Вірування слов’ян у вибраних текстах «української школи»: теологічний дуалізм у «Марії»

Kaźmierczyk, Z. (2025). Wierzenia ludowe Słowian w wybranych tekstach szkoły ukraińskiej: dualizm teologiczny w Marii. Polish Studies of Kyiv, 41, 568–579. https://doi.org/10.17721/psk.2025.41.568-579

The article presents the theological dualism of God and the Devil as the structural framework of Slavic legends, folktales, and oral traditions. It refers to Mykhailo Drahomanov’s claim that such dualism constitutes a defining criterion of the Slavic myth. The author identifies its Zoroastrian provenance, drawing on the works of Ryszard Tomicki and Mircea Eliade. He demonstrates that the Proto-Slavic theological dualism provides the mythical foundation of the world depicted by Malczewski in “Maria”. He proves that this theological dualism – recognized, among others, by Drahomanov as a hallmark of the Slavic myth – implies cosmological and anthropological dualism within this poetic novel. Furthermore, he reveals that in the steppe, envisioned as a theatrum mundi, a struggle unfolds between radically opposed (binary) principles of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Life and Death, a struggle whose outcome is the engulfing of Light, Good, and Life by Darkness, Evil, and Death. He also shows that evangelical soteriology undergoes inversion in the visionary novel under the influence of residual folk religiosity: the symbolism of salvation is transformed into a symbolism of earthly annihilation. In Malczewski’s Maria, the absence of Christian psychomachia—the moral struggle for salvation—
reveals the dominance of a chthonic, fatalistic worldview. The poem’s characters, such as Wojewoda, Pacholę, and Wacław, function as vessels of evil, death, and despair. Wacław’s inner fall, his abrupt transformation into a Byronic avenger, and his revolt against divine justice signal the collapse of the moral order and the triumph of metaphysical rebellion. The world of Maria becomes a demonic realm abandoned by Deus otiosus, where all life and meaning fade. The author recognizes in Malczewski’s work a hope rooted in Maria’s projective religiosity and in her yearning for liberation from the penitentiary order of the steppe – of the world – of the universe – which arises from a longing for another land beneath a different sky.