Cyprian Kamil Norwid represented the so-called second generation of the Romantics in the Polish literature. He had a strong sense of generational belonging and was acutely aware of his generation’s distinctiveness (often referred to as the orphan generation, or the lost generation, or the generation whose youth was “turned into despair”). He was an “accursed poet” (
poete maudit), a Baudelaire-like figure, at once an heir to Romanticism and its rebellious critic, an avant-garde artist professing a duality of opinion. His polemics with the patriotic philosophy of Romanticism came down to a critique of the idea of martyrdom, of armed fighting, of sacrifice in general, as well as to a negation of messianism, and a disavowal of the idea of subordinating individual fates to higher…
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Citation: Michulka, Dorota. "Cyprian Norwid". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 July 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12255, accessed 25 November 2024.]
