W obronie wartości. Metafora pamięci jako śladu w poezji Zbigniewa Herberta

Abstract

Literary reflection, dealing with a problem of memory, characterizes the circumstances of remembering, shows, which content of memory is dominant, how the hierarchies of values are shaped, how memory participates in the process of experience acquisition. It emphasizes the function of narrations, symbols and metaphors. Showing the potential of significance, invoked by memory metaphors, emphasizes their internal mechanism and epistemological aspect. Memory is the main theme of Zbigniew Herbert’s works, it is directly related to a strongly experienced loss and a desire to save, of what has gone, from oblivion. This aspiration is protected by an ethical precept. In the article one type of memory metaphors has been discussed – the one which activates relationship between memory and a trace. In Herbert’s poetry memory issues, illustrated by this metaphor, are developed by the metaphor of a stamp and the metaphor of a scar. Both metaphorical structures indicate the most significant memory functions – recognition and remembering. They compose one of the basic ideas of Zbigniew Herbert’s poetry – define a desire to be faithful to distorted continuity of human history, devaluation of former values, in the situation of painfully experienced loss, emphasize a strive to retain a sense of continuity. Moreover, the process of constructing the metaphor shows new qualities, extends cognition, emphasizes internal mechanisms of memory function, its energy, dynamics and constant movement.