Studia Filologiczne UJK

Summary

In the literature of Polish baroque there was widespread belief in the futility of human body. Its worse particle („cruel vulture of body”) was the source of sin. The body is weak, subordinate to the suffering, is subject to decay after death, it becomes „mass of rottenness”. Human is conceived in a sin, and the moment of conception is an act of arousing disgust. As a worse human particle, the body must be subjected to an ascetic exercises to avoid sinful acts. The human body is presented in scenes using macabrism aesthetics that remained in the service of baroque moralism. There were presented descriptions of human bodies in state of decay to visualize the vanity of life, visions of hell passion. The body had been shown as suffering, plagued by disease, subjected to torture. There was also the topic compassio Christi showing, that compassion with Christ is the positive value, the way to reach Christian perfection. The subject of literary descriptions was tortured body of Christ, presented in a naturalistic way. They were to cause strong, almost sensual empathy, emotional upheaval of the reader.