Self-portrait and a parable of the civilisation : creation of the poet in contemporary Norwid’s dramas

The article concerns the persona of the poet in chosen contemporary dramas by Norwid (Chwila myśli, Noc tysiączna druga, Tyrtej-Za kulisami, Pierścień Wielkiej-Damy). This problem is discussed in the context of romantic poetry’s narcissistic aspects, Norwid’s conception of poetry, Norwid’s painting (a series of self-portraits) and most of all in connection with the writer’s specifi c way of understanding drama - a subject oriented form, refl ecting the self, containing many points of view, serving as carrier of the author’s anthropology, world image and ideology. The creation of the persona of the poet in the analyzed works of Norwid is a continuation of the romantic drama tradition as well as an attempt to see this type of character in a new way. The figure of the poet created by Norwid has distinct autobiographical traits but, at the same time, is the embodiment of modern subject oriented works of literature, aiming at searching for the truth, the wholeness, metaphysical harmony and man as a creative entity. The contemporary dramas of Norwid oscillate between a self-portrait of the author and a parable of the civilization, within which the writer raises his biography to a symbolic level of the last poet of the XIX century, seen in the context of his epoch (the motif of journey plays an important role in the forming of its image) and the basis of his poetical mission, linked with the persons of Tyrteus, Orpheus, Christ and the characters from the Sermon on the Mount