A Queer Construction of Identity in the Memoir of Stefan Czarniecki by Witold Gombrowicz

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article presents the analysis and interpretation of Witold Gombrowicz’s short story: Memoirs of Stefan Czarniecki from the volume Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania [Memoirs from Time of Immaturity] 1933 (included after the Second World War in the volume Bakakaj [English translation: Bacacay]). The author interprets the story as narrative about life with the stigma that results from the social effects of anti-Semitism. At the same time 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 and theoretical and literary criticism (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick) 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 and queer construction of identity of the main hero.