The Parallel of Reception. Lelewel and Mickiewicz Reviewed by Literary Critics and Historians

Abstract

The study off ers a comparative discussion of the critical reception of works by Lelevel and Mickiewicz, and refers to both Polish historians and literary scholars. It covers the period from the nineteenth century to the present. On selected examples, the author shows how the two writers, the famous nineteenth century Polish historian and the great Romantic poet, increasingly grow apart; especially, if they once (in the years 1815-1824 at the University of Vilnius) shared a friendly master-disciple bond. The history of Lelevel’s great absence in many aspects seems to be reflected in Hyden White’s Burden of History, which presents how, in European culture, the artist’s and histographer’s paths diverged.