THE IMAGE OF SALAMANDER IN EUROPEAN LITERATURES FROM XVII <sup>TH</sup> TO THE FIRST HALF OF XIX <sup>TH</sup> CENTURY AND WORKS OF JAN BARSZCZEWSKI
The question of relationship between European literatures and works of Jan Barszczewski is studied on specific examples. The focus is on the image of Salamander which is avowedly named so in “The Soul is out of its Body” and is hidden under the name of the “spirits of the flame” in the tale under the same title from “Szlachcic Zawalnia or Belarus in fantastic tales”. The source of this image is found in “Comte de Gabalis, or Discourses on the Secret Sciences”, a book by Montfaucon de Villars, a XVII th centuryFrench libertin. After its publication “spirits of the elements” were largely present in European narrative fiction of the XVIII th and the first half of the XIX th century, as its functions and interpretations varied considerably. The common character of the works of Jan Barszczewski and European romantic writers (E.T.A. Hoffmann, V.F. Odoevsky) is pointed out, as all of them depict the poetical machinery of mythic mentality and fabricate on its basis fruits of their own fantasy, borrowed literary images, and the sacred symbol motives from the ends and odds of traditional superstition.