Norwidowska etyka twórcy i jej odbicie w dyskusji nad paradygmatem romantyzmu. Dwie interpretacje / Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s Idea of the Moral Character of the Artist and its Impact on Debates About the Romantic Paradigm: Two Interpretations

Summary This article joins the current debate about the challenges faced by contemporary literary theory by drawing attention to aporias that open up for historians of literature. A case in point is Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s idea of the role of the artist and the function of art and the misrepresented, distorted account of his views that dominate the history of the reception of his work. The article distinguishes two interpretations of the Romantic tradition which coincide with two phases in the reception of Romanticism. The first of them was given shape by the Young Poland movement in the late 19th and early 20th century (most notably by Stanisław Brzozowski), while the other (represented by Agata Bielik-Robson) is a product of our own time, ie. the early 21st century. They are discussed in turn. A critical reappraisal of Young Poland’s understanding of Romanticism is complemented by an examination of Brzozowski’s approach, which is distinctly his own. A hundred years later, Brzozowski is given a key role in Agata Bielik-Robson’s review of the Polish Romantic tradition, and yet her take on it is markedly different from his.