Czarna melancholia Romana Zmorskiego. Rekonesans badawczy

The article is concerned with Roman Zmorski’s dramatic poem Lesław (1847), read in the context of the aesthetics of black melancholy. This reading is validated by the image of Zmorski himself, who, by commentators, is considered to be a person with a melancholic temperament. This essay analyzes the character of the title character, the genius and the cursed, therefore, according to the Aristotelian tradition, condemned to an excess of black bile. For this sole reason, Lesław’s recognition of the world leads only to rebellion and the ultimate negation of life. The article also focuses on the dark-romantic motifs and landscape properties created by the author.