Witold Kośny

Adam Mickiewiczs „Konrad Wallenrod“ und Aleksandr Griboedovs „Gore ot uma“

Unlike the well known and often studied personal and literary relationship between Pushkin and Mickiewicz the Polish national poet’s connection with Griboyedov does not belong to the items on the agenda of Slavic research. That may have to do with the fact that in spite of their personal knowledge, of their common friends (Bulgarin, Vyazemsky) and of their popularity in the contemporary literary life of Moscow and Petersburg both poets do not take notice of each other. The article departs from Stefan Chwin’s statement that notwithstanding the lack of a genetic dependence the Polish romantic tale “Konrad Wallenrod” and the Russian neoclassical comedy “Wit from woe” both are typologically connected. Written in a revolutionary atmosphere, they show the psychosocial phenomena of “public conspiracy” (a term borrowed from Mickiewicz’s “Parisian lectures”) from a different point-of-view. The following article shows the problems in relation with Mickiewicz’s stay in Russia and discuss the presumable reasons of the mutual absence of interest and attention. The comparative analysis takes aim to deliver further analogies and differences between both works and the circumstances of their production and reception.