Romantic Dramatic Poem. European and Polish Development of the Genre. An Outline of the Problem

Abstract

This study is an attempt at delineating the line of development of the genre of dramatic poem: in its European and Polish variants. The author explicitly contrasts the esthetic and pragmatic differences connected with the understanding of the notion of poem as a pretext or merely formal genre (Lessing, Norwid) and as a programmatic or even revolutionary genre (Schiller, Byron, Witwicki). It seems that after 1830, two ways of practising poetic drama exist: fragmentary (presented by Musset) and ‘draft-like’ (distinctive especially in the works of Polish minorum gentium writers, such as Michał Chodźko). The author considers the following to be the foundational texts for the genre: Schiller’s Don Carlos and Wallenstein, Lessing’s Nathan the Wise, Byron’s Manfred, Mickiewicz’s
Forefathers’ Eve Part III, Musset’s The Cup and the Lips, Słowacki’s Father Mark, and Madách’s The Tragedy of Man. The above list shows that the dramatic poem is a complex and peculiar genre, not only internally diverse, but also antagonistic (fully confirmed by the individual artistic practice of Witwicki and Norwid).