Spazmy i wapory w literackich kreacjach polskich pisarzy XVIII i XIX wieku

• Published in: Pamiętnik literacki Vol. 112; no. 2; pp. 123 - 142
• Main Author: Mazurkowa, Bożena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Polish
• Published: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk 2021; Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN); The Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences
• Subjects: Language and Literature Studies; spasms; illnesses, Enlightenment; vapours; fashion
• ISSN: 0031-0514; 2719-5376
• DOI: 10.18318/pl.2021.2.9

The study presents the then fashionable among the society’s imagined illnesses of ladies and cavaliers, referred to as spasms and vapours, recorded in the works of the Polish Enlightened authors. Rich in affectation manifestations of the complaints were symptoms of upper classes representative’s lifestyle, and were seen as distinctive customary trait of the epoch and culture of that time. The author gives a succinct description of the modes, stamped with humour, irony or critical distance, of referring to the stylish symptoms found in the pieces composed at the times of Stanisław August Poniatowski and popularised by Wojciech Bogusławski’s comedy “Spazmy modne” (“Stylish spasms,” 1797). She traces the vitality of the motif in question in the 19th century literature, pointing at a continuation of traditional approaches and at the new artistic solutions that provide for transformation of the initial customary phenomenon into a common literary motif that serves to strengthen the theatricalisation of given scenes and exaggeration of protagonists’ behaviours. She also pays attention to the ways spasms are employed to the epic texts to accentuate the dramatic traits of persons’ internal portrait, and their emotional, psychological, and spiritual image.