ROMANTICISM OUTSIDE THE VECTOR OF «INFLUENCE». MODEL OF AMERICAN-POLISH CULTURAL RESONANCE

Abstract

The author of the article considers Polish-American literary and cultural relations from the 18th century till the time of romanticism. He notices that those relations are falling into a model which is impossible to describe by the traditional models that use the category of «influence» [Harald Bloom] or postcolonial dependence. The basis of American-Polish relations is the idea of freedom, fight for freedom and even a peculiar cult of freedom in both nations. The personifications of this common relation are the heroes of fight for freedom in Poland and the United States, namely Kazimierz Pułaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko. As the author notices, studies on these relations lead to the conclusion that stand apart from the dependence relations between historical and cultural phenomena in intercultural relations. Thus, article describes American-Polish relations as a realization of a certain model called «the model of resonance, circulation and transmission» of values, patterns, common ideas.