Geniusz i melancholia. Fryderyk Chopin i pedagogika romantyzmu w aspekcie nauk performatywnych Książka jest interdyscyplinarnym studium funkcjonowania wybitnej jednostki w społeczeństwie. Przedmiot rozważań badaczki to z jednej strony sposób konstruowania – czy też performowania – statusu artysty-geniusza, Fryderyka Chopina, z drugiej – teatr jego życia codziennego interpretowany jako praktyka dramatyczna i jej kulisy. Na przykładzie biografii polskiego kompozytora autorka analizuje performans romantyzmu, indywidualizmu, a także performans Chopina jako idei odradzającej się i wieczne trwałej. W obszarze jej zainteresowania znalazły się ponadto koncepty geniuszu, gruźlicy jako metafory epoki, melancholii, wirtuozerii i dandyzmu, a także koncept „wielości romantyzmów” w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku. Badaczka skupia się również na społecznym odbiorze tych pojęć i ich funkcjonowaniu w XIX-wiecznym europejskim kontekście artystycznym. ********* The book is an interdisciplinary study of the way an outstanding individual functions in society. The author explores how the artistic genius of Fryderyk Chopin is structured or performed and how the theatre of his everyday life is interpreted as dramatic practice and its backstage. Using the biography of the Polish composer, the author analyses performance in Romanticism, individualism and Chopin’s performance as a reborn and resurgent idea. Theauthor also explores the notion of genius, tuberculosis as a metaphor of the period, melancholy, virtuosity, dandyism and the “multitude of Romanticisms” in the first half of the 19 th century. She focuses on the social perception of these concepts and their functioning in the 19th century European artistic context.

Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 11 Abbreviations 17 PART I Performance of Romanticism Chopin as a Suffering Melancholic Genius Chapter 1. Performance of the Body 21 Romantic Genius and the Divine Malady 22 Tuberculosis: Its Romantic Metaphors in Popular Culture versus Medical Etiology 25 Fryderyk Chopin – the Suffering Genius – Case Study under a Performative Lens 31 Banishing TB – Internal and External Asylums – Mallorca and Nohant 39 The Many-Faced Disease – Chopin Aut Deus, Aut Daemon 50 Blood and the Uncanny – Chopin, Vampirism, and Romantic Gothicism 54 Water and the Melancholic Victory of Sorrow 59 Le dernier regard aux traits du Grand Maître (KFC II 463): The Exemplary Agony of the Ultimate Romantic Genius 63 Chapter 2. Performance of Spirit 73 Genius, Melancholia, and Inspiration 73 Furor Romanticus – Furor Melancholicus 75 Chopin’s Algorithm of Existential Sorrow – Moja Biéda 80 From Melancholia Generosa to Modern Genius 87 Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae – Some Aspects of the Romantic Genius, le Génie Mélancolique 91 Voir clair dans le ravissement – Chopin the Romantic (Non-)Prophet 96 Romantic Genius and Psychoanalysis – the Concept of Inward Performative Personality and Shame 100 PART II Performance of Individualism Chopin as a Unique Romantic Virtuoso and Dandy Chapter 3. The Virtuoso Performer 111 Towards the Blue Note – Paris of “Pianists, Asses and Virtuosos” 111 Performance on the Verge – Between the Enlightenment and Romanticism: Building the Grounds for Correspondance des Arts 119 Shifting Codes of Representation – the Virtuoso of Caricature and Improvisation 126 The Epiphany of the Virtuoso: Pinpointing the Mystery 132 Microcosme et Microthée: The Piano as the Divine Telegraph and the Instrument of the Nineteenth Century 138 Bel Canto, or the Tubercular Song 145 Tempo Rubato: Towards Celebrityism à Rebours 150 Chapter 4. The Dandy Performer 153 Le Beau Monde – Chopin’s Presence in the Romantic Salons 157 “Playing House” 168 Lucrezia Floriani’s Doll Effect 177 Gender Ambivalence in the Representation of the Genius Dandy 182 Chopin Flâneur? Espaces Imaginaires 189 PART III Chopin as an Idea – An Ongoing Performance: The Afterlife Chapter 5. Multiple Romanticisms 199 Genius Patriae: On Chopin’s Polishness and Cosmopolitanism 200 Romantic Volksgeist – Chopin and the Mythical Slavic Soul 213 Transcendental Chopin – Conversations with God 221 Chopin’s Epistemology – Tere bzdere kuku – Music as Existence 228 Mason without an Apron – Chopin and Freemasonry 232 Chopin the Philistine? In the arms of Biedermeier, “Domesticized Romanticism” 236 Epilogue. In the Shadow of the Romantic Paradigm 241 Chopin’s Afterlife – towards the Chopin Olympics – Apollo and Marsyas 241 Conclusion 245 The Ultimate Artist – Chopin against Philistinism and Performativity 245 Bibliography 249 Index of Persons 271

Koszyk

Genius and Melancholia