Ill-mannered poet. Piotr Chmielowski’s opinion on Miron and its consequences

Abstract

Piotr Chmielowski, one of the most important literary critics and historians of the literature of the Positivist period, had an enormous role in shaping the opinion on the literary output of Aleksander Michaux (pen-name Miron). The critic contributed much to strengthen the negative image of the poet by discrediting his works using unfounded and groundless accusations of their non-original character, or by a selective choice of citations aimed to ridicule the author, among others. The accusations forwarded by Chmielowski, mainly those referring to the alleged anachronism or even Miron’s dislike of progress, were simplyichaux reflected well the universal resentment of Positivist critics towards contemporary poets and testified to a particular understanding of the goals of lyric poetry and the principles governing it. Any literary output that did not fulfill the requirements of utilitarianism was supposed to be shunned and removed beyond the mainstream of the Polish literature of the time. The conviction on low artistic merit of the poetic output of the Positivist period, formed as early as the latter half of the nineteenth century, has lingered among a sizeable number of modern readers of literature.