Applying the past to the present and making it universal as figures of Norwid’s historical thinking

Abstract

The Author puts Norwid's thinking about history in the context of Romantic historical hermeneutics, pointing to its connections both with Polish tradition (Lelewel, Krasiński, Cieszkowski, Mickiewicz, Słowacki), and with the authors of German historism (Ranke, Droysen), as well as with the post-Romantic realistic historism (Renan, Darwin). He also emphasizes the idiomatic character of the poet's historical reflection, pointing to the fact that he attempted to bring the recognized motifs from the past up to date and to make them universal with respect to the process of the world's evolution inspired by the Christian thought.