the term designated various w ritings stim ulated by the Bible an d extra-canonic w orks (apochrypha proper). M aria A dam czyk views this broaden in g o f the d en o tatio n from m im etic texts sui generis to individual n arrative realizations o f plots from the Bible as the m ost characteristic line ordering Polish narratives. She also arran g es them in accordance with their consciously ad o p ted degree and type o f dependence on the m odel.
T he chap ter “ U nder the Sign o f the Poetics o f Pastiche. Q uasi-canonical B iblical-A pochryphal N arrativ es” presents tw o texts [Historia o św iętym Józefie and H istoryja bardzo cudna) th a t peculiarly fill ou t the biblical transm issions, while respecting the “m an n er of speech” prop er to the “holy do cu m en t.” T hus, they create a skilful 'illusion o f the truthfulness o f the events described. The a u th o r shows the sim ilarities and differences between the m ethods o f “filling o u t” the Scripture used. She also notes a variation , a peculiar develop m ent in the attitu d es o f the text producers, a shift from “tra n s p a re n t” narrative (Istoria o Józefie) to narrative including a com - m entator-exegist role (H istoryja bardzo cudna).
A second line o f developm ent o f the biblical-apocryphal narratives is the resignation from the im itative poetics in favour o f varied n arrativ e construction s stim ulated by the Bible. T he ch ap ter “ In the R ealm o f O pen and Justified M arriages o f C anonic and N o n-C ano nic P lo ts,” which discusses this group o f w orks, has the extrem ely significant subtitle: “Successions o f R egulations o f T ruth an d P ro b a bility in the Process o f Shaping the W orld Presented in the A p o c ry p h al N a rrativ es.” The subtitle underlines the succession o f th e m im etic ap p ro ach o f the au th o rs by a historical ideal o f a strict and cognitive authenticity, the change from the position o f a n a rra to r with a self-im posed function as an inspired m edium for the holy word to one o f a re p o rter o f holy history, responsible for the confirm ed, au th en tic truth.
T he inclusion o f this type o f texts (Rozm yślania p rzem y skie are an exam ple) in the field o f ap o chryphae agrees w ith the b ro ad ening (ab o u t the 12th or 13th centuries) of the definition o f an apo chrypha. Previously, it h ad m ean t a non-canonic Early C hristian text, but now it d enoted texts created w ith the inten tion o f seeking principled details given in the argum ents o f the Bible. The a u th o r (calling
100 B ook R e view s
on the extensive bibliography on the subject an d using the m ost representative exam ples) devotes a great deal o f the ev olution in m eaning of the concept o f apoch ry p h a an d its different axiological character, connected w ith the treatm ent o f the older ap ocry ph al tra n s m issions a principled and authentic “com plem ents” to the scriptural texts.
R eferring to an au th o ritativ e extra-canonical source, u n d ersto o d in this m anner, is the first m ethod for proving the tru th fu ln ess o f the facts described in the narratives under discussion. A n im p o rtan t ele m ent o f the co nstruction o f the arran g em en t o f the p lot, d o n e before the re a d e r’s eyes, is the very consideration o f the tru th fu ln ess o f the m otive or the facts given, as well as the conscious em phasis o f the facultativeness o f certain elem ents o f the plot. A large role in the reco nstructio n o f biblical history by searching fo r in fo rm atio n n ot revealed by the S cripture should be ascribed to attem p ts to specify and to the trad itio n o f presenting the w orld in (the then co n tem p o rary) dim ensions o f historical reality. R eferring to prefigured tru th s, discovering ones “h id d en ” by the Scripture also added to the de ductive style of searching for tru th .
T he final elem ent in the chain o f apocryphal n arrativ es arran ged by the au th o r in a logical order ranging from canonic to pseudo- -canonic texts are the so-called hagiographic legends, such as Historia trzech króli or the history o f M ary ’s paren ts, Joachim and A nna, com piled by Jan o f Koszyczki and M ikołaj o f W ilkow iecko. The lowest degree o f critical verification o f the non-canonic m aterial appears in these w orks, 5nd they also aim m ost clearly for belles- -lettre attractiveness.
T he typological ordering o f Polish ap ochry p h ae allow s the a u th o r to discuss the m orphological structu re o f the p artic u la r types of narrative, to follow the o rganization o f the statem ents, to grasp their com plex “literariness.” In the chap ter on the “types and styles of narrativ e” we rem ain in the realm o f the series o f w orks still subject to typological divisions. F irst, closed com positions, such as Rozmyślania p rzem yskie, th a t aim to m ake a com plete presentatio n o f a New T estam ent history are distinguished. T he detailed analysis o f the narrative structure o f Rozm yślania p rzem yskie reveals the role o f the co m p ilatio n ’s au th o r, the “h o st” o f the w ork, the subject of the creative activities. T he prim acy o f know ledge over the a rt
ex-C o m p te s rendus de livres 101 plains such peculiar structural characteristics o f the text as the plane rendering and lack o f a hierarchy o f the elem ents in the world depicted, the lack o f an ticipation and the ato m izatio n com bined w ith the facultativeness o f places occupied by the separate p a rts of the work.
W orks which resign from a com plete p resen tation o f a history and aim at a m oralizing character, have a totally different type o f n arrative structure. Such w orks (P aterek’s serm on, Sprawa chędoga, Rozm yślania dom inikańskie) co nstructed according to the rules for serm ons, homilies, passion tracts, or m editations, con stitu te a kind o f opposition to the belles-lettre, radically u n ip lan ar n arrativ e co n ti nuity of Rozm yślania przem yskie, although the a u th o r recognizes the g rad atio n o f the contents o f their n arrative potential, as for instance P atere k ’s m arian serm on and the Sprawa chędoga which is closer to folk preaching.
T he range o f apocryphal-biblical narratives subjected to the type o f typological study in M aria A dam czy k ’s b o o k betrays no t only extrem e exam ples such as the m im etic type on the one h an d an d the hagiographie legends on the o th er u ndou btedly are. A series of intervening constructions, a series o f types as well as p articu lar v ariations o f plot-types generated by biblical genres also app ear. M ore over, this type o f scholarly exp loration o f Polish ap o ch ry ph ae by presenting the processes shaping the literary elem ents (broadly u n der stood), the com positional structures, and n arrative techniques and m anners could be a good stim ulant to aw aken the d o rm an t Polish studies of M edieval literature. If the a u th o r wished, it could also be the beginning o f an extensive historical p an o ram a o f the m ultiple m eanings o f the com plex o f phenom ena form ed by the epics stim ulated by the Bible.
Sum . by A d a m K a rp iń sk i T ransi, by John L ee
A l i n a N o w i c k a - J e ż o w a , Madrygały staropolskie (Les Anciennes
madrigaux polonaises), W rocław 1978. C oll.: S tudia S taropolskie (E tu
des sur l’ancienne littératu re polonaise).
Le livre d ’A lina N ow icka-Jeżow a est une étude an alytiqu e consacrée à la lyrique m élique am oureuse au XVIe et au X V IIe siècles. Le
