Westin Witold Gombrowicz's
This paper investigates the concept of the West
according to Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969). The West became
mythologized in post-war Polish consciousness at least in two ways: as
a Utopian mine of material goods and/or a site of
democracy. Gombrowicz examines this curious reification of the
West
in aesthetic categories, rather than geographical
or political ones. He polemicizes with Polish intellectuals and
artists who view themselves as members of a marginal
nation who cannot measure up to the West,
perceived as
the embodiment and source of high culture. In his West
and ultimately proves the superior
position of those in the margins. Such strategy is in accord with
Gombrowicz's theory of Form, which permeates all of his oeuvre; in
very general terms, he claims that anything amorphous and
young
shows greater promise and value than that which
is defined and stable. Therefore, for Gombrowicz, artists and
intellectuals in Eastern Europe need not attempt to emulate European
trends, but should rather embrace their distance from centers of high
culture as a liberating experience.
The aim of this paper is to offer a critique of Gombrowicz's idea
of the West
as a conceptual prop for the purpose of
initiating a debate on the national and cultural identity of Poles in
the post-Stalinist period. He is not interested in the
constructedness of the concept of the West
per se, but
uses it as a reflecting surface for generating a discussion on what it
means to be an East European nation creating its own literature and
culture while coming to terms with the legacy of a shared West
European heritage.