The motif of exile in the poetic consciousness of Adam Mickiewicz and Czeslaw Milosz

The paper focuses on the literary works and essays by Adam Mickiewicz and Czesław Miłosz through the postcolonial (or culture studies) perspective relying on the writings of Edward B. Side, his article Thoughts on Exile in particular. The author also appeals to the hermeneutic insights of George Steiner and Hans-Georg Gadamer. The object of analysis is the messianic text Księgi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego by Adam Mickiewicz and Czesław Miłosz essays Rodzinna Europa (Native Realm), Ziemia Ulro (The Land of Ulro), Szukanie ojczyzny (In Search of a Homeland), Piesek przydrożny (Roadside Dog) and his poetry exploring the motifs of poetic pilgrimage, journey, exile and language viewed as motherland. Although the analysed works belong to different epochs and represent various genres it is still possible to compare them on the basis of the reception of Mickiewicz’s writings in the essays composed by Miłosz; discuss the poetic “kinship” between the two authors in the light of common literary tradition marked by the Catholic cultural memory, the recognition of Mickiewicz as a poetic authority and the embodiment of the poetic prototype in Miłosz’s literary consciousness. The common origin from the Great Duchy of Lithuania serves as a uniting link as well as a close yet not identical approach toward the experience of the exile. In his essays Czesław Miłosz provided his own, i.e. Classicist reception of Mickiewicz’s works which promote the principles of an aesthetic... [to full text