Bezradność. Na marginesach wierszy Szymborskiej

• Authors: Beata Przymuszała

Title variants

EN

Helplessness. on the Margins of Wisława Szymborska’s Poems

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article focuses on the problem of representing helplessness in Szymborska’s poetry, showing various ways of describing this state, as well as its importance for the whole output of the poet. In love poems it is very often presented with the theatrical metaphore “acting oneself”: when nothing can be done at the moment of parting, the poems’ speaker quite often “enters the role” of the former “I”, simultaneously having a feeling of lack of control over what is happening with him/her. Thereby he/she underscores the automaticity (and “artificiality”) of his/her own behaviour. Helplessness is also expressed through enumeration: several specifications, which are expected to cover the feeling of inability to cope with the situation (as in the case of the poem Odzież [Clothes], dedicated to a visit to a doctor, which we are afraid of). The feeling of helplessness, a state difficult to describe, in Szymborska’s texts becomes an important sign of a human codition: imperfect, not always able to cope with challenges. The description of this state reveals simultaneously emotional nature of the poems written by the author of Ludzie na moście [People on the bridge].

Keywords

EN

POLISH POETRY; POETIC EXPRESSION; HELPLESSNESS; WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA

• Journal: Białostockie Studia Literaturoznawcze
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 4
• Pages: 289-302

Contributors

author

Beata Przymuszała

• Publication order reference: dr Beata Przymuszała, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Wydział Filologii Polskiej i Klasycznej, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, ul. Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland