Traces of the Literary Works of Juliusz Słowacki in the Early Plays of Karol Wojtyła (Job, Jeremiah)

Abstract

The article concerns two juvenilia plays by Karol Wojtyła, Job and Jeremiah, that were written in 1940. Those works were influenced by the difficult reality of war. The first and primary inspiration for those two dramas was the Bible, as the titles themselves indicate. However, the model of Polish Romanticism also heavily influenced the shape of the poetic world of those works. This article attempts to indicate in Job, as well as in Jeremiah, those thoughts that are close to the Romantic and Messianic historiosophies. It describes, in a synthetic manner, the main noticeable points from Wojtyła’s works that coincide with the motives present in Juliusz Słowacki’s work, especially in the play Father Marek, which started the mystical and genesian period of the Romantic’s literary work. Attention is paid to,

e.g. the genre characteristics of the mystery (which is close to the genre form of the late Baroque mystery, as represented by the works of Calderon). Among those features the following items are mentioned: the composition of the works, the structure of time and space, the creation of images, the rule of the “theatre in the theatre,” and visionariness. In addition, a presentation of the main ideas and creation of the title characters (Job, Jeremiah and Father Marek) is also given in outline.