Zbigniew Herbert o wstydzie ciała i duszy

Abstract

The feeling of “shame abandonment” by the subject in the poem Wstyd from the volume Rovigo has got a psychological motivation, is an emotion, but its further connotations take on the existential dimension; they concern interpersonal and cultural relations. There is a clear aim in the author’s considerations on shame. It seems to be his willingness to have a close insight into a human being, find out about his/her attitude to values in the contemporary world in which the phenomena of bashfulness and shamlessness are a complex and ambiguous problem. Herbert’s way of thinking about a human body is a kind of orientation tool, an attentive instrument registering sensual emotions for the existing internal “I”. The lack of respect for body equals disregard for the human being and his/her internal value.