Cyprian Norwid’s attitude towards the idea of insurrection – in the light of the state of reserach (translated by Tadeusz Karłowicz)

Abstract

The January Uprising was for Norwid – along with the Revolutions of 1848 (the Spring of Nations) – a sequence of historical events forming his view on politics and history. The poet’s attitude towards the last Polish insurrection in the 19^th century reconstructed by researchers (Adam Krechowiecki, Wiktor Weintraub, Zofia Stefanowska, Jacek Trznadel) is full of contradictions. The article poses the question about their sources. Analysis of Norwid’s poems, letters, as well as of memorials, calendars and articles written by the above mentioned historians of literature, leads to the conclusion that the discrepancies between the interpreters’ opinions result from three factors: the changing attitude of the poet towards the events of 1861-1864 (from enthusiastic support of the Warsaw manifestations preceding the Uprising to growing doubts that were concerned with the way of conducting the struggle and the insurgents’ moral grounds); the writers’ attitude towards the subject, that was determined by the particular historical moment, in which they took up the issue; and thirdly – from the Norwidian concept of historical time.