A STORY OF ETERNAL IMMATURITY – CHILD PSYCHOLOGY IN WITOLD GOMBROWICZ’S WORKS

Abstract

Abstract. The article considers the concept of childishness and the signs of child psychology in the works of Witold Gombrowicz. This concept is a key to the whole philosophical system of the writer, as the vast majority of his works written before and after leaving for Argentina, based on the moral and ethical conflict of maturation and participation of children and adults in this process – in this series are works “Ferdydurke”,”Diary of maturation”,”Marriage”,”Space”,”Pornogr aphy”, “Trans-Atlantic”. The phenomenon of infinite maturation is inextricably linked with Gombrowicz’s conception of Form as a personality-creating factor, but at the same time childishness has a greater ontological force than the imposition of social roles and masks. The analysis of Gombrowicz’s prose and dramatic works makes it possible to crystallize the manifestations of obvious signs of child and adolescent psychology embodied in the behavior of the protagonists. And the fact that most of Gombrowicz’s characters are a symbolic embodiment of the author’s personality only confirms these observations: the state of permanent childhood and the burden of family influence are autobiographical components taken from the author’s personal life and his relationship with his family, especially his mother. Gombrowicz repeatedly wrote about this in his diary, analyzing his status in the family and his mother’s influence on the formation of his personality.