SOURCE: “Comparative Aspects in Adam Mickiewicz's Lectures on Slavic Literature,” in Polish Review, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1981, pp. 19-45.

In the following essay Fiszman reviews the lectures Mickiewicz conducted in Paris on Slavic literature, demonstrating that the lectures are informed throughout by Mickiewicz's comparison between the Slavic world and the world of Western Europe.

Comparison between the Slavic world and that of Western Europe constitutes the fundamental comparativist level in Adam Mickiewicz's Paris Lectures. Mickiewicz often reminds his audience that “the object of this course is, above all, to point out the relationships between Slavic and European literatures in order to trace the guiding ideas of these literatures.”² In the very first lecture, Mickiewicz explains and describes this fundamental level of comparison—the Slavic world versus Western Europe. Despite their frequent connections with the West and their willingness to enter into closer relations with it, Slavic nations “are still today...