Mickiewicz’s pretexts, or comments on the margins of archival research

Helena Markowska-Fulara

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A b s t r a k t

The article analyses manuscripts and other archival documents as pre-texts of literary texts, with a view to demonstrating how they may be used most effectively in literary studies. An examination report with questions that Adam Mickiewicz was asked during his diploma examination at Vilnius University is discussed. The author analyses other archival and printed sources as well, trying to reconstruct the desired answers to the questions, and then outlines the benefits of employing such an archival procedure in the analysis of Mickiewicz’s works.