The Outfit of a Fashionable Lady in the Mirror of Polish Enlightenment Satire

(on selected examples)

Abstract

The foreign outfit of a fashionable Enlightenment lady, just like a man’s tailcoat, was synonymous with thoughtless imitation of moral patterns foreign to Polish culture. This phenomenon was often criticized in journalistic and literary texts of the time, including satires. In this article, the title problem is presented through the example of three satirical works by Elżbieta Drużbacka, Ignacy Krasicki, and Jan Gorczyczewski. Their different time periods (the prelude, the mature and decline of the Polish Enlightenment) show that the fascination with the culture of the Seine, manifested in the dress of fashionable ladies, was reflected in literature from the end of the Saxon period to the post-Stanislaus era. It is important to not that, as can be seen from the above-mentioned works, the elite ladies also wanted to imitate artistocrats in their dress, behavior and interests, and it was thanks to them that the new culture spread from Warsaw to the provinces. In the opinion of many intellectuals of the time, including writers, the new fashion was a dangerous and socially harmful phenomenon that should be counteracted. Indulgence in luxury, egoism, vanity, laziness, stupidity, thoughtlessness, sometimes recklessness and lack of experience, and more often calculation and excessive ambition is the catalogue of faults most often attributed to fashionable ladies. A scholarly review of these texts confirms that Enlightenment satire was instrumental in perpetuating the stereotypical image of the fashionable lady who places excessive importance on her elegant appearance. From the satirical pen of the authors, a critical reflection always emerges that this snobbish, uncritical pursuit of the French took place without regard to the consequences, not only financial but also cultural.