Merging images — the need and ways to explore the city in the polish literature of the era of light

Abstract

The subject of the city is one of under-recognised areas of research in the Polish Enlightenment literature. This issue requires a more careful investigation in order to reveal, as far as possible, the overall picture. The purpose of the sketch is to indicate the need for re-examination of the sources and for complementation of the existing knowledge with the image of urban space and communities which inhabits it depicted in the eighteenth century texts. The fi rst part of the considerations recalls the image based on the negation of the city which dominated in the times of king Stanislaus. The second part provides various perspectives on the issue that refl ect a multiplicity of experiences presented in the social, historical, cultural, political, architectural, aesthetic, sensual, as well as anthropological and existential aspect