The decision of the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz to settle for 24 years in Argentina could seem at least eccentric. Born in 1904, he traveled to Argentina in 1939 aboard the ocean liner "Chrobry" ...on its maiden voyage. Surprisingly, at the right moment of his return he decided to get off and stay in the country. There he lived uninterruptedly until 1963, when he finally returned to Europe. He died in France six years later.
Gombrowicz y los clásicos Fernández, Tomás
Orbis tertius : revista de teoría y crítica literaria,
06/2020, Letnik:
25, Številka:
31
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Este artículo se propone abordar la complicada relación de Witold Gombrowicz con la tradición. A tal fin, subrayo el modo en que le resulta funcional subvertir la perspectiva convencional sobre la ...‘vulgaridad’ y las clases populares, comparándolo con un autor que, aparentemente, se halla en sus antípodas: Marcel Proust. Si bien las referencias a autores latinoamericanos son limitadas, este artículo pretende iluminar el rol de la tradición en culturas marginales como la argentina y, subsidiariamente,i poner de manifiesto el problema de la relación entre el autor ‘inmaduro’ argentino y la tradición.
En general, la historiografía literaria ha relacionado al Museo de la Novela de la Eterna de Macedonio Fernández y a Ferdydurke de Witold Gombrowicz de manera espacial (como parte de la producción ...argentina, incluso en el caso del polaco Gombrowicz) y temporal (sus periodos de producción son más o menos coincidentes). No obstante, uno de sus rasgos vinculatorios más importantes y menos estudiados es su inserción en el marco general de la estética de las vanguardias durante la primera mitad del siglo XX. En este sentido, si bien el Museo se tiene por un texto representativo de la novela hispanoamericana de vanguardia, a Ferdydurke no se le considera como parte de esta clasificación. De lo anterior se desprende mi propósito en este trabajo: subrayar que el Museo y la traducción al español de Ferdydurke--hecha por el propio Gombrowicz durante su exilio en Argentina--comparten rasgos contrapuestos al canon novelístico predominante, incluido el de las vanguardias hispanoamericanas, así como proyectos poéticos subversivos y antiformales de corte radical, que reúnen a ambas obras en una convergencia exclusiva con distintas expresiones artísticas de vanguardia, en un intercambio que trasciende cualquier ámbito nacional. Palabras clave: novela hispanoamericana de vanguardia, metaficción, vanguardias históricas, canon, arte abstracto. In general, literary historiography has related Macedonio Fernandez's The Museum of Eterna's Novel and Witold Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke spatially (as part of Argentina's production, even in the case of the Polish Gombrowicz) and temporally (their production periods are more or less coincident). However, one of its most important and least studied linking features is its insertion in the general setting of the avant-garde aesthetics during the first half of the twentieth century. In this sense, although The Museum is considered as a representative text of the Hispanic American avant-garde novel, Ferdydurke is not considered as part of this classification. From the above it follows my purpose in this paper: emphasize that The Museum and the Spanish translation of Ferdydurke--made by Gombrowicz himself during his exile in Argentina--share pitted traits against the prevailing novelistic canon, including the Hispanic American avant-garde movements, as well as antiformal, subversive and radical poetic projects that bring together both works in an exclusive convergence with diverse avant-garde artistic expression, in an exchange that transcends any national level. Key Words: Hispanic American avant-garde novel, metafiction, historic avant-garde, canon, abstract art.
World Literature as Seen in Gombrowicz’s Craft, or Witold Gombrowicz according to Milan Kundera
The article is a reconstruction of the project of “world literature” as presented in Milan Kundera’s ...essays. The writings of Witold Gombrowicz have a special place in Kundera’s conceptualisation (alongside those of Kafka, Musil or Broch), and the argumentation follows commentaries on him. The analyses presented here are concerned with three dimensions of Kundera’s project: historical-literary, theoretical-literary, and interpretative. The last of these is implemented not only by means of interpretative remarks on specific works by selected writers scattered throughout the essays, but also in Kundera’s inspirations and borrowings. The article discusses Kundera’s novel Život je jinde (Life is Elsewhere) as an example of dependence considered in terms of Harold Bloom’s “influence” on the writer.
El escritor polaco Witold Gombrowicz ocupa hoy un lugar paradójico en la literatura argentina. Este libro indaga ese lugar a través de la categoría de lo abyecto, una categoría psicoanalítica, ...política y estética que ilumina tanto la práctica literaria de Gombrowicz como la recepción ambivalente que sufrió en Argentina. Inspirándose en los escritos teóricos de Julia Kristeva, e integrando las elaboraciones teóricas más recientes, este libro evalúa el 'legado argentino' del escritor polaco, y demuestra, al mismo tiempo, el gran potencial interpretativo de lo abyecto como categoría de análisis literario.
