Szymborska e la prosa

Abstract

The paper aims to define the relationship between Wislawa Szymborska and prose. For Szymborska, a clear-cut distinction between prose and poetry was not to be related to modem literary texts. Szymborska takes advantage of this blurred boundary between literary forms to produce sophisticated “genre” games where seemingly and potentially prose texts as a critical review of a non-existent poem take the shape of a poem related to the review (in prose) Szymborska has written about a popular science text. The paper goes further in examining the two possible adjectival projections of the term “prose”, “prosy”, and “prosaic” in Szymborska’s works. Szymborska’s exploration of the “prosaic” element of life leads the reader of her “Non required readings” to unexpected narrative epiphanies, such as the one stemming out of reflections about the scarcity of palatable vegetables in socialist Poland. The paper stresses that Szymborska’s favourite prose form was the essay and relates how, in her “Non required readings” (and other prose works), she mainly reviewed scientific popularization texts, devoted much attention to the importance of a sound sense of humor, and expressed her deep admiration for such unacknowledged humourists as Thomas Mann, Michel de Montaigne or (probably unwillingly such) Helena Miszkówna.