„Norwida wywyższenie tradycji” 1 a jej postmodernistyczna relatywizacja

Abstract

Norwid’s affirmative attitude to tradition is fundamentally different from the post-modern ideologies, which only superficially approve of the past and its heritage. Postmodernism, which is post-historical in its nature, essentially undermines tradition by relativizing it. Meanwhile, according to Norwid, tradition is a universal repository of objective values, not just a collection of irrelevant quotations. The poet accepts and emphasizes the objectivity of the tradition, its transcendent source, its integrity and continuity and – unlike postmodernists who relativize and deconstruct tradition – detaches it from any transcendence and sets it in a mocking atmosphere of the carnival. In Norwid’s theory of axiological culture, tradition and progress condition each other and are inextricably linked. Relativistic culture of taste, in fact, antagonizes them. However, this does not protect tradition from being secondary, exhausted or dealing just with “leftovers”.