Magia serca i słowa

Grzegorz Igliński
Magia serca i słowa w modernistycznych snach i wizjach

Monografia o związkach literatury i sztuki.

ISBN 83-89100-79-7
Format B5, s. 268, bibliografia, indeks osobowy, Summary in English; wielobarwna wkładka kredowa 8 s.

SPIS TREŚCI

Wprowadzenie:
Duch twórczy i duch przemiany — obrazy, mity, symbole

Część pierwsza:
Boginie i Bóg poety. O wartości kochania i tworzenia 

- Serca upiorny kwiat. Pierwiastek żeński w liryce Tadeusza Micińskiego

- Dwie magiczne noce. Twórcza potęga przyrody a kreacyjność ducha ludzkiego w wierszach Bolesława Leśmiana Przemiany i Srebroń

Część druga:
Faun i błędni rycerze. O podnietach twórczych i losie artysty

- Pocałunek chwili. Faun wśród symbolistów („Popołudnie Fauna”  Stéphanea Mallarmégo a wiersze Paula Verlainea, Arthura Rimbauda i Henri de Régniera)

- Czar fletni. Upojenie dionizyjskie w Żywych kamieniach Wacława Berenta 

Przypisy
Spis ilustracji
Indeks nazw osobowych 
Summary

Magic of the Heart and Word in Modernistic Dreams and Visions 

(Summary)

The leading thought of the paper is the category of creative activism ("magic of creation", the creative element, creative spirit, creative power, creative impetus, creative stimuli, creative exultation and intoxication, creative process) while the object of the analysis are the works by three different representatives of the Young Poland period -- Tadeusz Miciński, Bolesław Leśmian and Wacław Berent. They focus on things that are great and creative in life, they search for the causative power and the sense of creation.

The way in which each of the above-mentioned authors approaches a similar subject is the most interesting. In case of Miciński (the volume W mroku gwiazd [In the darkness of the stars], poems from the novel Nietota and scattered poems) that would be a feminine element taking the form of a lover or a mother. It marks the first stage of the study. In case of Leśmian (Przemiany [Transformations] and Srebroń) the main character faces the nature or nonentity. That situation is the subject of the second stage of the study. Berent (the novel Żywe kamienie [Vivid stones]) goes for the Dionysian element putting representatives of two worlds -- a medieval town (or monastery) as a group of people who are settled, that have Christ for their patron and the area "outside the borders of the monastery" as the space of goliards, traveling singers and students, i.e. the population of people on the way that have the Faun-Pan for their patron, against each other.

That is additionally accompanied by using double symbolism that represents a combination of the antique tradition with the Christian tradition (on one hand the set of symbols associated with the bacchanalia and on the other the symbols related to the Holy Grail). Those contradictions determine the third and last stage of the study. Both the poetry by Miciński and Leśmian and the novel by Berent involve some kind of tension or conflict with widely understood creation. Creation always encounters some kind of resistance, threat, obstacle or antagonistic force, which is inevitable and frequently necessary. 

The subjects of the works require not only going back into the history of literature (e.g. Horace) or history of arts (e.g. Jacek Malczewski) but also to the issues of religions and cultures, philosophies and esthetics. Because of the key motif of Faun-Pan in the novel by Berent, not only modernism (including the poem by Stéphane Mallarmé "L`Après-midi d`un Faune" [The Afternoon of a Faun] as the major work, which was analyzed in a separate essay preceding the study on the novel by Berent in the context of other works by French symbolists using the motif of the Faun, i.e. Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine and Henri de Régnier) but also, out of necessity, positivism anticipating some of the solutions of Young Poland period (Adam Asnyk and Maria Konopnicka) required consideration.

Together, all four essays that form this volume present writers related (consciously or not) to symbolism, and as one symbolism does not equal the other symbolism, the idea is to show so different works as the works by Miciński (mystic or "syncretic" symbolism) on one hand and the texts by Leśmian (existential symbolism) on the other; on one hand the French version of Faun and the Polish version of Faun on the other.  And everything was presented from the point of view of the single issue common for all those authors -- the secret of creativity.

The essays present the characters created by modernistic imagination (that represent either personifications of the creator or are objects of his love and creativity) from the point of view of the symbolism that accompanies them. For example, in case of Miciński those symbols are such symbols-keys as elements of architectural landscape (castles, dungeons, cathedrals, temples, towns), forces and creations of the nature (fire, sea, forests, mountains, rocks), feminine characters -- a mother, a lover, a goddess (Bernice, Ariadna, Diana, Isis, Dalita, Trismegista, Madonna, Beatrix) and mythological characters and motifs (Minotaur, Narcissus, Ananke). In case of Leśmian the symbolism of colors (purple, corn-flower blue, golden, silver, cerulean blue), animals and plants (barley, poppy, deer, porpoise, cock) and fantastic figures (Srebroń) deserve attention. A separate group is formed by the characters from the procession of Dionysus (Faun, Pan, Satyr) and their symbolic attributes or behaviors and gestures (horns, hoofs, wine, cups, flute, dance, upturned finger). In doubtful situations a number of possible interpretations of a given element of imagery or a whole series of elements and the described event were given pointing at the same time at the interpretation that seems the most appropriate.