A Possibility of a Different Reality: The Hidden Dimension of Gérard de Nerval’s Poetic World
Hanna RATUSZNA
Katedra Edytorstwa i Literatury Polskiej, Instytut Literaturoznawstwa, Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 3, 87-100 Toruń, Poland , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7544-3581
Abstract
Gérard de Nerval is a poet whose work exerted a significant influence on the achievements of Polish modernists. One of the authors who, in creating her fictional world, used a similar narrative method to that applied by Nerval, was Maria Komornicka. What connects the works of the two artists is a melancholic worldview, in which an anamorphic vantage point plays an important role. Characteristic of the 19th-century vision-centeredness, the figure of anamorphosis makes it possible to investigate numerous philosophical contexts, as well as the problems related to the aesthetics of lack and to the “flickering” of the “I.” In the article, an analysis of the anamorphic images included in Nerval’s poem is complemented by a reflection on Komornicka’s work Biesy. The juxtaposition of the texts so removed in terms of the time of their origin makes it possible to grasp the importance of anamorphic imaging in the process of shaping the 20th-century aesthetic discourse.
Keywords:
Gérard de Nerval, Maria Komornicka, anamorphosis, melancholy, El Desdichado, visocentrism, philosophy, literatureKatedra Edytorstwa i Literatury Polskiej, Instytut Literaturoznawstwa, Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 3, 87-100 Toruń, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7544-3581
