Powieść poetycka wobec autobiografii

The article raises an issue of possible relations between autobiography (comprehended largely, as a way of writing about oneself) and popular romantic literary genre, poetic tale. The analysis of George Byron’s, Adam Mickiewicz’s and Juliusz Słowacki’s works shows that, in spite of various genre connections with autobiographical literary genres, poetic tale functions in early Romanticism as an autobiography of romantic generation. It tells a story about psychic and emotional capacities of human being, but notes added to the text lead the reader to a thesis that this is a story about its author. In Janet Verner Gunn’s terms it means that in poetic tale one can observe an union of three moments essential for autobiography: an autobiographical impulse, autobiographical perspective and autobiographical reaction of a reader.