Existential sketches on Mickiewicz by Kazimierz Świegocki: [Review: Kazimierz Świegocki, Mickiewicz egzystencjalny (Mickiewicz the Existentialist), Warsaw Office of the Polish Writers’ Association, Warsaw 2021, pp. 279]

Abstract

Michał Siedlecki reviews the book by Kazimierz Świegocki, entitled: Mickiewicz egzystencjalny (Mickiewicz the Existentialist). Świegocki addressed his work to experts in the works of Adam Mickiewicz. This is not an egalitarian or popular science work. The sketches are erudite. Siedlecki emphasises the fact that the research work of Świegocki
remains an important element in contemporary studies on Mickiewicz. Although it does not resemble a standard dissertation, it is worth focusing our attention on, as it deals with some fundamental issues in the works of the Bard, from the Crimean Sonnets through Dziady (The Forefathers’ Eve) to Pan Tadeusz (Mister Thaddeus), focusing particularly on the last work of the poet listed here. He shows new horizons of interpretation, although sometimes he only completes the previous theses of Polish academics. It is an essayist’s exegesis of Mickiewicz’s works, full of the researcher’s direct reflections.