The poetics of revitalization

This book examines the most important works of Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), Poland's national poet. Written to coincide with the bicentennial of his birth, it explores the structures that link the hyperromantic, drama Forefather's Eve, Part 3, the brochure Books of the Polish Nation and Pilgrimage, and the narrative poem Pan Tadeusz. Roman Koropeckyj argues that the works in fact constitute a single "poetics of revitalization" formulated in response to the defeat of the Polish uprising of 1830 and the subsequent dislocation of Poland's political and cultural elite through emigration.