Konfrontacja z imperium: Mickiewiz ("Dziady", cz. III) i Puszkin ("Jeździec miedziany") w perspektywie postkolonialnej

This article deals with the relationship between Puškin and Mickiewcz and focuses on the literary polemic they were engaged in. The paper proposes a rereading of two key texts (Dziady, part III and Miednyj vsadnik) and refers in that respect to the postcolonial concept of “in-betweenness” (Bhabha). The term “in-betweenness” is applied in order to describe the al-ternative positions of the two authors in regard to autocracy: Whereas in Dziady, part III (espe-cially in Ustęp), literary writing contests imperial rule, Puškin’s Miednyj vsadnik responds to Mickiewicz’s severe criticism of Russian autocracy by evoking the mere necessity of auto-cratic rule which is justified by the lack of any alternative force in Russian history. But in both texts the writer’s position is suspended and instable: each text reveals the “in-betweenness” of literary discourse in the face of autocracy.