French Literature Reviews - 2026

2 Publications on Witold Gombrowicz
Other Literary Studies

Two volumes of proceedings from colloquia on Witold Gombrowicz held in 2004 (the centenary of his birth) at Sorbonne-Paris IV and the University of Lille 3 have just been published:

- Gombrowicz une gueule de classique ? (ed. Malgorzata Smorag-Goldberg)
Institute of Slavic Studies, 2007

- Witold Gombrowicz entre l'Europe et l'Amérique (ed. Marek Tomaszewski)
Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2007

Both volumes feature a preface by Rita Gombrowicz.

Witold Gombrowicz remains one of the most iconoclastic figures of twentieth-century literature. Known for his profound skepticism toward established cultural norms and his exploration of human immaturity, his novels and plays challenge traditional narrative structures. The volume Gombrowicz une gueule de classique ? addresses this very paradox: how an author who spent his life subverting literary conventions and resisting institutionalization has himself become a classic of modern world literature. This tension between subversion and canonization is central to understanding his enduring legacy.

The second volume, Witold Gombrowicz entre l'Europe et l'Amérique, focuses on the geographical and cultural displacement that defined Gombrowicz's life, particularly his decades-long exile in Argentina. This transatlantic perspective is crucial for scholars studying exile literature, modernist prose, and the intersections between European and Latin American avant-gardes. These collected papers, introduced by the author's widow Rita Gombrowicz, offer invaluable insights for researchers and students of comparative literature seeking to navigate the complex philosophical and stylistic dimensions of his work.

Online excerpts from these works are available on the blog of the collective Pierre Bourdieu: A Tribute.