Eschatologiczne horyzonty kultury sarmackiej
Eschatological Horizons of Sarmatian Culture

Author(s): Alina Maria Nowicka-Jeżowa
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Sarmatian culture; Eschatology; Baroque literaturę; Death and funeral rites; Catholic doctrine
Summary/Abstract: The article explores the literature of the mature and late Baroque period, reflecting on the collective experience of Catholic doctrines concerning the Last Things (de novissimis) and the value system shaped by them. The first part examines funeral rites (pompa funebris) as spectacles like the Baroque opera, combined visual, musical, and literary elements while demonstrating religious, landowning, and chivalric ideals that unified the noble society. The second part highlights the dual ideological and aesthetic nature of death representations – both in a realistic, even naturalistic, convention and within a metaphysical discourse [in the poetics of metaphysical experience, if you prefer]. The third section focuses on the axiological contexts of meditations on death, illustrating the construction of a value system that bound the Sarmatian community together, as well as its crisis, manifested in collective depression and even nihilism. The article aims to interpret the unique features of Sarmatian culture, characterized by its enduring presence in Polish literature and art.

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