tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post5215617541748436425..comments2023-04-05T08:04:07.514-04:00Comments on Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 2009.03.60Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-70036475420432692952009-03-31T15:45:00.000-04:002009-03-31T15:45:00.000-04:00The following comments refer to some statements co...The following comments refer to some statements contained in the review - at the moment I am in no position to ascertain whether these latter statements are dependant on the book or not. Anyway - what I am aiming at is clarifying some points that appear confusing:<BR/>1. I am not entirely certain whether one may describe Sienkiewicz as Polish nationalist - what he was was a conservatist in a society that fought to preserve what was left of its nationality after 1795 (after all, there was no Poland on the map, the country having been divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia). Major intellectuals of the turn of the century: Szujski, Morawski, Tarnowski, Bobrzynski - all of those displayed sentiments vastly similar to those of Sienkiewicz yet to classify them as nationalists seems a major simplification. <BR/>2. What Simon Goldhill does emphasize in his review is Sienkiewicz's Catholicism. Yes, for the major part of the world the novel may appear a piece of Catholic propaganda, soaked as it seems to be in pro-catholic ideology. Yet, what may be important - in the XIXth century Poland Catholicism is considered a part of national heritage, thereby to be extolled and glorified as if loco nationis. Thus, in a manner of speaking: Lygia's Catholicism is important but only because she is an oppressed and yet victorious Catholic, because her unsullied virtue does finally reap its benefits and awards. The moral message is clear for all and sundry, the political message is equally legible to any Pole reading the volume. Should one ask for similar 'heroic' examples in the same period, Morawski's reading of the 'Electra' or 'Antigone' should be enough.<BR/>3. As for Sienkiewicz's obsession with detail and love for ancient world, he is known as a scourge of hellenists (wrote some impressively scathing passages on Greek, the Greeks, and on the need to study Greek, which was hardly his chosen pastime). By the way - I do hope everybody noticed the terrible wild bull of Quo vadis happens to be of German origin? Secondly, it is known that Sienkiewicz was in deep disagreement with his great contemporary, Boleslaw Prus - the quarrel concerned Walter Scott and it is this latter's influence that is of primary influence for the structuring of narration (cfr the works of Franciszek Ziejka).<BR/>4. Any similarity to Victorian heroism is purely accidental - the concept of heroism as present in the Quo vadis is inherited from Polish Romantic poetry, Mesiianistic tendencies of the early XIX century etc. <BR/><BR/>Finally, to provide a glimpse of the milieu that contributed to the creation of Quo vadis, I shall quote the words of Stanislaw Lempicki, commenting on Kazimierz Morawski's interest in the Renaissance culture. The passage, though seemingly foreign to the subject at hand, provides a glimpse of Polish intellectual culture at the turn of the centuries:<BR/>"Morawski fell for the Polish Renaissance with all his heart and soul: for him, the period represented an incarnation of the great, unfailing might of the Polish nation, forces both physical and spiritual. It displayed the splendour and valour which for a Pole oppressed could stand as a source of solace and hope, insipiring him with thoughts of deliverance." ("Kazimierz Morawski jako badacz Odrodzenia w Polsceę Kwartalnik Historyczny 40 (1926), p. 2)Joanna Komorowska (Pedagogical University, Cracow)noreply@blogger.com