Witkacy’s Attempt at a Subject – a Subject for a Test

Abstract

In the article Witkacego próba podmiotu – podmiot na próbę [Witkacy’s Attempt at a Subject – a Subject for a Test] the subjective identity of S.I. Witkiewicz is characterised by means of the widely understood category of a trial. This latter is interpreted from the view of theatrical aesthetics, but also philosophy, enables to show the biography and oeuvre of the artist from Zakopane as a continuous game between constructing and deconstructing of the subjective identity. The category of subjectivity becomes here a tool of revealing of the mechanisms, making it possible to remove boundaries between art and life, reality and fiction, literature and theory. Whereas in the interpretation proposed this attempt appears as a very literally understood experiencing of oneself, “putting oneself to the test”, but also as an attempt at literature (in the area of theory) and an attempt at theory (in the area of literature).

Keywords

• S. I. Witkiewicz
• Witkacy
• podmiot
• podmiotowość
• tożsamość
• teoria
• estetyka