Negotiating the modernity in Leszek Dunin Borkowski’s discourses

Kazimierz Wyka called Leszek Dunin Borkowski is the “enfant terrible” of the Galician
society. His entire life (both as an artist and a politician), being an idealistic romantic, he
discoursed on constructing the new social reality understood as accomplishment of a romantic
image of the world and such a need of directing human actions. Borkowski was in
‘the minority’ of his own sphere (Parochialism, 1843), venal writers (Cymbalada, 1845),
religious institutions (Lech’s Prophecies, 1848) and political correctness (The Rakuski Legislative
Seym with Special Attention to the Polish Mission, 1849; The First Slavic Seym in
Lvov 1865–1866 by an Eyewitness, 1884). He was also in ‘the minority’ as a pertinacious
critic of acknowledged authorities (A Little Bit About Stanisław Tarnowski’s Experience
and Contemplations, 1892; Because of the Florian Ziemiałkowski’s Open Letter to Józef Szujski,
1867).