World Republic of Letters (Yale)
2 total works
This is the first English translation of Witold Gombrowicz's Diary, the most Polish and the most universal of his works. Gombrowicz (1904-1969), who left Poland at age thirty-five and never returned, whose writings were banned in his own country, has had an impact on Polish literature unlike any of his contemporaries. But he changed more than the image of Polish letters. If literature cannot influence national character, it can at least influence the national image, its understanding and evaluation of itself. That is what Gombrowicz changed: the image and stereotype of the Pole.
A semi-autobiographical, satirical novel that throws into perspective all of Gombrowicz's major literary, philosophical, psychological and social concerns. Throughout the book Gombrowicz ridicules the self-centred pomposity of the Polish community in Argentina.