The nineteenth-century longing for orality – the case of Cyprian Norwid

Abstract

My interest is in the relations among orality, literacy and printing as a subject of Norwid’s reflection, which keeps on appearing in his various texts. The oral tradition is a subject of reflection on what is lost, yet it is something unequivocally positive. Being ambivalent towards writing as he is, Norwid unequivocally negatively views printing. In spite of interesting technical efforts to incorporate oral elements into his texts, he belongs to the culture of the printed press, and he is a literary mind. It is this very tension that often evokes the feeling of being torn apart, and the trouble of being a poet.