Analysing the counterpublics addressed in the introduction, the political and aesthetic tenants of Polish Romanticism, which was traditionally understood to fortify the ideals of a ‘nationless’ Poland during Partitions and occupations, inclusive of Soviet-enforced communism, is considered by placing emphasis on the metaphysical and rebellious nature of a national hero. In chapter 1, first conceiving of the modes in which this tradition translates directly into both patterns of thought and national identity in the 1990s and its subsequent dismantlement in the 2000s, this discussion is framed with a focus on the contested and disavowed legacies of the Solidarity movement, a politically charged referent that remains open-ended and thus easily instrumentalized in cultural debates. It is argued that the legacy of the Polish Romantic hero is a figure that must be extremely sensitive to changes in specific historical situations, political constellations and ongoing social metamorphoses, which is not so much a death of tradition, as is laboriously hypothesized, as its realignment.