Reflective Statement Szymborska IO
This group’s IO was a very well done one. The interactive elements were interesting, unique, and original. Everyone spoke and seemed to know what they were talking about. It was a very informative IO, and especially useful in understand thing mind of Wislawa Szymborska, as she is a poet whose self is not nearly as prevalent or often talked about as August Strindberg or Yukio Mishima’s are. Something very interesting that I noted (though I did not bring it up for discussion) is that both The Sound of Waves and Szymborska’s poetry appear to have been inspired by the after effects of World War II. As an American student, I have had little experience with how the post-war times were handled in countries not mired in a cold war as we were, and I find it intriguing.
Due to not taking into account the actual age of the author, I did not really think about the fact that she might have lived in a Nazi-occupied country during World War II. Without question, it influenced her. As well as the Soviet occupation did. While this might have been hard to infer from the poems we annotated alone, I found it very good that the group showed poems that we did not read that clearly demonstrated how much the war affected her, such as the one about Adolf Hitler. They also provided us with a poem that showed her more emotional side, “The Cat in An Empty Apartment”. I found it to actually be one of my favorite poems by her. This IO has more than anything made me want to look more into Wislawa Szymborska’s works. I truly enjoy them, and in learning more about her and the world that shaped her creativity, I am inclined to explore her works outside of the classroom.
Another interesting thing that became apparent is that Szymborska’s creativity shaped herself as much as she shaped her creativity, evident in her changing views on Communism and desire for freedom of speech.
Word Count: 335
Due to not taking into account the actual age of the author, I did not really think about the fact that she might have lived in a Nazi-occupied country during World War II. Without question, it influenced her. As well as the Soviet occupation did. While this might have been hard to infer from the poems we annotated alone, I found it very good that the group showed poems that we did not read that clearly demonstrated how much the war affected her, such as the one about Adolf Hitler. They also provided us with a poem that showed her more emotional side, “The Cat in An Empty Apartment”. I found it to actually be one of my favorite poems by her. This IO has more than anything made me want to look more into Wislawa Szymborska’s works. I truly enjoy them, and in learning more about her and the world that shaped her creativity, I am inclined to explore her works outside of the classroom.
Another interesting thing that became apparent is that Szymborska’s creativity shaped herself as much as she shaped her creativity, evident in her changing views on Communism and desire for freedom of speech.
Word Count: 335