En este trabajo, leo el Diario argentino (1968) de Witold Gombrowicz como una exploración de las ideas y personajes de los ‘50 y ‘60 en Argentina que, aunque describe los debates intelectuales de la ...época, se presenta como una alternativa “privada” a la idea de literatura “comprometida” que era hegemónica en los años en los que fue publicado. Propongo que en lugar de confrontar la política, en el Diario argentino Gombrowicz la mira de soslayo, centrándose en los detalles insignificantes que los textos políticos dejan de lado y escapando a las definiciones ideológicas. Esta “mirada de soslayo” que se representa en el texto constituye un mecanismo de distorsión que abre una forma alternativa de concebir, y escribir, sobre la política.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to show the limitations in interdisciplinary interpretation of Witold Gombrowicz’s literary output. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: There has been ...discussed the issue of the legitimacy of reading Gombrowicz’s works from the perspective of political science and sociology. I point out the limitations and dangers related to this direction of interpretation. Although literary works are subject to analysis, they are treated as a kind of record of political and sociological observations. Therefore, the applied methodology uses tools appropriate for both literary studies and social sciences. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The starting point is the statement that the message is ambiguous as a characteristic of the literary output of the author of Ferdydurke. Then, there are vivid examples of over-interpretation and ideologization of Gombrowicz’s work. On this basis, I define certain boundaries within which it is possible to analyze individual pieces in a less risky manner. RESEARCH RESULTS: The non-political character declared by the writer is related to the reluctance to examine the position on political points – but not to restrictively ignore the issues of broadly understood politics. Reading Gombrowicz literally carries too high a risk. It is just as wrong to add an ideological back ground to his works, as well as to read it as a commentary on historical events. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The key to the political and sociological reading of Gombrowicz’s works may be a broad understanding of the political aspect, while seeking the author’s distancing himself from any Form.
Or, to add a Janeite's touchstone to the mix: "Yes, novels … or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, ...the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language" (Northanger Abbey, of course)—except in Bartoszyńska's oeuvre of estrangement, it is in languages teeming with paradox, disjunction, anguish. In this flight through Gombrowicz, with a tiny but pivotal detour through Lyotard (on Wittgenstein), to set up Beckett, Bartoszyńska stakes Form with a capital "F" as "a kind of fiction within reality, defined by language" (111), or "some kind of abstract realm that turns out to be an illumination of forces at work in reality itself" (113), "the sinister physical force of Form," whereby "Józio increasingly submits to Form," leading to "Józio's entrapment in Form" (111). (Coteaching at NYU with the art historian Dipti Khera and tracing her elaborate investigations of the mostly eighteenth-century and startlingly radiant paintings of royal Udaipur have changed my own account of Enlightenment.) In the November 30, 2022 online issue of The Baffler, the novelist Lucy Ives, whose philosophical fictions I teach and admire, champions (like Bartoszyńska) "The Weak Novel" as "an inappropriate, indispensable form." ...weak identification, or even total disidentification, with its own type or genre" is likewise for Ives its most heroic quality, what "rather than being destined for failure, is in fact fundamental for the flourishing of the novel form."
Zapytuje zatem, czy dziejace sie na naszych oczach procesy globalnych transformacji sa odpowiedzialnie nadzorowane, kontrolowane, monitorowane? W ten sposób wpisuje sie na liste takich ludzi, jak ...Evgeny Morozow, Andrew Keen albo Joris Luyendijk, którzy pytaja ostroznie, czy aby na pewno leci z nami pilot (Morozow skupia uwage na ciemnej stronie Internetu, Keen na tym, ze, by sie posluzyc tytulem jego ksiazki, "Internet nie jest zadnym rozwiazaniem", zas Luyendijk na braku odpowiedniej kontroli nad sektorami swiatowego system finansowego, nader podatnego na wstrzasy oraz zalamania). Apple, Google, Verizon, AIG, Heinz, Pepsi, IKEA, Deutsche Bank oraz 340 innymi podmiotami gospodarczymi stwarzajac dla nich raj podatkowy, którego jeszcze nie rozmontowano (w odróznieniu od stopniowego demontazu rajskich warunków korzystania z banków szwajcarskich). Zybertowicz podkresla cos, co od czasów krachu ENRONa oraz przesuniecia sie uwagi swiatowej opinii publicznej z Davos w Szwajcarii na Porto Alegre w Brazylii wymaga uwagi socjologów, mimo ich uwiklania w obsluge wladz politycznych, takze w mediach. Slawomir Magala Erasmus University Rotterdam Uniwersytet Jagiellonski Akademia L. Kozminskiego Rotterdam School of Management, e-mail: smagala@rsm.nl
In 1964, Sudamericana Publishing House printed in Buenos Aires the second edition of the Spanish version of the novel Ferdydurke (1937) by Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. Apparently, it was ...identical to the first publication in Spanish (by Argos Publishing House, Buenos Aires, 1947); however, the text had been extensively revised according to Ernesto Sabato’s indications. Furthermore, a new prologue written by Sabato substituted the previous initials materials. This article documents and explains how this revision, the new prologue, the decision to publish in Sudamericana, and the publicity given to the book were conscious decisions either by Gombrowicz or by Sabato in search of editorial success. Their final goal was to place the novel and its author in a visible and privileged place in the Argentine and Spanish-speaking literary system. The study also focuses on the textual differences between Ferdydurke’s first and second Spanish editions: it tries to explain how and why specific changes were made and the implications of these changes.
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