Panowali czy posiadali? Obraz Polski w dziele Erika Gustafa Geijera. Analiza The History of the Swedes .......... 9

DID THEY RULE OR DID THEY OWN? THE IMAGE OF POLAND IN THE WORK OF ERIC GUSTAV GEIJER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE HISTORY OF THE SWEDES

This article analyzes the portrayal of Poland and Poles in The History of the Swedes, a work by the 19th-century Swedish historian Erik Gustaf Geijer. This reconstruction of the portrayal was achieved by examining the author’s judgments and linguistic strategies. The analysis covers passages relating to the years 1587-1653. Three thematic categories were identified in this study: 1. ephemeral – the military face of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; 2. between mission and contempt – the religious face of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; and 3. arrogance and haughtiness – the face of the Polish nation. In the first category – the military one – Poland is portrayed as an ephemeral power. Capable of successes, such as the Dmitriad – yet even that ultimately proved to be short-lived. In Geijer’s general view, Poland is a political entity that is “weak and powerless.” A key linguistic strategy employed by the author in this subsection is a semantic opposition: the Swedes “ruled,” while the Poles “possessed.” The portrayal of Polish weakness is reinforced by the narrative structure – all successes are immediately downplayed. In the second – religious – perspective, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is portrayed as a tool of the Papal States. Poland and the Poles are depicted there as zealots submissively executing the pope’s orders. Geijer employs, among other things, derogatory metaphors such as “barking” and “weeds.” In the third category – the national one – Poles are portrayed as unruly, arrogant, cunning, and devoid of realism. The article argues that the image of Poland and Poles created in the work is, on the whole, deeply negative. This image was achieved through the suitable use of evaluative vocabulary, narrative strategies, and contrasts.