Kłopotliwe dziedzictwo sarmatyzmu. Romantyczni twórcy wobec postaci starosty kaniowskiego Mikołaja Bazylego Potockiego

Abstract

The paper is not only an attempt at reconstructing the literary legend of Mikołaj Potocki, a governor from Kaniów, but also a story about the helplessness of the Polish 19th‑ century writers against the crazy magnate, his legend and Sarmatism, which he represented. Works by Kraszewski, Groza, Grabowski, Jankowski and many other authors, which are dedicated to Mikołaj Potocki, seem to be an interesting testimony of the 19th‑century writers’ struggle with the tradition of their ancestors (not always obvious and accepted). They also make it possible to formulate a thesis about the 19th‑ century retouch of pre‑ Enlightenment noble culture (rejecting cruelty as a component of knightly identity of noble culture and eliminating characters evoking confusion from among the pantheon of ancestors, for example those described as tricksters by anthropologists).