Vincentas Ignacas Marevičius: apšvietos literatas Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės visuomenėje

LTMokslo monografijoje aptariama literato Vincento Ignaco Marevičiaus (1755–1822) veikla ir kūryba. Tyrimas atliekamas kaip atvejo studija, siekiant per konkretaus autoriaus gyvenimą ir kūrinius reflektuoti Apšvietos laikotarpio Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės politinius, visuomeninius ir kultūrinius procesus. Marevičius ir jo kūriniai traktuojami kaip savitas ir unikalus šaltinis, kuriame fiksuotos epochos politinės ir socialinės konstrukcijos, bendruomeninės laikotarpio vertybės.

ENThis book focuses on the society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the last decades of the 18th century and the political, social and cultural processes that took place in it, as reflected through the life and works of a particular person. This person is Wincenty Ignacy Marewicz (1755–1822), a poor nobleman and a writer who tried to make a living from his literary activities. Born in Trakai County, he studied in Vilnius and later spent a significant part of his life in the city. He lived in Vilnius at a turning point in the history of the state, when the Four-Year Sejm was held (1788–1792), when the Constitution of May 3rd 1791 was adopted, when the uprising of Tadeusz Kościuszko broke out (1794), and when the suppression of the uprising was followed by the final partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the dissolution of the state (1795). At the same time, it was a time of intense changes in social life, with the creation of modern social institutions, changes in attitudes towards the estates of the realm, the position of women, education, and the role of the artist in the life of the state. Marewicz was an active participant in all these political events and a passionate critic of society and supporter of reforms. Marewicz was one of the first independent writers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to attempt to earn a living from literary activity. For a long time, he had no land and no office, and was not connected to any institution or patron, so writing and selling books became a way for him to secure his material and social status. He was involved in this activity for about 12 years (from 1786 to 1798/1799) and published more than 40 books. The writer’s works were varied: he published collections of poems, comedies, dramas, works of a political nature and works that hardly fit into any genre.The abundance and variety of his work, and the frankness that often crossed the boundaries of intimacy, gave Marewicz a reputation among his contemporaries as a graphomaniac. This reputation followed him after his death, and only in modern times has attention been drawn to the originality of the writer’s work. This research is carried out as a case study, and Marewicz’s works are treated as a distinctive and unique source. The idea of this research is based on the possibility of exploring the life and imagination of the ‘little man’, a poor and ordinary nobleman, to recognise the universal social and political ideals of the epoch. The work of Marewicz, who aspired to participate in the political life of the state and actively manifested his views, is particularly suitable for such an analysis. The book attempts to answer the questions of how the last decades of the state’s life witnessed a change in attitudes towards the nature of human beings, their position in society and the duties and rights they derive from it, and the impact of new ideas in education. The study also attempts to discern what is typical in Marewicz’s works and what individual nuances are given to them by his particular personality. The book is divided into three chapters. The first chapter discusses Marewicz’s activities as a writer, and examines how he treated the profession of writing and the opportunities he had to publish books. The second chapter explores Marewicz’s work as a social critic. It attempts to give insight into the social issues in which the writer was interested, how he understood the structure of society and what role he attributed to himself in it, from the point of view of a member of the nobility, a man of letters and a ‘little man‘, how he was influenced by Enlightenment ideas, the sentimentalist worldview and new pedagogical theories.The third chapter deals with Marewicz’s activities as a citizen. It examines how Marewicz reacted to and treated the political changes in the state, and what images of the state, the king, and the nobility he created. The study concludes that the case of Marewicz’s literary activity can be considered both typical and exceptional in the social life of Enlightenment society. On the one hand, Marewicz was a typical Enlightenment man who sought to be useful to his state and who viewed his literary activity through the prism of its benefit to society. The writer, as is typical for the Enlightenment, believed in the educational power of literature. He treated the publication of texts as a means of publicity, which could become a tool for the betterment of society, a platform for the glorification of the activities of virtuous citizens as well as a platform for teaching useful subjects. On the other hand, writing and publishing books was his main source of livelihood, which was not typical in the literary field of the times. Unlike most writers of his generation, Marewicz did not have a good education. He was probably aware of the limitations of his abilities, but he treated his literary activity as honest work. He never talked about his talent, was modest about his work and declared that he would leave it to the public to judge the value of his work. [...].