O pewnej artystycznej „inicjatywie kresowej” („Litwini” Placyda Jankowskiego i Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego)

Abstrakt

A “borderland initiative” mentioned in the title of the article was an artistic undertaking of Placyd Jankowski in the “Sankt Petersburg Weekly” circle in 1842. The intended outcome of this undertaking was to consist in editing an almanac of physiology (based on the paradigme of similar English, French, and Belgian editions), presenting profiles of borderland types − regional, denominational, occupational, and ethical. Finally, the monograph entitled Lithuanians was not published. Only one of Jankowski’s essays The Prefekt and His Student was made public, yet this epizod of research in physiology, originally meant for the almanac, left a strong mark on Kraszewski’s literary biography, as a vital enrichment of his creative awareness and his writing skills. It also had a role in reaffirming his borderland orientation and identity. The texts that were originally meant for the almanac were later included in the collections of his writings, such as The Images from Everyday Life and Journeys and Types and Personalities. They form a unique gallery od portraits; the types disitinguished by Kraszewski among the inhabitants of Wołyń and Polesie, depicted with a notable satirical passion and with an apologetical intention. The series of monographs devoted to the nobility types (with the physiology of A Nobleman, a portrait of “the last Christian Borderlands knight”) was especially distinctive for the nineteenth century myth of the Borderlands as an Arcadia fading into the past − a land of harmony, moral order, and values such as religious faith or patriotism.