Memories of Dreams

Abstract

Motifs of fantastic images, dreams and daydreams are seldom found in Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s (1812–1887) paintings or drawings, but are quite frequent in his literary work and had a huge impact on the dissemination of the romanticist worldview in culture. In his works, dream is often perceived as a means of communicating future events to the dreamer. On the other hand, dream transfers the dreamer to another, spiritual realm, which is much more varied and richer than “real” life conditioned by concrete daily events. The writer perceived such dreams as events, “happenings”, a more bizarre but happier part of life. Kraszewski’s writings greatly contributed to the Romanticist worldview taking root in art. A Lithuanian translation of his autobiographical short Memories of Dreams is published here. Written when Kraszewski lived in the Omelne manor in Volhynia (today, Lutsk region in Ukraine), the text appeared in the cultural weekly Tygodnik Literacki published in Poznań in 1839.

Translated from Polish by Rūta Janonienė.