W mazurskiej gęstwinie zakazów i powinności. Uwagi o opowieści Marcina Gerssa "Jest Bóg!"

Macin Gerss’s epic text “Jest Bóg!” is one of the first Mazurian stories written in prose (published in episodes in the “Gazeta Lecka” in 1875). The story on the surface layer indicates the cruel consequences of abolishing certain prohibitions; it is based on simplifications and non–negotiable messages. The narration is formed by the necessity to recognize Christian sacrum, which reveals the tabooed sphere in the Prussian Mazurian culture of the 19th century. What is said is regulated by religious, ethical, local, social, and historically–political taboos. The author in fact counted on the folk target audience, that had to be “enlightened” and distracted from bad beliefs — he was writing in accordance with Lutheranism and regional, religious, historical and geographical identity of Mazurian people, but above all with the Prussian–German raison d’état. Gerss’s tale is therefore an example of the text, in which the taboo is consolidating the power.