The Female Persona in Wisława Szymborska’s Poems

Abstract

Wisława Szymborska’s poetry (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1996) has gained wide acclaim not only in her native Poland but also abroad, including the English-speaking countries, where translations of her work have appeared both in book form and in numerous periodicals. Yet the critical response has been largely disappointing. This may be due to the fact that Szymborska’s poetry transcends both patriarchal and feminist categories. It creates models of sensibility and outlook that seem to represent what Julia Kristeva has called “the new generation of women,” with their “mixture of two attitudes—insertion into history and the radical refusal of the subjective limitations imposed by this history’s time.” The article shows how this “avant-garde” attitude manifests itself in various features characteristic of Szymborska’s poetry and its poetics, including the poetic persona, irony, the concept of “the other,” “mirthful pity” and a revalorization of traditional womanhood.