The icon of Beethoven in the selected literary interpretations

The article describes various aspects of the 19th-century myth of Beethoven that can be found in selected works of the 19th and 20th century. In literary adaptations, the Beethoven's myth is realised in a very unambiguous way, yet the issue should be treated more broadly. The selected literary works discussed in the article are typical examples of the iconic images of Beethoven although they vary in the aspects of both form and content. The present article uses certain determiners as presented by Irena Poniatowska in her paper The Iconic Image of Beethoven in Polish Poetry. The analysis of specific semantic fields (suffering, overcoming suffering and victory over suffering) suggested by Poniatowska may seem not entirely verifiable, however, the universal aspect of literary interpretations is guaranteed by the expressive ideas concealed in the music and the fragmentation of composition frequently employed by Beethoven. The Beethoven case was an inspiration for creating many different literary representations of an icon. The nostalgic image of ponds in Soplicowo (Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz) is just one of many possible ways of translating a literary text into a particular work of music. Revolutionary phrases by Ujejski (Translations of Beethoven) are a perfect illustration of Beethovenian emphasis related to overcoming suffering. Both examples prove that the 19th-century literary adaptations are more consistent with the overall concept of correspondence of arts (synaesthesia) than any of the 20th century realizations (i.e. Quasi uni fantasia by Teresa Weyssenhoff, Beethoven by Zbigniew Herbert or Beethoven’s Tomb, Niobe by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński) as those focus more on the portrayal of the personage, who experienced both failure and victory, and therefore seem to have more loose connection with specific works of Beethoven.