“Niemcewicz Collection”. Benefits for a scholar of Romantic literature

Abstract

The oeuvre of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz has not yet been editorially integrated. It was for a number of reasons. It is extensive, diverse and scattered. In addition, opinions have weighed on Niemcewicz allowing him to be marginalized in the history of literature. He was seen mainly as an occasional writer, and therefore literarily flawed. He was also seen as a Russophobe, a promoter of ardent but ill-conceived patriotism. Editorial negligence has the effect of making it impossible to recognize Niemcewicz’s position on the map of literary phenomena of the first half of the 19th century. The few editions in which his legacy was partially collected were compiled by nineteenth-century editors. The only later venture is the “Niemcewicz Collection” branded by the Ursynów District Public Library in Warsaw. However, it is a publishing series, not a multi-volume edition in the strict sense. The intention of the initiators of the “Collection” was primarily to make available to readers Niemcewicz’s texts lying in autographs, among them three novels (Władysław Bojomir, Mniemana sierota, czyli obraz czasów and Konstancya, czyliże nieszczęścia występnej zalotności). The original plan has been expanded: there have also been several reprints of publications not revived since the 19^th century, plus two reissues of biographical works devoted to Niemcewicz. The final volume includes the French original and a translation of Notatki o mojej niewoli w Petersburgu w latach 1794, 1795 i 1796.

“The Collection” makes available only a part of Niemcewicz’s legacy, but nevertheless brings considerable cognitive gain. Among other things, it makes it possible to take a fresh look at the theme of prisons popular in the 19^th century, so important to the Polish national imaginary mainly due to the Dziady, part III. Niemcewicz turns out to Mickiewicz’s predecessor as the author of aforementioned Notatki and the novel Władysław Bojomir. He does not, however, use the prison theme – as Mickiewicz later did – for the purpose of creating myths, but for defending the idea of the law-governed state.