Tekst jest próbą komparatystycznego odczytania niektórych wątków Marmurowego Fauna Nathaniela Hawthorne’a w perspektywie związku konstruowania literackiego romansu z metaforyką rzeźbiarską (z uwzględnieniem takich kategorii, jak: monumentalność, doskonałość, ale i fragmentaryczność, kruchość, zdekomponowanie). Metaforyka związana z rzeźbą podlega w powieści Hawthorne’a przemianom: od nazywania trwałej, autonomicznej i wolnej od przypadkowości idei, po zaakcentowanie jej materialności, która problematyzuje tę doskonałość, bo obnaża swoją czasowość i fragmentaryczność. Jednak to, co szczególnie interesujące w Marmurowym Faunie, to możliwość powiązania tej przemiany ze sposobem konstruowania samej materii romansu (idąc za ustaleniami Emersona, piszącego, że: "rzeźba była niegdyś sposobem pisania").

The text is an attempt at reading some motives of The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the context of combining literary romance structure with sculptural metaphors (including categories such as monumentality, perfection but also fragmentariness, fragility, decomposition). The sculptural metaphor in Hawthorne’s novel undergoes transformations: from the identifying of an artwork which is complete, autonomous and free from fortuity and which is on the side of perfection through accentuating the materiality of the monument which questions the perfection by revealing its temporariness and fragmentation. However, what makes The Marble Faun particularly interesting is the opportunity to link this transformation to the manner of construction of the very matter of the romance (according to Emerson who wrote that "sculpture once was a way of writing").

The subject of refl ection is an attempt at reading some motives of The Marble Faun by Hawthorne in the context of combining literary romance structure with sculptural metaphors (including categories such as monumentality, perfection but also fragmentariness, fragility, decomposition). The sculptural metaphor in Hawthorne’s novel undergoes transformations: from the identifying of an artwork which is complete, autonomous and free from fortuity and which is on the side of perfection through accentuating the materiality of the monument which questions the perfection by revealing its temporariness and fragmentariness. However, what makes Th e Marble Faun particularly interesting is the opportunity to link this transformation to the manner of construction of the very matter of the romance (according to Emmerson who wrote that ‘sculpture once was a way of writing’). The subject of my presentation is a peculiar conception of perfection of sculpture as (in the case of Hawthorne’s novel) a creation in the state of constant development which is suggested through incompletion and apparently treated as a result of the artist’s incompetence. Only openness and potentiality of subsequent sculptural gestures, which can occur when the artwork is not completed, make it a perfect product since it is subordinated to the principle of mimesis and yet declaring its opposition to being ideal. A similar process can be observed at the level of the narrative of Hawthorne’s novel which takes the sculpture metaphor as its basic point of reference. It is from this combination that Hawthorne’s artistic project emerges with its main principle of incompleteness and suspension as guarantors of continuous progress aiming at (but never reaching) perfection perceived as fullness and completeness since these categories eliminate potentiality. In this sense, Hawthorne refers in a peculiar way to sculptural monumentality that gives way to fragmentariness and decomposition of the monument.