On the Culture and Perceptual Judgments in the Monographs by Stefania Skwarczyńska. What can we learn from the Romantic Writers?

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the literary image presented in the research by Stefania Skwarczyńska. The conception of the ‘image chains’ [polish: ‘łańcuchy obrazowe’] is analysed in Skwarczyńska’s theoretical works and monographs about J. Słowacki and A. Mickiewicz. The author argues that the Polish theorist’s conception of a literary image is shaped by the impact of two complementary media lines. The first is the meaning of the static and petrified in language formula of culture tradition. The other, is the problem of visual perception. Romanticism is interpreted as a general example of this process in Skwarczyńska’s monographies. The reference of the “isomorphism” notion by R. Arnheim is used to explain how Skwarczyńska’s works present this process of shaping literary image. The artistic categories of a colour and shape and the emotional aspects of poetic language are presented as the predominant problems for Skwarczyńska’s theory. These elementary aspects of poetic language can be interpreted as the phenomena that represents the activity of observation. The author reveals how these selected categories let Skwarczyńska construct the preliminary aspects of the visual problems of contemporary culture. Such theoretical perspectives, as observed in the works of the Polish theorist, results in Romanticism appearing as an example of a new way of seeing which results in aesthetic and perceptual changes in contemporary culture. Thus, Romanticism is shown as the example that leads Skwarczyńska to elaborate on the concept of “applied literature” as well. It shows how her theoretic take is linked to the description of culture changes or non-linguistic perception and the cultural phenomena of the likes of photography and film.