Between Historical Reality and Poetic Imagination The Space and Time of the 1821 Greek Revolution in Polish Romanticism

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Published: Dec 29, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/historein.23646
Keywords:
Polish Romanticism Greek Uprising
Maria Kalinowska
University of Warsaw
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4546-3450
Abstract

This article is a literary-historical interpretation of the works of the Polish Romantics. Many of the outstanding Polish Romantic writers were fascinated by the 1821 Greek Revolution. Poland had been subjugated since the end of the eighteenth century so the uprising was an important revolutionary model for Poles. The space and time of the poetic vision of the Greek War of Independence in those Romantic texts was of great importance for historiosophical and existential reflection. The Polish Romantics mentioned many different places that were connected with the Greek Revolution, such as Psara, Chios, Jassy, Kleisova islet and Messolongi. The choice to focus on these places, as well as the contexts of their representation, are significant. A variety of interpretations of the Greek War and Greek heritage emerge from these texts, such as the Greek Uprising as an important event integrating the European tradition and as the embodiment of the main existential and political problems of the nineteenth century, as well as the heroic interpretation of the revolution as an ideal to be emulated by enslaved nations. The Polish Romantic texts under discussion contain various poetic images of the space and time of the Greek War of Independence.

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Author Biography
Maria Kalinowska, University of Warsaw

Maria Kalinowska is Professor at the Faculty of Liberal Arts of the University of Warsaw. She is the author of many books on Romanticism, Philhellenism and the Romantic reception of Greek culture and classical antiquity, among them Mowa i milczenie: romantyczne antynomie samotności [Speech and silence: Romantic antinomies of solitude] (1989); Grecja romantyków: Studia nad obrazem Grecji w literaturze romantycznej [Greece of the Romantics: Studies on the image of Greece in romantic literature] (1994); Los, miłość, sacrum: Studia o dramacie romantycznym i jego dwudziestowiecznej recepcji [Fate, love and the sacred: Studies on Romantic drama and its reception in the twentieth century] (2003); Sypałem ziarna maku… Podróż grecka Zbigniewa Herberta [“I sprinkled poppy seeds…”: Zbigniew Herbert’s Greek journey] (2023); and a new edition of Juliusz Słowacki’s Journey to the Holy Land from Naples (2011). She heads the editorial team of a series devoted to philhellenism in Poland (2007, 2012) and one to Sparta in Polish culture (2014, 2015). She is the co-editor of many books, for example: Filhellenizm w Polsce: Rekonesans [Philhellenism in Poland: Reconnaissance], ed. by M. Kalinowska, M. Borowska, J. Ławski, K. Tomaszuk (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2007); Filhellenizm w Polsce: Wybrane tematy [Philhellenism in Poland: Selected themes], ed. by M. Borowska, M. Kalinowska, K. Tomaszuk (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2012); Sparta w kulturze polskiej. Część 1: Model recepcji, spojrzenie europejskie, konteksty greckie [Sparta in Polish culture. Part 1: Reception model, European view, Greek contexts]; Sparta w kulturze polskiej. Część 2: Przekroje, syntezy, konteksty [Sparta in Polish culture. Part 2: Sections, synthesis, contexts], ed. by M. Borowska, M. Kalinowska, J. Speina and K. Tomaszuk (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Sub Lupa, 2014 and 2015); Η Ελλάς των Πολωνών ρομαντικών: Ποιητική ανθολογία, ed. Maria Kalinowska and Paweł Krupka (Athens: Momentum, 2018); Wolność albo śmierć: Polscy filhelleni i powstanie greckie 1821 / Freedom or Death: Polish Philhellenes and the Greek Uprising of 1821, ed. M. Borowska, M. Kalinowska, M. Chilińska (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2021). In 2020 she obtained the Lord Byron Medal from the Society of Hellenism and Philhellenism in Athens.

References
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