Słodki koszmar Baudelaire’a i Norwida o kobietach .......... 59

A SWEET NIGHTMARE OF BAUDELAIRE AND NORWID ABOUT WOMEN

The paper deals with problems of two poets with defining femininity, namely Cyprian Norwid and Charles Baudelaire. I attempt to outline the cultural context and recall personal threads which I consider important for them in creating a model of a desired woman. I base on two poems – Norwid’s The Dream [Sen] and Baudelaire’s The Ideal [L’Idéal] and I try to demonstrate the tensions and differences revealed during the search for the perfect woman. In the case of the Polish artist, the fullness of femininity is realized by the “whole” woman combining temporality and eternity. For the French writer, a perfect woman is represented by femme fatale connected primarily with art. However, both imagined types of women remain the domain of dreams.