Gombrowicz the First Post-Colonialist? Cover Image

Първият постколониалист Гомбрович?
Gombrowicz the First Post-Colonialist?

Author(s): Aleksander Fiut
Contributor(s): Georgi Iliev (Translator)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: Gombrowicz; Post-Colonialism; body language; self-creation

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on Witold Gombrowicz’s interpretation of the postcolonial discourse that was taking shape during his years in Argentina. In the Diary he unmasked the ideological foundations of this discourse. On the one hand, he criticized the very simplistic application by some of its participants of the doctrine of communism, which tends to attribute all evil in the world to Western capitalism, particularly practised by the United States, while on the other hand he voiced objections to the Latin American nativism and nationalism, both engendered, in his view, by an inferiority complex. An emphasis on the body language as an interpretational tool in defining the nature of the Latin American identity is a particularly valuable insight on Gombrowicz’s part. Ultimately, he opposed the essence-oriented approach to the question of national character and suggested instead an interpersonalist and activist view which, despite traditional forms and stereotypes, emphasizes the need for continual personal and socially oriented self-recreation.

  • Issue Year: 5/2019
  • Issue No: Special
  • Page Range: 41-49
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Bulgarian