Mr. Cogito (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Zbigniew Herbert
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Intellectuals, Philosophy or philosophers, Mythology or myths, Power, personal or social, Politics, Europe or Europeans, Courage, World War II, Poetry or poets, Antiheroes, Dreams, Life, philosophy of, Eastern Europe or eastern Europeans, Holocaust, Jewish, Poland or Polish people, Shakespeare, William, or Shakespearean plays, Mind and body
Critical Evaluation:
“Cogito, ergo sum,” wrote René Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.” Mr. Cogito, a twentieth century human being, the citizen of a small European nation, and at least occasionally the alter ego of poet Zbigniew Herbert, does a lot of thinking in this collection of Herbert’s poetry from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Mr. Cogito, not surprisingly, confronts the philosophical problem as to precisely what constitutes the self; what makes up human identity in a world full of others, past and present; where Mr. Cogito ends and where...
[The entire page is 2153 words long]
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