Author | Witold Gombrowicz |
---|---|
Translator | Danuta Borchardt |
Cover artist | Bruno Schulz |
Language | Polish |
Genre | Novel |
Publisher | Towarzystwo Wydawnicze "Rój", Warsaw (1st ed); Harcourt, Brace and World (New York 1961); Yale University Press (2000) |
Publication date | Oct 1937 (1st ed dated 1938) |
Publication place | Poland |
Published in English | 1961 (1st US ed), Aug 2000 (new translation) |
Media type | Print (Hardcover & trade paperback) |
Pages | 281pp (YUP ed) |
ISBN | 0-300-08240-1 (YUP pb), ISBN 0-7145-3403-X (2005 UK pb) |
OCLC | 43114995 |
891.8/5273 21 | |
LC Class | PG7158.G669 F4713 2000 |
Ferdydurke is a novel by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, published in 1937. It was his first and most controversial novel. [1]
The book has been described as a "cult novel". [2]
Gombrowicz himself wrote of his novel that it is not "... a satire on some social class, nor a nihilistic attack on culture... We live in an era of violent changes, of accelerated development, in which settled forms are breaking under life's pressure... The need to find a form for what is yet immature, uncrystalized and underdeveloped, as well as the groan at the impossibility of such a postulate – this is the chief excitement of my book." [3]
The first translation of the novel, to Spanish, published in Buenos Aires in 1947, was done by Gombrowicz himself. A translation committee presided over by the Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera helped him in this endeavor, since Gombrowicz felt that he did not know the language well enough at the time to do it on his own. Gombrowicz again collaborated on a French translation of the book, with Ronald Martin in 1958. A direct German translation by Walter Tiel was published in 1960. In 2006, the first Brazilian Portuguese translation by Tomasz Barciński, direct from the Polish original text, was delivered.
The first English translation of Ferdydurke, by Eric Mosbacher, was published in 1961. It was a combined indirect translation of the French, German and possibly Spanish translations. In 2000, Yale University Press published the first direct translation from the original Polish. [4] The 2000 edition, translated by Danuta Borchardt, has an introduction by Susan Sontag.
Direct and indirect translations now exist in over twenty languages. [5]
Jerzy Skolimowski directed the 1991 film adaptation of Ferdydurke (alternate English title: 30 Door Key ) with an international cast including Iain Glen, Crispin Glover, Beata Poźniak, Robert Stephens, Judith Godrèche, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Fabienne Babe.
In 1999, Ferdydurke was adapted into a stage play by Provisorium & Kompania Theater from Lublin.
The novel has been described as a "meditation on stupidity and immaturity", with its other main themes being the tragedy of passing from immature, utopian youth to adulthood, and the degree to which culture can infantilize various subjects. [1] [6]
The book was Gombrowicz's first and most controversial novel. [1] It has been described since as a cult novel. [2] Writing in 1995, Warren F. Motte commented that the book "exemplifies that rare bird of literary avant-garde: a text that retains, decades after its initial publication, the power to shock.". [7]
Among works influenced by the book is Jacek Dukaj's novel Other Songs . [8]
Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937, he published his first novel, Ferdydurke, which presented many of his usual themes: problems of immaturity and youth, creation of identity in interactions with others, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture.
Medallions is a book consisting of eight short stories by the Polish author Zofia Nałkowska.
Trans-Atlantyk is a novel by the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz, originally published in 1953. The semi-autobiographical plot of the novel closely tracks Gombrowicz's own experience in the years during and just after the outbreak of World War II.
Cosmos is a 1965 novel by the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz. The narrative revolves around two young men who seek the solitude of the country; their peace is disturbed when a set of random occurrences suggest to their susceptible minds a pattern with sinister meanings. The humour arises, as it often does in Gombrowicz's work, in the extremity of paranoia and confusion exhibited by the protagonist.
