Gombrowicz and the Grotesque

Gombrowicz's oeuvre is routinely described by referring it to the grotesque. It seems that in the case of Gombrowicz the grotesque is connected with dismemberment and decomposition. The motive of this artistic device must be sought in the author's entanglement in the horrors of twentieth-century history and his artistic preoccupation with avant-garde literature. If the human body can be subjected to dismemberment, then all forms are exposed to the same kind of decomposition. We discover that the wholeness of the world is in reality a result of being accustomed to certain forms. The task of modern literature lies in undermining the cultural foundations of these apparently self-evident forms. This project has an essential bearing on the organization of meaning in Gombrowicz's texts. The story is broken up and put together according to certain (quasi) logical chains that show the underlying mutability of life. These chains lack stability, are provisional, fall to pieces almost at the very moment when they are established.