| dc.description.abstract | Stanisław Wyspiański's Liberation (1903) is full of literary allusions and this fact
prompts us to consider how important this device is for interpretation of the drama.
Adam Mickiewiczs Forefathers (1820-1832) is the main area of reference for Wyspiańskis
work. This is obvious from the great number of various types of allusions to it
in Liberation. The number is much larger than the number of allusions to works oi
other Polish romantic poets, to William Shakespeares Hamlet, and to ancient Greek
tragedies. The hero of Liberation is one of the most important signals which directs us
toward Mickiewiczs cycle of dramas. His name is Konrad, which is the same as the
name of the hero of the 3rd part of Forefjathers, and Wyspiańskis Konrad utters a lot of
lines which altude to Mickiewiczs work. The meaning oi references to Forefathers in
the speeches of other characters in the play speak is different irom the meaning oi
allusions to them in Konrad's lines. Their allusions to Mickiewiczs poetry - and to
Polish romantics in general - draw attention to issues of the nation's consciousness, and
suggest that the Polish community is "intoxicated” by the romantic tradition. The
allusions to Forefathers in Konrads lines are the evidence of his identity with Mickiewiczs
hero: Wyspiańskis Konrad is simply a new incarnation of Gustaw-Konrad from
the Forefjathers. We could call it a mutual condition, since allusions to Forefjathers in
Konrad's lines help as to recognise him as a character-allusion and the fact that he is
a such a character is an index to the plan of the whole play, making the reader or viewer
seek allusions to Mickiewiczs oeuvre throughout.
This raises the question oi the function of allusions to Forefjathers in Wyspiański's
play. They create an additionał stratum oi the "dialogic” aspect (in Mikhail
Bakhtins sense of the term) of the work. This statement, however, applies to all allusions
(and even to all intertextuality) and we cannot rest content with it. A comprehensive
analysis of Liberation will enable us to situate the device in a general context,
as well as evaluate the particular allusions to Forejathers. We may point to a few
opposiłions that are fundamental for Wyspiańskis play: the realm of reality versus the
realm of art is the most important one. Others derived from it include: a man of action
(warrior) versus a man of art (artist) and action versus gesture. Liberation above all
treats of the tragedy of an artist, a man imprisoned in a magic circle of art, in the
sphere of art. The iniluence of it on the sphere of action appears to be very weak and
ambiguous. With the exception of the main one we can find the other oppositions in
Liberation. For instance, the opposition of the new poetry versus the old is rather
important. Of course, the allusions to Forefathers in part creates this opposition, being
the main link in the chain of "romantic" allusions oi Liberation. These allusions take
also part in creating the opposition between the realm of reality and the realm of art.
They share this role with all other literary reminiscences in Liberation. lt is, we should
say, the most important role of them all.
The question of action versus art was not exceptional in Polish culture of the
very beginning of the 20th century. In literary programmes of the period of so-called
Young Poland (Młoda Polska) an ideology ol action appears at that time. Wyspiański's
Liberation had foreshadowed the offensive of the ideology ol action which begun about
a year after a premiere of the play. | pl_PL |