Sonorism is an approach to musical composition associated with a number of notable Polish composers. The scholar Józef Michał Chomiński coined the term "sonoristics" to describe the urge to explore purely sonic phenomena in composition, and from this term derived "sonorism" to describe an avant-garde style in Polish music of the 1960s that focused on timbre. As a movement, sonorism was initiated in the 1950s in the avant-garde of Polish music. Music that emphasises sonorism as a compositional approach tends to focus on specific characteristics and qualities of timbre, texture, articulation, dynamics, and motion in an attempt to create freer form. The style is primarily associated with an experimental musical movement which arose in Poland in the mid-1950s and flourished through the 1960s.
Jerzy Pilch was a Polish writer, columnist, and journalist. Critics have compared Pilch's style to Witold Gombrowicz, Milan Kundera, or Bohumil Hrabal.
Virgilio Piñera Llera was a Cuban author, playwright, poet, short story writer, essayist and translator. His most notorious works are the poem La isla en peso (1943), the collection of short stories Cuentos Fríos (1956), the novel La carne de René (1952) and the play Electra Garrigó (1959). He is also known for his role in the translation into Spanish of the novel Ferdydurke, by Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz.
Kultura —sometimes referred to as Kultura Paryska —was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political magazine, published from 1947 to 2000 by Instytut Literacki, initially in Rome and then in Paris. It was edited and produced by Jerzy Giedroyc and ceased publication upon his death.
Inne pieśni is a novel written in 2003 by Jacek Dukaj, Polish science fiction writer. It was published in Poland by Wydawnictwo Literackie. The novel is a mixture of fantasy, alternate history and science fiction, and has been described as belonging to the genre of philosophical fiction as well.
Joanna Siedlecka is a Polish writer, reporter, journalist, member of the Polish Writers Association, and the author of 10 books, 4 collections of essays and 6 biographies, notably, about the lives of writers: Witold Gombrowicz, Witkacy, and Jerzy Kosiński. Siedlecka is a lecturer at M. Wańkowicz College in Warsaw.
Where the Stress Falls, published in 2001, is the last collection of essays published by Susan Sontag before her death in 2004. The essays vary between her experiences in the theater to book reviews.
Pornografia is a 1960 novel by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. The narrative revolves around two middle-aged Warsawian intellectuals, who during a trip to the countryside during World War II construct a scheme to entice two teenagers in a scheme to disturb the young girl's fiancé and, later, to have the youngsters enact the murder of a leader in the Polish resistance.
Bill Johnston is a prolific Polish language literary translator and professor of comparative literature at Indiana University. His work has helped to expose English-speaking readers to classic and contemporary Polish poetry and fiction. In 2008 he received the Found in Translation Award for his translation of new poems by Tadeusz Różewicz; this book was also a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Poetry Award.
The Marriage is a play by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, written in Argentina after World War II. The narrative takes place in a dream, where the dreamer transforms into a king and plans to marry his fiancée in a royal wedding, only as a means to save their integrity. A Spanish translation was first published in 1948, followed by the original Polish version in 1953. The play was first performed in 1960.
Bacacay is a short story collection by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. The stories were originally published in 1933, in an edition called Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania, which was Gombrowicz's literary debut. In 1957 it was re-released as Bakakaj, and included five additional stories.
Possessed is a 1939 novel by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, published under the pseudonym Zdzisław Niewieski. It is a pastiche of gothic and serial novels in the vein of Horace Walpole and Eugène Sue.
Richard Kalich, the author of The Nihilesthete (1987), Penthouse F (2010) and Charlie P (2005) published in 2014 in a single volume as Central Park West Trilogy, The Zoo (2001) and The Assisted Living Facility Library (2019). He has been nominated for the National Book Award and for a Pulitzer Prize. His novels are internationally acclaimed and widely translated: his novels have been published in Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and Japan. Kalich was born and lives in New York City where he co-directs a film company with his twin brother, Robert Kalich.
The Found in Translation Award is an annual award for the best translation of Polish literature into English. The award is given to the translator(s) who also receive a cash prize of PLN 16,000.
Maciej Hen is a Polish writer, translator and journalist.
30 Door Key is a 1991 English-language drama film directed and produced by Jerzy Skolimowski, and written by Jerzy Skolimowski, Michał Skolimowski, and Józef Skolimowski. It starred Iain Glen, Robert Stephens, and Crispin Glover. The film was based on the 1937 book Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz.