A dispute over the philosophy of clothes. Cyprian Norwid versus Thomas Carlyle

Cyprian Norwid’s attitude to the philosophy of clothes developed by Thomas Carlyle in Sartor Resartus may indeed be perceived only as an object of speculation, but undoubtedly the author of Vade-mecum must have been familiar with him (as confirmed in his lectures on Juliusz Słowacki). This article outlines two areas of potential intertextual crossroads between Norwid’s literary motives and the philosophy of life espoused by the legendary Carlyle: one is delimited by the poem Promethidion and a passage from the dialogue Wiesław, which may constitute a polemic with Carlyle’s sartorial philosophy, while another is delineated by Lord Singelworth’s Secret, where the figure and attitude of Singelworth may reveal the eccentricities of Carlyle himself, which is corroborated after Carlyle’s death in 1881, when Norwid began to write his so-called Italian novelettes.