The spaces of Norwid’s Assunta. Some interpretative remarks

This article offers an aspectual analysis of the narrative poem Assunta by Cyprian Norwid. Its first goal is to examine ways of creating space and contrasts (garden / salon; mine / monastery) as well as to link the changes and varieties of space with the protagonist’s course of thoughts. The second aim is to study these spaces in metaphorical sense, i.e. as an intertextual context, primarily in order to compare Norwid’s work with W Szwajcarii [In Switzerland] by Juliusz Słowacki. In a broader perspective it becomes vital, however, to demonstrate how Norwid ingenuously interprets the poem by Słowacki. Incidentally, the article also revisits one question that recurs in many studies, namely that of similarities between Assunta and the Platonic tradition. In this area, the article revises certain claims, demonstrating that the role of Socrates is played not only by the protagonist (in relation to readers) but also by Assunta (in relation to the protagonist).