Słowacki Among Scholars

Abstract

The paper Słowacki Among Scholars is an attempt to look critically at contemporary research concerning Słowacki's work. It presents and assesses scholarly publications ordered according to the following principle: presentation of the successors and continuators of the so-called “Lublin school” of research on romantic literature (Seweryn, Pyczek, Kuczera-Chachulska); and then proving that re-editing old works on Słowacki (Bychowski, Słowacki and His Soul. A psychoanalytic study; Kleiner, Juliusz Słowacki, the History of His Work; Kowalczykowa, Słowacki; Treugutt, Beniowski. The Crisis of the Romantic Individualism) is appropriate. A special stress was has been put on presenting Toszyński's book The King-Spirit Inn. The Diary of Juliusz Słowacki's Last Years and Gacowa's work Juliusz Słowacki. A Bibliography of Polish Literature. A New Korbut. Hence the present treatise assumes a meta-scholarly shape and is a peculiar state of research; however, it focuses only on a quite subjective choice of the presented material. Reading contemporary works on Juliusz Słowacki's works allows the statement that up till now his work has provoked a lot of controversy and polemics. Scholarly investigation most often focuses on Słowacki's mystical works. Also very often it can be noticed that the interpretative plane of Słowacki's literary works is largely influenced by his biography.