Podziemia i ruiny w twórczości Adama Asnyka

Abstract

Tlie paper investigates the semantics and the role ofthe image ofthe underground (the depths ofthe earth, grotto, cave, underground maze, groundwater, cities that sank into the ground or were covered with lava) and ruins in conjunction with natural elements (earth, fire, water) in the poetry and epistolography ofAsnyk. Asnyk’s sensitivity to this aspect shows a link with the imaginative tradition ofromanticists. The object of the reflection is a question of how Asnyk uses romanticists’ notions such as descending into the depths of the earth (into the abyss, void, cave), what the nature of darkness of the underground world associated with the abyss presented by Asnyk is as well as ambivalent semantics of the image of ruins, volcanic eruption and the volcanic metaphor. When contrasted with the beneficial light ofthe Sun and brightness of the day, Asnyk’s underground, presented both in letters and poetic transpositions, carries an ambivalent mystery: it raises fear and, at the same time, attracts with a promise of discovering and revealing a treasury hidden in the depths ofthe earth.