“The furrow of fate in the hand”: On the Materialistic Aspect of the Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert

Tomasz GARBOL

Ośrodek Badań nad Literaturą Religijną, Instytut Literaturoznawstwa, Wydział Nauk Humanistycznych, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Poland
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5411-0780

Dorota CHABRAJSKA

Instytut Jana Pawła II, Wydział Filozofii, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin , Poland

Abstract

The article addresses the materialistic aspect of the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert. Herbert studied philosophy under Henryk Elzenberg and was inspired, on the one hand, by Elzenberg’s interpretation of Lucretius’s materialism and, on the other, by the references to Lucretius Elzenberg found in Pascal’s Pensées. The Cartesian motif in Herbert’s works, which recurs most frequently in his reading of Shakespeare and comes to light in the descriptions of the human being who seeks deliverance from the horror of nature by resorting to the sphere of thought, is influenced by the ideas of Bolesław Miciński. The materialistic aspect of Herbert’s output is an important issue for its overall appreciation and is by no means significant merely in the case of works he created during the time of his study of philosophy.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

The article is a result of the research conducted within the project “Literature and Religion: The Challenges of a Secular Age” funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (contract no. NPRH 2ah 15005283). The research results were included also in my study “Zbigniew Herbert: Poezja zobowiązań” [Zbigniew Herbert: A Poetry of Commitment], which is part of Literatura a religia – wyzwania epoki świeckiej [Literature and Religion: The Challenges of the Secular Age],  vol. 2 of Literatura polska po 1945 roku – kierunki, idiomy, paradygmaty [Polish Literature after 1945: The Directions, the Idioms, the Paradigms], edited by Agnieszka Bielak and Łukasz Tischner (Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ: 2020, 189–220).

 

Keywords:

Herbert, materialism, Lucretius, Pascal, Descartes, Shakespeare