Wies3awa Szymborska's main literary
"weapons" are irony and paradox. These allow her to
retain distance and stay moderate towards the subject of her art.
This true either when she writes about human existence in general
or when refers to the phenomena of the contemporary world. A
perfect example of it can be found in "An Opinion on the
Question Pornography". This short text talks about the
freedom of anti-communist opposition. Paradox and irony is also
brought by the variety of literary languages and styles.
Szymborska's parody is never a goal itself. Another of Polish
critic of literature, Ryszard Matuszewski, said of Szymborska:
"Nobody - exept for Herbert - has mastered irony to this
level of fluency and flexibility as she was."
Szymborska often uses self-irony, too. This can be seen in the
poem "Epitaphy" :
"Here lies, oldfashioned as parentheses,
The authoress of verse."
Szymborska's writing is full of wit, too. She
give up the traditional concept of lirical mood and feeling.
These are replaced with joke.We can notice this fact in the
following past of poem "Thomas Mann":
"Dear mermaids, it was bound to happen
Beloved fauns and honorable angels,"
Notice the witty neighbourhood of adjectives
with the words mermaids, fauns, angels. A social convention is
set against a general or moral concept. Her wit lies also in the
meeting between a concept moralty abundant and morally
indiffrent, scientific or fiction one.
Another funny thing is the personification of the evolution, in
the narvinist terms. It becomes a living person with a rich and
unrepeatable character. Her perception of human affairs from the
viewpoint of nature and evolution - science parodied - may bring
a smile to our face, too. In Szymborska's poetry one can find
some serious amusement and amusement with seriousness. The rule
here is the juxtaposition of entirelly diffrent and contradictory
items. That is what Szymborska says about the wit herself:
"The wit for me is the best recomendation of seriousness and
guarantee that it is a seriousness steming from deep conviction
and choice and not psychological limitation". The wit is
obviously not only present in Szymborska's poetry but in her
prose, too. "Optional readings" is a good example here.
Mockery, sarcasm, paradox are most ofte the critical analysis if
the phenomina observed by the author.