ANTI-MICKIEWICZ: DEMOLITION OF POLISH LITERARY IDOLS IN WITOLD GOMBROWICZ’S PROSE

Abstract

The article considers the functioning of Polish national myths based on the images of iconic representatives of Polish literature, in particular Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Józef Ignatius Kraszewski, Boleslaw Prus, in the prose works of Witold Gombrowicz - the novel “Trans-Atlantic” and the memoir series “Diaries”. Gombrovych’s available means of embodying the goal - debunking the Polish national inferiority complex, as well as elements of linguistic and cultural stylisation in the author’s prose works are analysed. Examples of interpretation of figures from the modern and almost modern Gombrowicz literary world, including representatives of Young Poland and the interwar twentieth century, are given.

Currently, there is a widespread view that national identity is a fully constructed phenomenon that lacks, so to speak, existential attachment. In other words, the national allegedly does not exist, although it is considered to exist by those people who are under the spell of the national idea. It is in this sense that national feelings are called myths, that is, myth here means deception of feelings and belief in fairy tales. In fact, the national reality is mythical, but mythical in another sense, in that we give this word after Losev. This can be interpreted as follows: the national living and vital is a synthesis of idea and life, and a synthesis with an element of “alienation”. 

Witold Gombrowicz considered the national myth as a part of Form, which is the main source and one of the most powerful factors limiting personality. In turn, the national myth is a form that prevents individuals from entering a broad cultural context and leads to their conservation in their own, limited environment.