Published : 2026-07-29

Grand Tour or Cultural Reconquista? Journeys to Southern Europe in the Poetry of Michał Sobol

dr hab. Anna Spólna, prof. URad

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4541-6929

Abstract

This article analyzes Michał Sobol’s poetry on journeys to Southern Europe to demonstrate how literature becomes a tool for reinterpreting cultural identity. Particularly in the cycle Kolekcja from the collection Pulsary, the author plays with the tradition of the Grand Tour, challenging the hierarchical order of civilizations rooted in ancient Greece and Rome. The omission of toponyms transforms the poetic cycle into a collection of meditations on traces of the past in the present. Key metaphors of movement and stillness reinforce an oscillating cognitive dynamic. The subject’s “gaze,” understood sociologically, serves to interpret the places visited and select cultural myths, while phenomenological reduction highlights the paradoxes of cultural transfer. The protagonist, an ironic rebel against global tourism, free of inferiority complexes and postcolonial resentment, defines his own individuality within the framework of a transformed cultural paradigm of European belonging.

Keywords:

Michał Sobol, travel, poetry, cultural transfer, European civilization, identity



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Spólna, A. (2026). Grand Tour or Cultural Reconquista? Journeys to Southern Europe in the Poetry of Michał Sobol. Facta Simonidis, online first 29 lipca 2026. https://doi.org/10.56583/fs.3087

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