29 Facts About Witold Gombrowicz

Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish writer and playwright.

Witold Gombrowicz's works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor.

Witold Gombrowicz gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature.

Witold Gombrowicz's diaries were published in 1969 and are, according to the Paris Review, "widely considered his masterpiece", while Cosmos is considered, according to The New Yorker, "his most accomplished novel".

Witold Gombrowicz was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times, from 1966 to 1969.

Witold Gombrowicz later described his family origins and social status as early instances of a lifelong sense of being "between".

Witold Gombrowicz spent a year in Paris, where he studied at the Institute of Higher International Studies.

Witold Gombrowicz was less than diligent in his studies, but his time in France brought him in constant contact with other young intellectuals.

When Witold Gombrowicz returned to Poland, he began applying for legal positions with little success.

Witold Gombrowicz soon rejected the legendary novel, whose form and subject matter were supposed to manifest his "worse" and darker side of nature.

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, Witold Gombrowicz began to write short stories, later printed under the title Memoirs of a Time of Immaturity, edited by Witold Gombrowicz and published under the name Bacacay, the street where he lived during his exile in Argentina.

Witold Gombrowicz met with other young writers and intellectuals, forming an artistic cafe society in Zodiak and Ziemianska, both in Warsaw.

Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, Witold Gombrowicz took part in the maiden voyage of the Polish transatlantic liner MS Chrobry to South America.

From December 1947 to May 1955 Witold Gombrowicz worked as a bank clerk in Banco Polaco, the Argentine branch of Bank Pekao, and formed a friendship with Zofia Chadzynska, who introduced him to Buenos Aires's political and cultural elite.

Witold Gombrowicz's dramas were staged in theatres around the world, especially in France, Germany and Sweden.

Witold Gombrowicz stayed for a year in West Berlin, where he endured a slanderous campaign organised by the Polish authorities.

Witold Gombrowicz's health deteriorated during this stay, and he was unable to return to Argentina.

Witold Gombrowicz went back to France in 1964 and spent three months in Royaumont Abbey, near Paris, where he met Rita Labrosse, a Canadian from Montreal who studied contemporary literature.

Witold Gombrowicz spent the rest of his life in Vence, near Nice.

Witold Gombrowicz's health prevented him from thoroughly benefiting from his late renown.

The series ended before Witold Gombrowicz could deliver the last part, interrupted by his death on July 24,1969.

Witold Gombrowicz wrote in Polish, but he did not allow his works to be published in Poland until the authorities lifted the ban on the unabridged version of Dziennik, his diary, in which he described their attacks on him.

For many critics and theorists, the most engaging aspects of Witold Gombrowicz's work are the connections with European thought in the second half of the 20th century, which link him with the intellectual heritage of Foucault, Barthes, Deleuze, Lacan, and Sartre.

Adaptations of Ferdydurke and other works of Witold Gombrowicz were presented by many theatres, especially before 1986, when the first nine volumes of his works were published.

In Slub, written just after the war, Witold Gombrowicz used the form of Shakespeare's and Calderon's theatre.

Witold Gombrowicz critically undertook the theme of the romantic theatre and portrayed a new concept of power and a human being created by other people.

Witold Gombrowicz writes in ostensibly casual anecdotes and uses a wide range of literary devices.

Witold Gombrowicz's works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox, and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor.

Witold Gombrowicz is remembered by scholars and admirers as a writer and a man unwilling to sacrifice his imagination or his originality for any price, person, god, society, or doctrine.