The World of Insect Metaphors in Zofia Nałkowska’s Dzienniki czasu wojny [Diaries of Wartime]

<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The main aim of the article is an analysis of entomological motifs in the Nałkowska’s wartime diary. The surprising frequency of these motifs gives an opportunity for a more general discussion: the key context for an explanation of insect metaphors seems to be the tendency, common for modernist authors, to place the concept of humanity in a widely un­derstood philosophy of nature. The rule would also apply for the war, or more generally, for mechanisms of human violence, which Nałkowska subjects in her diary to a peculiar darwinistic representation. Understanding the war as a “naturalistic fact” (Hanna Kirchner’s description) results in a gradual blurring of the differences between the violence of nature and the violence of history. The author of the article has identified a similar procedure in Czesław Miłosz’s work, which constitutes a specific counterpoint for Nałkowska’s wartime diary.</span></span>