In the Shadow of the Angel of Destruction. On Norwid's Vision of Europe

Abstract

The article In the Shadow of the Angel of Destruction shows Norwid's vision of Europe in the context of opinions on the Old World which were common in the middle of the XIX-th century, and those close to the catastrophic thought of Oswald Spengler or Ortega y Gasset proclaiming the decline of the West.

When Norwid writes about Europe he always has in his mind its Asian and Mediterranean roots and − at the same time − the European origin of the modern American civilisation. The oppositions of European civilisation vs. Asian barbarity and Europe vs. America, always present in his thought, show all the ambivalence of his vision.

Norwid's works from the beginning of the Revolution of 1848 present a picture of Europe getting reformed. The poet observed all those changes with a curiosity full of hope and with growing anxiety. After the fall of the Revolution his opinions became predominantly critical; this would result in a vision of the end of Europe, compared to the end of the Roman Empire, the biblical deluge and the Apocalypse. Norwid's decision of leaving for the United States was an attempt to set himself free of a Europe he did not accept, and the expression of a belief (similar to that of Chateaubriand, de Tocqueville and Herzen) that old values had been saved in America.

The poet's catastrophic presentiments do not represent absolute catastrophism; there is always an alternative: the vision of Europe saved by the return to the basic values of Christian civilisation. And even if Norwid heaps reproaches upon the Old World, this is beacuse he identifies himself with the tradition of humanitarian, Christian and democratic Europe, united − but also respecting the identity of nations.