Gertruda Komorowska – powieść Marii z Chłędowskich Pomezańskiej. Kobiecy wariant historii słynnego mezaliansu

Abstract

The article is a description of an extensive novel by a Galician writer, Maria Pomezańska née Chłędowska, entitled Gertruda Komorowska and published in 1853 in Lviv. The analysis is based on a few issues. Firstly, the sources determining a particular variant of the story of the marriage between Szczęsny Potocki and Gertruda Komorowska and the crime committed against a young woman. Secondly, the way the heroes were created and their mutual emotional and psychological relationships. Thirdly, the motivations that prompted the writer to deal with the topic which was already known and described in literature at that time. The article leads to the conclusion that Pomezańska’s work refers to women’s historical anecdotes of the 18th and 19th centuries, but its goals are essentially feminist, also because the past is used to build a kind of female supplement to official history. Its widely known canvas was filled with the voice of women, overlooked or marginalized by male writers.