Category : Plays & Playwrights

Adam Mickiewicz's Forefathers' Eve, Parts II and III. A New English Translation

Price: USD5.99

Buy It from Rakuten Kobo U.S

Adam Mickiewicz’s drama Dziady (Forefather’s Eve) is the highest expression of Polish Romantic literature. Part III, written in Dresden in 1832, expresses the impassioned demands of the Polish nation, partitioned since 1795, for the political independence it had enjoyed since its Baptism in 966. It is the highest, and most important, expression of the Messianic strain of Polish Romanticism, according to which Poland is “the Christ of Europe:” an innocent slain by the repressive, reactionary tyrants of Russia, Prussia and Austria, who, however, will “resurrect” one day to freedom, and bestow freedom upon the persecuted peoples of Europe.Influenced by Lord Byron, Mickiewicz created the shaman-hero Konrad, one of the “great souls” of Romantic creationism and individualism. However, Dziady III are also a critique and rejection of Byronism. In creating the Great Improvisation (scene ii), Mickiewicz strains the heroic possibilities of individualism to its extreme, as we witness Konrad calling out God Himself to a duel. This greatest soliloquy of the Polish stage, coveted by Polish actors as the role of Hamlet is in the English-speaking world, uncovers to our eyes the futility of the individual striving of even the most talented of human redeemers. Instead, Konrad learns at the end of the play that the best and surest way of bettering the world is through concrete acts of charity, which can build a society of love, a communion of individuals, who can one day lead the world to the liberty all deserve as sons and daughters of God.While Part III is undoubtedly the greatest portion of Forefathers’ Eve, it was composed ten years after the appearance of Parts II and IV. In these portions, built around the semi-pagan celebration of departed ancestors, which was practiced in Lithuania during the Halloween-All Souls period, Mickiewicz examines the power and rights of romantic love. The main character, Gustaw, appears as a brooding soul called forth during the celebration to confron

Other products from Rakuten Kobo U.S