Szymborska e le forme di vita. Una diversa comparatistica

Abstract

Delving into the long tradition of how the natural sciences have impacted the formation of comparative literature as a discipline, this article examines the key category of comparison within Polish poetic diction. Wislawa Szymborska’s “poetry of consciousness” occupies a special place here, thematizing the mechanisms and consequences of the human mind’s proclivity for comparano in terms of diverse life forms. The Author’s main focus is two poetic notes bearing the same title (from volumes dated 1962 and 2002) that allow us to read this poetry’s exploration of the biosphere as fertile ground for exploring the possibilities, nature, and limitations of the human search for a common measure, the dialectics of similarity and difference - as key to the practices of comparative literature, in itsjuxtaposition of cultural representations with the findings of the modem natural sciences.