In an armor and without a robe – a portrait of Norwid as a nobleman

Abstract

The article gives a critical discussion of Zofia Dambek’s book Cyprian Norwid a tradycje szlacheckie (Cyprian Norwid and the Gentry Traditions) (Poznań 2012), devoted to the references to the culture and traditions of the Polish gentry that can be encountered in the poet’s biography and work. The author gave her attention to the numerous manifestations of relations with the gentry culture that have up till now escaped the attention of researchers, as the author of Vade-mecum is first of all perceived as a forerunner of the Polish intelligentsia. Within the undertaken problem three motifs are distinguished: the family, the gentry and the knightly one, and they are developed in the next parts of the publication. Deliberations about Norwid’s family tradition are the point of departure here, the tradition including the sphere of facts and the legendary layer, with special consideration of the poet’s self-creation efforts; this was supplemented with a search for elements of this tradition in the poet’s works. In the next parts of the book Zofia Dambek decided to stand up to the opposition of two key elements of the gentry culture that is present in Norwid’s work, that is of the gentry tradition that was rejected by the poet, and the knight’s ethos that as a value is situated on the opposite pole. The biographicalself-creating motifs contained in the reviewed publication are especially valuable; supplemented by analyses of nobleman’s motifs in Norwid’s works make up an interesting and variegated portrait of the poet.