Samuel Zborowski. Rymkiewicz w zwierciadle Słowackiego / SAMUEL ZBOROWSKI: JAROSŁAW MAREK RYMKIEWICZ VERSUS JULIUSZ SŁOWACKI

This article presents a reading of Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz’s Samuel Zborowski in the context of Juliusz Słowacki’s poetic drama with the same title. The comparison of the two texts is intended to highlight their similarities and differences in their treatment of history and their use of Romantic and our modern episteme. The analysis looks at the following issues: 1/ the subjective perspective which organizes the hermeneutics of the past; 2/ the metaphysical premise which determines the status of the historical reconstruction; 3/ the historical reconstruction itself; and 4/ the nature of the communal project which signposts each writer’s reflection on the course of Polish history. The article argues that Rymkiewicz’s historical essay is an attempt at a reactivation of Romanticism within a postmodern (though with some modernist elements) framework.