The Poetry of Wisława Szymborska
by Wojciech Ligęza (Author) ©2019, Monographs, 194 Pages Science, Society & CultureSeries: Cross-Roads, Volume 19
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the entirety of Wisława Szymborska’s poetic oeuvre. The author employs in-depth historical reflection on Szymborska’s beginnings to reveal that – without describing her post-war beginnings and reflecting on her early entanglement in socialist realist newspeak – Szymborska’s mature anti-dogmatic attitude will remain unclear. The book shows how Szymborska’s rhetoric and stylistics – figures of reservation, negation, contradiction, tautology, and repetition – are closely connected with the construction of the poetic world and affect the shape of her messages. After all, Wisława Szymborska is a poet of sophisticated wit, a surprising freedom of expression, and an unusual game with various literary styles, even with colloquial Polish.
Wisława Szymborska – Poetry – Socialist realism – Newspeak – Anti-dogmatic attitude – Reservation – Negation – Contradiction – Tautology – Repetition – Wit – Games with literary styles
Wojciech Ligęza is a Polish professor of literary studies, literary critic, and essayist. Since 1984, he teaches at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. In his work, he focuses on twentieth-century Polish literature at home and abroad, especially the poetry of Wisława Szymborska, Czesław Miłosz, and Zbigniew Herbert.