What is still not Known about Witkacy’s Intertextuality? An Analysis of Witkacy and Słowacki
What is still not Known about Witkacy’s Intertextuality? An Analysis of Witkacy and Słowacki

Summary/Abstract: The author addresses the extent to which Witkacy’s work should be seen in relation to Romantic playwright Juliusz Słowacki who began the Artistic Theater in Poland according to Witkacy’s own words. While subsequent creators of Artistic Theatre, especially Stanisław Wyspiański, the author of symbolic national dramas, attracted much attention among Witkacy scholars, Słowacki has been barely mentioned in the context of Witkacy theatre. The author compares Słowacki’s ‘Kordian’ with Witkacy’s ‘John Mathew Charles the Furious’ and concludes that both the protagonists’ dilemmas and their self-referential statements are profoundly connected. In addition, the author presents an analysis of both Słowacki’s and Witkacy’s treatment of the motifs of ‘Violence’ ‘A Corpse’ ‘A Dream’ and ‘A Ghost.’ It is argued that Witkacy deconstructs national myths and pushes romantic imagination to the limits, developing elements of romantic fantasy bordering on surrealism typical of Słowacki into modern surrealistic theatre.

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