Individual Work
Online version of "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa"

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is one of the most important works of Polish and European Enlightment. The novel was written for nearly 25 years at the end of eighteenth and the beginning of nineteenth century. Author, count Jan Potocki, finished The Manuscript Found in Saragossa shortly before he died. He outlined in this picaresque novel biography and adventures of Alfons van Worden, Belgian officer during the Napoleonic wars, who is involved in occult intrigue. This is an example of frame-tale novel, where the characters, one after another, are telling stories. Often heroes of one tale starts next chapter with their own narrations. And the reader follows this story of multiple stories.

Unfortunately, traditional form of book frequently determines type of reading. We are doing it chronological, one chapter after another, with sense of linearity. That was not the point of Potocki's work. His novel shines with multiple narrations, it is, as Bakhtin wrote, pholyphonic set of different voices. And the short story spoken by hero of another narration is equal for main plot. Every single one is as important as the rest of them. Because every single one of them is complete, harmonius piece.

Thanks to capabilities of hypertext in new media, Ha!art Corporation prepared specific version of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. This is an interactive hypertext and the reader is able to see another chapters thanks for hyperlinks. It allows to move around the novel without knowledge about chronological order. The picture of entire Manuscript... depends on the reader and his choices. Thanks for that, voices of characters individualize by themselfs. They are part of the story and the story herself. The book was developed by Marian Pisarski. This online version of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is completely free and avaliable on Ha!art servers. Graphic design is created by Jakub Niedziela.