Opowieści spirytystyczne w prozie drugiego pokolenia pozytywistów. (Na przykładzie nowel: On i my Hajoty, Dr Fausta Ostoi oraz Spirytystki Cecylii Walewskiej)

Abstract

The article concerns esoteric interests of the second generation of positivists. In the work of minor writers of the second generation, occult plots appear as a reflex of the 19lh century fascination with mediums. Similar inspirations are documented in the short stories by Hajota (Helena Pajzderska), Ostoja (Józefa Sawicka), and Cecylia Walewska. The characters of the analysed works have extra-sensory abilities which give them a broader perception. As a result, the portrayed world is saturated with spiritualist elements, creating a clear reference to the prevalent fashion for the supernatural. In addition to the spiritualist motifs, gothic inlays also appear situating the discussed short stories between horror romance and weird fiction. It is determined by the construction of the portrayed world, in which the layer of material reality is disturbed by a supernatural element. A similar technique is a stage in the evolution of that kind of prose into the so-called meta-fantastic, internal- fantastic literature. That transformation is expressed in the search for the causes of the supernatural in the psychological (and thus, internal) conditions of man, acknowledged to be a creature which is not entirely understood. Therefore, the inexpressible is contained in the literary character and not in the outside world. However, transgression of the sphere of numi- nosum decides about the defeat of the characters of the short stories, because as those “different ones”, they are doomed to alienation or death. For it is impossible to live in two dimensions at the same time - material and spiritual. The transformation which was happening in the prose of horror at the end of 19th century was the result of not only the inspirations with supernatural phenomena, mediums, or hypnosis, but also with the interest in psychology and physiology of man.