Adam Mickiewicz wobec "czasów szwedzkich"

The present study starts with some reflections on traditional connotations of the notion of ‘deluge’ in our culture (first of all, the biblical association and the one with the 17lh c. Swedish invasion). Its main part is devoted to the analysis of the semantic field of such notions as: “deluge”, “Noah”, “arc”, and the expression the ‘Swedish times’. The latter was used by Mickiewicz, instead of the notion of the Swedish ‘Deluge’, popularised in Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy. The author’s analysis of such matters leads to the conclusion that both Mickiewicz’s literary works and his other writings (e.g. his lectures in Collège de France) bear witness to his looking at the “Swedish times” from the point of view of religion and politics. Religion, however, was only apparently more important here than politics, in fact religion in his writings seems to be submitted to specific political purposes, primarily to the regaining of the national independence regarded as the highest value.