Identity Traps in Witkacy’s Dramas

Abstract

That ‘crisis of identity’ is one of the central problems addressed by the dramas of Witkacy is primarily linked in the mind of critics to the tradition of modernism. In this contribution I would like to suggest a change of viewpoint, and to present this problem rather from the point of view of contemporary discourse concerning identity. The problems that Witkacy’s characters have with their own existence are in accord, not only with today’s quite common conviction that individuals can experiment with their own sense of identity with relative freedom but also with the concepts of the individual ego, derived from the realms of the Social Sciences.