Miasto śmierci
Town of Death

An Episode from Kraszewski’s Italian Campaign

Summary/Abstract: The article refers to a brief episode connected with Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s trip to Italy contained in his “Kartki z podróży 1858–1864” (“Notes from Travels 1858–1864”), namely to Pompeii. Pompeii was a place of numerous romantic travels which explored the faces of the fall of the civilisation and passing of human achievements. Kraszewski did not make it a secret that it was Pompeii, alongside to monuments of the first centuries of Christianity, that became the central point on the trace of his grand tour. Significant here is the fact that for Kraszewski this type of epistemological behaviour, marked by voracity, makes room for a gesture of choice and a consciously deep reflection which, paradoxically, in a great cemetery seeks for tracks of life and old splendour as well as active creation. Pompeii was a place of numerous romantic travels which explored the faces of the fall of the civilisation and passing of human achievements. Kraszewski did not make it a secret that it was Pompeii, alongside to monuments of the first centuries of Christianity, that became the central point on the trace of his grand tour. Significant here is the fact that for Kraszewski this type of epistemological behaviour, marked by voracity, makes room for a gesture of choice and a consciously deep reflection which, paradoxically, in a great cemetery seeks for tracks of life and old splendour as well as active creation.

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