Artist of the Month
Witold Gombrowicz is one of the most significant and controversial Polish writers of the 20th century. Benjamin Paloff calls him "probably the most important twentieth-century novelist most Western readers have never heard of" and this opinion reflects both Gombrowicz's genius and the complexity of his experience.
He was born in 1904 in Maloszyce, a small town at the time under the control of the Russian Empire. At the age of 11, his family moved to Warsaw and Gombrowicz attended the most prestigious schools in the capital city of Poland. He was not a particularly diligent student and his eccentricity, acute mind, and a unique sense of humor did not make his school years easy as he never fully assimilated into the conservative education institutions. In 1923, he began studying law at the University of Warsaw and also went to Paris to study philosophy and economics. Gombrowicz, who initially followed his family’s expectations, proved to be incapable of committing himself to the prominent position he could have occupied. After graduation he started an apprenticeship in Warsaw's municipal courts, but at the same time began to write short stories. A few years later, he gave up law and devoted himself entirely to writing.
In 1939, his life became dramatically intertwined with the history of Poland. After the publication of his first writings, including his first and probably most well known novel, Ferdydurke, Gombrowicz was asked to write a series of articles about Argentina. He joined a cruise to Buenos Aires but a few days later the Nazis invaded Poland. The Second World War broke out and Gombrowicz decided to stay in Argentina where he spent the next two decades of his life. His years in Argentina were marked by continuous financial problems and concerns connected with his status as both an expatriate and an émigré writer. Gombrowicz could not accept the conservatism of the Polish community in Argentina and at the same time could not survive without its material support. This bothersome situation inspired his novel Trans-Atlantyk, which introduces a character named Witold Gombrowicz and is written in a narrative style mocking the tradition of the old Polish nobility. The novel ironically and mercilessly portrays the circumstances in which the author found himself.
As Gombrowicz was considered an émigré writer, the publication of his works was banned in Poland. His postwar novels were thus introduced by Institut Littéraire, a Polish publisher in Paris that published such novels as Trans-Atlantyk (1953), Pornografia (1960) and Cosmos (1965), considered to be his best work. Initially critics were puzzled by Gombrowicz's use of a language and style that make his works unique. He was an attentive observer and an honest critic of Polish faults and traditions that were too often blindly followed. His works feature paradoxes and absurdities and he is often discussed as one of the forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. In 1957 the Communist regime briefly lifted its ban on his work and Gombrowicz was finally recognized in his home country. His first novel Ferdydurke was reissued and became an overnight success. The historical context in which it reappeared led to new interpretations that read Ferdydurke as an insightful premonition of totalitarianism. His plays and their stage performances were compared to works of such European giants as Beckett and Ionesco. A new ban in 1958 removed his work from Polish shelves, but not before they gained notice in the West. In 1968 he was considered to be one of the strongest candidates for the Nobel Prize in literature by European critics and intellectuals.
His work has attracted a lot of attention both in Poland and abroad and even today his writings still trouble some readers. In 2007, the then Polish minister of education Roman Giertych, attempted to remove Gombrowicz from the list of required readings for high school students. The minister questioned Gombrowicz's patriotism and the values presented in his books. The idea provoked the fierce opposition of teachers, intellectuals, and, surprisingly to the minister, high school students. Once again, with his bold critique of ignorance and shallow understanding of the surrounding world, Gombrowicz proved to one of the contemporary writers most trenchantly discussing the most painful characteristics of his fellow countrymen that he both deeply scorned and could not escape. He continuosly struggled with Polish traditions and myths. Courageous enough to criticize the history of his own country, he was always fully aware that the same history and tradition shaped his creative literary imagination.
Gombrowicz left Argentina and returned to Western Europe in 1963. He settled in France, where he died in 1969. His three-volume diary, published as Diaries (1953–1966), is one of the most fascinating records of a love-hate relationship one may have with one’s own homeland.
Interesting links on Gombrowicz:
http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_gombrowicz_witold
http://alangullette.com/lit/gombrowicz/
http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article.php?lab=ToHell