Hamlet Jerzego Dudy-Gracza w oczach publiczności

Abstract

According to P. Francastel, the sociology of the arts should deal with the comparative analyses of topics and artistic paradigms. This is the main thesis of the study of the reception of The Rustic Hamlet by Jerzy Duda-Gracz. Of course Polish viewers remember Shakespeare’s Hamlet; moreover they recall Hamlet by Wyspiański, Stańczyk by Matejko, and other Polish representations of the thinking or „hamletized” man. The average observer with no education in the arts, who makes a naive presentday interpretation, places The Rustic Hamlet in the context of nature rather than of culture. In such an interpretation Hamlet may be a Polish farmer or a genuine Polish citizen. However, the incongruous preiconic level of the painting complicates any attempt at interpretation. More erudite and sophisticated iconologies can be used to compare Shakespeare’s character and Duda-Gracz’s representation. Educated viewers recall the famous question „to be or not to be”. Such observers are able to consider hamletizing in more abstract terms and are thus able to reconstruct the metaphor.