The Vertical Context of the Adam Mickiewicz’s Poem «Pan Tadeusz»

Abstract

The article analyzes the vertical context of the poem «Pan Tadeusz» written by the famous Polish writer Adam Mickiewicz. It has been found out that the vertical context of the art work has a traditional semantic structure. It consists of a semantic field of the words with national meanings, which are mostly represented by the Lithuanian and Polish cultural and historical contexts, and the sector of allusion units and nominations, where the highest productivity is typical for allusions, the original source of which is mythology, world history, culture. The units of the vertical context of the poem «Pan Tadeusz» create a semantically rich background for the development of main lines sense: the love story, the life of the rich people, the struggle of Lithuania and Poland for independence. The vertical context by minimum verbal presentation connotes information about historical, cultural events in the life of countries (Poland and Lithuania), contains references to their prominent representatives, describes the peculiarities of the state system, depicts everyday realities (clothes, dishes, transport etc.), names real Polish and Lithuanian onomastic space. If the reader in his thesaurus has knowledge about background information, designated by the units of the vertical context of the poem, he can perceive the semantic structure of the Adam Mickiewicz’s masterpiece «Pan Tadeusz» much deeper and more fully.