Life is Ruled by Chance: An Attempt at Reading Zuzanna Ginczanka’s Przypadek [Chance]
Roman BOBRYK
Instytut Językoznawstwa i Literaturoznawstwa, Wydział Nauk Humanistycznych, Uniwersytet w Siedlcach, ul. Żytnia 39, pok. 339, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland , PolandAbstract
The article is an attempt to propose a reading of the poem Przypadek [Chance] by Zuzanna Ginczanka. The piece was written in early 1934 by, at the time, a seventeen-year-old poet. The poem can be read as an instance of philosophical reflection on chance in human life. The fate of both protagonists is indeed determined by sheer chance, i.e., the respective place and time of their birth (one of the girls was born in a rich family, while the other in a poor one). The article focuses on the way the presented world is constructed. The basic compositional principle of the poem is symmetry—each quality of either character, or an event in her life, has its equivalent (an opposite) in the description of the other. The poem can serve as an ultimate proof of the author’s maturity of judgment, her thoroughness of observation and social sensitivity, as well as her poetic skills.
Keywords:
Zuzanna Ginczanka, chance, 20th-century Polish poetry, poeticsInstytut Językoznawstwa i Literaturoznawstwa, Wydział Nauk Humanistycznych, Uniwersytet w Siedlcach, ul. Żytnia 39, pok. 339, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland
