Open Access“my body was opened for public view...” The Metaphorising of the Sick Body in the 20th- and 21st-Century Polish Poetry by Women
Author(s) -
Beata Morzyńska-Wrzosek
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
prace literaturoznawcze
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2450-0798
pISSN - 2353-5164
DOI - 10.31648/pl.4721
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , identity (music) , scope (computer science) , poetry , representation (politics) , metaphor , aesthetics , perception , container (type theory) , sociology , function (biology) , gender studies , epistemology , literature , visual arts , art , political science , philosophy , computer science , linguistics , law , engineering , mechanical engineering , evolutionary biology , politics , biology , programming language
This article discusses selected metaphors of the sick body used in the works of Polish femalepoets in the 20th and 21st centuries. The analysis adopts the perspective of anthropological studies andreveals that these metaphors function as a representation of essential aspects of one’s perception and ofan individual’s struggle to redefine their identity in a situation of health loss. The metaphorical expressionof the sick body is most often tangible and refers to the classic image of “a body as a container.”As far as an indicating scope of imaging is concerned, one may find various types of metaphors whichcharacterise issues relating to the acts of breaking body boundaries as well as penetrating it, which is tobe viewed as the confirmation of going beyond the physicality of one’s existence.