Boginie snów (u) Gérarda de Nervala i Charles’a Nodiera .......... 45

GÉRARD DE NERVAL’S AND CHARLES NODIER’S GODDESSES OF DREAMS

The article is a comparative study of the woman’s extraordinary role in the oneiric dimension of Gérard de Nerval’s Aurelia and Charles Nodier’s Smarra, or the Demons of the Night. The compiling of the similarities and differences in French poetics of the night (especially by the grace of the examples of L’école du désenchantement as Paul Bénichou invented it) reveals the ambiguities and complications of the celestial woman’s image. The author claims that a man enslaved within the universe of dreams, despite his poetical aspirations in controlling the world of visions, seems to be weak and must be punished by goddess of dreams.