Description: Examines Gombrowicz's modernist aesthetics in the context of his critique of nationalism, his exploration of queer eroticism, and his interest in hybrid and subaltern identities.
Brief description: Ewa Plonowska Ziarek is Associate Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of The Rhetoric of Failure: Deconstruction of Skepticism, Reinvention of Modernism, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"The essays engage Gombrowicz through a variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, from poststructuralist theories of the text to chaology, and from postcolonial criticism to queer theory. The application of recent theoretical frameworks to the analysis of Gombrowicz's work does not appear ostentatious. Quite to the contrary, these essays reveal often subtle anticipations of contemporary perspectives in Gombrowicz's work.
"Despite differences in focus, disciplinary approach, and theoretical frame, the individual essays complement each other very well, fleshing out Gombrowicz's problematics through a collective effort. This book is glued together by a strong form of intertextuality, evident not only at a thematic level (there is creative agreement among the various authors regarding the important issues and emphases in Gombrowicz), but also at a theoretical level (concepts from Deleuze, Kristeva, chaos theory, borderline studies, queer theory, etc., keep reappearing)." -- Marcel Cornis-Pope, Virginia Commonwealth University
"This book provides a significant contribution to the critical articulation of Gombrowicz's work in the terms of the current debate on the political and cultural implications of literary form, national identity, and sexuality. As an interdisciplinary work the book expands the study of one of the best Slavic authors into the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophy, gender, and ideology." -- Vladislav Todorov, University of Pennsylvania