„[…] ciało moje uschło i zżółkło – ale serce żyje!”. Cnotliwi Elizy Orzeszkowej jako powieść o kobiecie-trupie
“[…] My body has withered and turned yellow – but my heart lives!” Cnotliwi by Eliza Orzeszkowa as a Novel about the “Corpse-Woman”

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the motif of the corpse-woman in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s novel Cnotliwi. It begins with an analysis of the complex relationship between the paralyzed Anastazja, her husband August, and the young Wanda, with whom August falls in love and whose feelings are reciprocated. The dynamics between these characters are primarily shaped by Anastazja’s illness and August’s conflicted sense of marital duty. These relationships are further complicated by the language of illness used to describe the characters and the grotesque depiction of Anastazja as a repulsive “corpse” who nonetheless remains alive. The novel engages with literary traditions such as Death and the Maiden, the virgin-corpse, and the Dance of Death, highlighting intersections between eroticism and the macabre, desire and repulsion. At the same time, as this article argues, Cnotliwi offers a distinctive realization of these themes within a positivist framework – at times adhering to the poetics of realism and at others transcending it.

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