Między piekłem a niebem. Postrzeganie Boskiej Komedii Dantego przez Zygmunta Krasińskiego i Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego

The article analyses the impact of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy on some of the works by two Polish authors: Zygmunt Krasiński (1812-1859) and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812-1887). After a short introduction to the importance of Dante in Polish literature of the 19th century, mostly in The Romantic productions, it takes a metaphorical journey from the canto of Hell to Paradise. Rather than Dante's other works, it was the Divine Comedy which exercised greater influence on the Romantics, especially Hell, which became a forerunner of the Polish reality itself. But where Dante's Hell is identified with the underworld, the Polish Romantics' locus horridus coincides with actual world. Often, the hell portrayed by Polish poets is even more terrible than what Dante described in his visit to the kingdom of the afterworld. Moreover, according to the martyrological view, the Polish reality in those days was not only a place of suffering and tribulation, but also of expiation, which was a preparation for the arrival of paradise on Earth. Therefore, this last certainty foreshadows the future rebirth of Poland, which was expressed through visions and ecstasies in the perfect spirit of Dante's third canto.