„Mordujmy się!”. Dekonstrukcja polskiej tożsamości narodowej w Lilli Wenedzie Juliusza Słowackiego i teatralnej recepcji dramatu

The article analyses the concept of Polish national identity in Juliusz Słowacki’s Lilla Weneda. The author argues that Słowacki shows in the drama the genesis of Poles as a nation which came into being as a result of the bloody conquest of the Venedians by the Lechits. By doing that, the poet uses irony to deconstruct Polish identity based on a sense of injustice and marked by unprocessed trauma. In his considerations, he takes into account the theatrical reception of the tragedy, which proves its ambivalent character.