Women in the historical novels of Franciszek Rawita- Gawroński

Abstract

The article analyzes the image of a woman presented in the historical novels of Franciszek Rawita-Gawroński. The typology of images, such as a woman-mother, a woman-martyr, a woman-peasant, a woman-noble, etc., was studied. Particular attention is paid to the description of the inner experiences of the heroines, the evolution of the image from the first pages of the novel to the climactic, sometimes tragic end of their fate is analyzed. The place occupied by the image of a woman in Gawroński's historical novels and in relation to a man in the work is presented.

The purpose of our research was to show what role a woman plays in the historical novels of the Polish writer Rawita-Gawroński and to investigate the types of female images. The theoretical basis was, first of all, the works of Polish researchers, which related to the topic of the study. Among them, Jan Paruch (Paruch, 2012), Danuta Ostaszewska (Ostaszewska, 2001), Małgorzata Karwatowska (Karwatowska, 2009), Tadeusz Bujnicki (2002), Eugeniusz Czaplejewicz (Czaplejewicz, 1996), Renata Łozowska (Łozowska, 2004), Ewa Tierling (Tierling, 1998), Janina Kulczycka-Saloni (Kulczycka-Saloni, 1971), etc. The material for the analysis was the historical novels of Rawita-Gawroński, among others: "Pan hetman Mazepa" (1887), "Na Krasnym Dworze" (1889), "Charcyzy" (1893), "Złotobrody Emir" (1891), "Król i carowa" (1920), "Na kresach" (1886).

Having analyzed the above-mentioned works, we came to the conclusion that the repertoire of female portraits in the historical prose of Franciszek Rawita-Gawroński includes both beautiful girls, heroic mothers, and mothers of manipulators, despots; at the same time, the author's works feature women who are in love with kings and hetmans, those who are loved with or without reciprocity, as well as innocent victims who pay for uncommitted sins, and those who are victims of their own ambitions, and finally, women condemned to death and those who choose death themselves. One cannot complain about the insufficient variety of images of women in Rawita-Gawroński's historical novels, but certain gaps can be noticed in the description of the psychological portraits of the heroines.