Źródło "Lawy" Tadeusza Konwickiego
The source of Konwicki’s 'Lava'

Author(s): Przemysław Kaniecki
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 19th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Konwicki; Lava; Mickiewicz; Dziady; Polishness
Summary/Abstract: In the article, the author asks the question of the genesis of the film adaptation of Adam Mickiewicz’s drama 'Dziady', which Tadeusz Konwicki, writer and film director, made at the turn of 1988 and 1989. He points out the links between the film 'Lava' and another work by Konwicki, the novel 'The Polish Complex' (1977), earlier by more than ten years. They are very strong, even though they do not impose themselves on the perception of both works. Their multiplicity distinguishes the relationship between the two works in Konwicki’s oeuvre. Among other things, the author of this article points out three issues. Firstly, like 'Complex', 'Lava' is a work primarily about Polishness, it is the central problem of the work. Secondly, the author discusses Konwicki’s particular attitude as a film director, manifested in the gesture of making the adaptation a faith in its own strength. The motif of such faith appears for the first time precisely in 'Complex'. Thirdly, the motif of a beggar was to appear in the film (we know this from the script), which the director eventually abandoned. This character would have carried exactly the same meanings as the beggar character from 'Complex'. Kaniecki hypothesises that Konwicki started thinking about an adaptation of 'Dziady' precisely when he was writing 'The Polish Complex'.

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