(Motiv-)Geschichte der 'aufrechten Haltung' und des 'aufrechten Ganges' in Polen : Ursprünge und moderne Ausprägungen (Volume 31)

Rafael Poloczek

• Publisher: Bamberg University Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9783863096779
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

History (of the Motifs) of 'Upright Posture' and 'Walking Upright' in Poland: Origins and Modern Forms Already early on, the upright posture of the human being aroused the interest of thinkers and poets. In addition to Plato and Ovid, such Western luminaries as Bernhard of Clairvaux, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Johann Gottfried Herder dealt with the subject, to name just a few. In the human being's peculiar form, they all saw a sign of its special place in the cosmic order. Over time, focus also came to be placed on a further physiological property of the human being: walking upright. The essential significance of the latter for the evolution of humans has become clear since at least Charles Darwin.Upright posture and upright gait do not only function as objects of consideration for philosophy and science, however, but also as metaphors. Here, the physical process acquires a symbolic-ethical connotation. The positive connotation of the 'principle of uprightness' in many languages provides an example in this connection. In German, aufrecht is a synonym for respectable, firm, steadfast and is directly related etymologically to aufrichtig or honest/sincere/upright. The metaphorical usage of the expression aufrechter Gang or walking upright reached a status of relevance in the German-speaking countries beginning in the 1970s and soon became a key concept for civil society. Originally a biological term, in its new symbolic significance, 'aufrechter Gang' denotes fearless, committed and principled engagement and action.Whereas 'walking upright' serves as a comparable motif in English, Russian does not have any such motif. This can be correlated in a comprehensible way with the peculiarities of Russian history: the autocratic tendencies that applied here were prejudicial to the development of practical forms of manifestation of 'walking upright' and corresponding metaphorical images. But what about other Slavic countries? Could the motif of 'walking upright' and related images gain a foothold here somewhere? And how pronounced is the practice of 'walking upright' in this region? The present dissertation examined Poland in this respect, and these are its main findings: I. Motifs of 'uprightness' occur in Poland. Four of them should be emphasized: kr?gos?up (moralny) [(moral) backbone], postawa wyprostowana [upright posture/attitude], nauka chodzenia [learning to walk] and i?? wyprostowanym [to walk upright]. Thanks to the last expression, modern Polish works with a metaphorical expression that is analogous to the German imagery of the upright gait (aufrechter Gang, aufrecht gehen).II. The modern Polish images of 'uprightness' are not neologisms or imports, but rather the product of a centuries-long development. This is to say that comparable images and linguistic expressions have been present in Polish literature and the Polish language since their beginnings. Some retained their currency; others underwent further development. In parallel to these linguistic-metaphorical processes, ideological and practical processes played out, in which the idea of 'walking upright' was involved: Thus, one did not only use the vocabulary of 'uprightness', but one also reflected on 'being upright' and put 'walking upright' into practice. An expansion of both levels often occurred, inasmuch as corresponding metaphors served to describe concepts or acts of 'uprightness'. As a result of this long history of continuity, change and interaction, the modern idea of 'walking upright' and its motifs are understood and used in Poland.III. The thesis of the rootedness of 'uprightness' in Poland does not exclude external stimuli. On the contrary: It was precisely such stimuli that were responsible for many of the adjustments that made possible or promoted thought and action in the spirit of 'walking upright' in Poland. These include the connection made to Western Europe's Latin-chivalric tradition, the early contact with Western and, above all, ancient philosophy, and participation in Europe's major cultural currents and historical developments. Many linguistic, thematic and metaphoric borrowings were the result. Accordingly, modern Polish motifs of 'uprightness' are the result of an interplay between external stimuli and internal practical, as well as theoretical, adaptations. The Polish history of 'walking upright' thus represents a chapter in the European history of this phenomenon.IV. Despite their kinship and compatibility, the German and the Polish motif of 'walking upright' are not identical. This does not mean, above all, that the German image is primarily substantival and the Polish primarily functions as a verb (even if variations are possible in both cases). The main difference lies in the semantic content: The German image has a stronger physiological connotation; one connects it reflexively to the (evolutionary) biological act of walking upright. The Polish image provokes, in the first place, associations with walking as a cultural-symbolic act: an act of pride or defiance. The allusions to human biology are, in fact, clearly perceptible in the corresponding passages of the initiator of the German imagery, Ernst Bloch (as they are in the work of his successors as well). This is not the case in the texts of the creator of the Polish equivalent: the poet Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998). Here, the relevant acts have a primarily symbolic character. Apart from the fact that the German motif derives from theoretical texts, whereas the Polish counterpart is taken from poetry, this difference in connotation is to be explained by the fact that the Blochian approach has to be assigned more to the anthropological tradition of Plato, which thematizes the particularity of the human being among earthly creatures, whereas the Herbertian approach follows more the Stoic tradition of Seneca, whose theme is steadfastness in dealing with fellow human beings. One could even suggest that the difference between the images reflects the difference between Polish 'Romantic' and German 'enlightened' culture. This difference does not, however, prevent both motifs from being used to denote identical contents and from their being translatable into one another – which is, in turn, proof of the universality of the 'principle of uprightness'.