Kogo boi się doktorowa z Wilczej? O recepcji debiutu Witolda Gombrowicza
Who Is the Doctor’s Wife from Wilcza Street Afraid of? On the Reception of Witold Gombrowicz’s Debut

Author(s): Błażej Warkocki
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Gombrowicz; literary debut; literary reception; queer; homophobia; Freud;Sedgwick;
Summary/Abstract: This article provides an analysis of the reception of Witold Gombrowicz’s literary debut in 1933: Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania [A Diary of Adolescence]. The author notices the discrepancy between the overall positive reception of the debut (as pointed out by Jerzy Jarzębski) and Gombrowicz’s negative memory of it. This article reads the eponymous “immaturity” in reference to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and her concept of periperformativity. “Immaturity” – widely commented by the critics – is often collated with such terms as “Freudism,” “sexualism,” and “disease.” As it turns out, “immaturity” is a performative utterance encoded in a Freudian manner which stigmatises homosexuality by means of turning it into a euphemism. Because of that, Gombrowicz attempts to adopt this term in order to detach it from its homophobic framework.

• Details
• Contents