Enslaved Slavdom
Messianism and Masochism in Mickiewicz
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The stigma of the Slavs as slaves has circulated widely since antiquity. Enslavement has a sexual connotation. Adam Mickiewicz assumed the historical verdict on the slavish nature of the Slavs. He made it the starting point of his deliberations on the disposition of the Slavic people. He lends it new meaning and integrates it into his messianic ideas. This messianism is masochistic. Mickiewicz raises national independence,which Poland had just lost, to political religion.
(Osteuropa 12/2009, pp. 193–212)