On Norwid’s Underlines, or Reading between the Lines of a Metatext

Abstract

The author deals with Norwid's use of the graphic device of underlining in his texts. She interprets the underlined words or sentences as evidence of the poet's metatextual reflection coupled with an intention to draw the reader's attention to the expressions so marked. Two types of underlines are distinguished:

(1) underlines signalling what Norwid thought  important from the point of view of content or composition (evaluative terms, thematic sentences, points of texts, contrasts or parallelisms, members of definitions, items marking the beginning of a discourse);
(2) underlines signalling what is  different,  ideologically or linguistically alien (ironical citations, allusions, quotations, personifications, words used metalinguistically).

The most important consequence of underlines for interpretation is that they bring in the author's own voice commenting on his text or helping the reader to correctly interpret his intentions.