Rasowy kształt niemęskości. O Pamiętniku Stefana Czarnieckiego Witolda Gombrowicza

Abstract

The article presents the analysis and interpretation (in the form of a close reading) of Witold Gombrowicz’s story: Diary of Stefan Czarniecki from the volume Diary of Adolescence 1933 (included after the Second World War in the volume Bakakaj). The author interprets the story as narrative about life with the stigma that results from the social effects of anti-Semitism. However, he shows that the conceptualizations of “race” are often very clearly combined with the considerations about masculinity and effeminacy of the main hero. The author shows – referring to the historical works (George L. Mosse) and theoretical and literary criticism (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Alan Sinfeld) that “effiminacy” combines narratives about Jewishness and male homosexuality in a complex way, which at the same time constitutes the aporia of Gombrowicz’s text. Author suggests not obvious, but deeply autobiographical dimension of the story by referring to the biographical books (Tadeusz Kępiński, Ewa Siedlecka).

Keywords

• Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
• anti-Semitism
• queer
• masculinity
• Witold Gombrowicz