Sleep, Dream and the Other world in the Culture — Introduction to the Monograph

The study describes selectively and in draft the motives of sleep, dream and the other world in the
music, the painting, the drama and the movie. Proper deliberations are preceded by the state of researches
including several only essential works, which try to in the deepened way present motives constituting the
object of interest of the current volume. There are especially many examples of references to the leading
motives in the art, beginning from the oldest. The illustrations refer to the Holy Bible but also to the
Mythology and the belle-lettres, creating the concept of dream in the cultural awareness of the following
epochs. The motives of sleep, dream and the other world allow also to cross the barriers of reality in
the drama. To the classic works can be included A Midsummer Night Dream of William Shakespeare,
Life is A Dream of Pedro Calderon de la Barca and also accomplishments of Polish 19th century writers
Adam Mickiewicz (Dziady), Juliusz Słowacki (The Silver Dream of Salomea) and creating at the turn of
the 19th and the 20th century Stanisław Wyspiański (The Wedding). The natural consequence of described
motives’presence in the literature is their transfer to the movie. Sleep, dream were also elements of cultural
offer for children in the literary as well as the form of movie. Another stage of widening fields of
human creativity is creating virtual worlds, parallel to real, in which human can detach from reality, exists
consciously in their dream, composes co-created by themselves the other worlds. The last part constitutes
the review of the issues of works comprised in the monograph.