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Preface
tiveareasmarkedbythemilestonesofhisscholarlybooks:Archeologyof
theSublime:StudiesinLate-MedievalEnglishWritings(Katowice1995);
Shakespeare’sPartingWondertales:AStudyoftheElementsoftheTaleof
MagicinWilliamShakespeare’sLatePlays(Łódź2003);andSelectedMe-
dievalandReligiousTemesintheWorksofC.S.LewisandJ.R.R.Tolkien
(Łódź2013).Asidefromthesepublications,hehasauthoredsomeseven-
tyarticlespublishedinPolishandinternationallearnedjournals,aswell
ascollectionsofessays.ParticularlyworthyofnoteisAndrzejWicher’s
translationofTolkien’srenditionoftheGawain-poet’sworksintoEng-
lish.Itwaspublishedin1997asPanGaweniZielonyRycerz,Perła,
KrólOrfeoandremainsanunparalleledexampleofProfessorWicher’s
skillintransposingalliterationandfourteenth-centuryEnglishrhyming
schemesintoPolish,alanguagetowhichtheyareessentiallyalien.
ProfessorWicher’sjourneythroughEnglishliteraturebeganwiththe
fantasticworldsofTolkieninhisworksonTolkienianutopiasandmy-
thologyoftheSilmarillion.Tisgavenaturalrisetoabroaderinterest
intalesofmagicaswellasinfolkandfairytaleswhichAndrzejWicher
studiednotonlyintheworksofTolkien,butincreasinglyalsoinMiddle
Englishliterature,mostnotablyinGeolreyChaucer’sCanterburyTales,
WilliamLangland’sPiersPlowman,andMiddleEnglishromancesand
drama.InthisrelativelyearlyperiodofProfessorWicher’sworkonemay
noticemarksoftheintellectualenvironmentoffriendsandcollaborators
fromthethenInstituteofEnglishPhilology,UniversityofSilesia:what
isdiscerniblethereisadegreeoffascinationwiththeoreticalapproaches
toliterarystudies,whichAndrzejWichersharedwithWojciechKalaga,
TadeuszSławek,TadeuszRachwał,thelateEmanuelPrower,andEwa
Borkowska.YetitisalsoaroundthistimethatProfessorWicher’sinter-
estsintheRenaissancewouldmanifestthemselves,firstinhisresearchof
TomasMore’sUtopia.Severalyearslatertheseinterestsledhimtowards
workingwithShakespeareandrama.BeforeAndrzejWicherbecamepre-
occupiedwithShakespeare,however,hecompletedapioneeringworkon
thecategoryoftheSublimeintheMiddleAges,veryfavourablyreviewed
byoneofthegreatestauthoritiesonChaucerandthefourteenthcen-
tury,PieroBoitani.ArcheologyoftheSublimemaybe,perhaps,considered
aculminationofAndrzejWicher’sresearchtoitsdate(1995)awork