The madman motif in the literature of various periods
The paper is structured as an enumeration with examples and commentary. In his review and typology, the author focuses on presenting the relatively frequent occurrence of the madman motif in the literature of successive socio-cultural formations taking particular account of Romanticism, Modernism and contemporary currents. Part one is an attempt to present a more precise semantic scope of the main category — in the context of existing synonyms. In part two — in addition to presenting in a diachronic manner a deliberately reduced corpus of “model” texts — the author introduces an outline of a polemic with the existing stereotypical image of “creative madness”. The entire research reconnaissance ends with a functional approach with four basic “applications” of the madman motif in literary practice, particularly in Polish literature.