Tymon Zaborowski – Peripherality and Regionalism. About a Certain Variant of the Lot of „Mickiewicz Contemporaries”

Abstract

Tymon Zaborowski was a poet belonging to the generation born in the last years of the 18th century, which is now called “the Mickiewicz gen- eration” in subject literature. Zaborowski’s literary awareness took its shape in Krzemieniec. It was formed primarily by the specific atmos- phere and curriculum of the Volhynian Gymnasium and the peer com- munity of the Klub Piśmienniczy. During his stay in Warsaw, Zaborows- ki developed a set of national-regional postulates, as one of the first poets to do so. These postulates were later emphasised by the Romantics. Zab- orowski published his kind of programme manifesto in „Ćwiczenia Naukowe”. In his works, Tymon Zaborowski combined national ele- ments with folklore, presenting his home region, Podole, as an extraor- dinary place that inspires the creation of poetry. It was the Podole region (the “periphery”) and Warsaw (the “centre”) that influenced Zaborows- ki’s lifetime achievement, which he expressed in his way of poetic reali- sation of the Podole variant of regionalism. It was particularly prominent at the last stage of Zaborowski’s creative biography, and it was poetically realised to the fullest in Zdobycie Kijowa and Dumy podolskie. Tymon Zaborowski was a poet of a transitional period, creating his works among several literary movements and many aesthetics, constantly searching for his own way. He was a contemporary of Adam Mickiewicz but his life took a completely different course. Zaborowski lived like a true romantic and committed suicide tormented by amorous dilem-mas.