Sympathy in the Works of Maria Konopnicka – a Category Originating in the Gospel or an Example of a Secularised Attitude to Social Relations

Abstract

The year 2022 has been declared the Year of Maria Konopnicka by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. The celebration of the 180th anniversary of her birth should be an occasion to reread her rich legacy and to look at various aspects of her life. The unique nature of Konopnicka’s work, as well as reductionist attempts to approach her biography, led the authors of this study to find a bridge connecting her life and work with the Gospel message from which she drew inspiration in the category of somatic sympathy. The philosophical category of somatic sympathy (symphysis) has been adopted on theological grounds, and its depth and universal character make it also transferable to literary studies, such as somatopoetics. This article proves that the category of somatic sympathy can be fully understood through the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, and that it is one of the characteristics of Maria Konopnicka’s literary works.

Keywords

• Gospel
• Maria Konopnicka
• secularization
• literature
• somatic sympathy
• sympathy