Italy and Kraszewski − the metaphysics of space

The author focuses on those of Kraszewski’s novels connected with Italy which were written about 1863 when Kraszewski no longer treated Italy as topos. Instead, the country which he had visited many times became a more familiar place sensitizing to reading the signs from the past. From these works there emerges not only a picture of ‘Polish cause’ but more a universal one, related to the changing world in search of a new shape, which the author observed with anxiety. Italy with its ruins telling the story of antique past not only offers a probe into the sense of existence but also helps to grasp the sense and direction of modern transformations. The author portrays this way of looking on Italy, a very specific one yet at the same dependent on the existing literary accounts of the topic, by analyzing the function of the introductory parts of Kraszewski’s works, investigating the language of spatial relations as well as deciphering the metaphorical language (words such as sarcophagus, goblet, conch, shell, pearl, island)