One of the crucial aspects of Zbigniew Herbert's poetry is an effort to define a subjectivity which emerges in encounters with cultural heritage. It takes the form of a reading, which imitates the hermeneutical model, yet distanced from any religious, Christian mode of interpretation. In an attempt to construct the identity of such a subject Herbert's poetic imagination endows representation - similar to the way it is done in the philosophical reflection of Hans Georg Gadamer - with a objective aspect, which bears the ambivalent signature of the Greek god Hermes, both mediator and guardian of sense. Although not free from suspicion of official historical discourses, Herbert's readings are dominated by an objective concept of the written word and exhibit an intense individual effort in discovering its deep senses.
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