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Date
2013
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Publisher
Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Calfiness
Abstract
In Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz presented the secret of interpersonal relations by using anatomical
metaphors. In this ironic lecture a calf plays as important role as buttocks (stuck to the
face) – it is a symbol of seductive youth and, to a considerable degree, of an unaware, but intuitive
infantility. This topic is covered in the novel as part of an episode about a fascinating teenage
girl Zuta, who is one of most demonic characters in the 20th-century prose. This paper draws
attention to the ambiguity of the self-emancipating strategy that Gombrowicz’s hero uses when he
discovers this notion and in order to fight against it. A calf, which represents the temptation of
modern, sterile and totalitarian sex appeal, refers – as a spiritual, form-shaping power – to the lack
of self-confidence that contemporary people conceal, also from themselves. And that is the hidden
origin – as Gombrowicz implies – of mass culture’s erotic blackmail.
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Citation
Przestrzenie Teorii, 2013, nr 20, s. 109-116
ISBN
978-83-232-2654-3