Greeks, Witkacy and Pure Form in Literature

Abstract

The text is an attempt to read the works by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz from the perspective of antiquity. At first, Witkacy’s works do not offer much to the researcher dealing with antiquity. The context of Witkacy’s artistic creativity is shaped by trends in painting and theatre at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He developed his philosophy in a discussion with contemporary trends in physicalism, phenomenology and philosophy of language. It is also difficult to determine how deep his knowledge of languages and ancient texts was, and to which he refers only sporadically. Nevertheless, when carefully reading Witkacy’s writings, he turns out to have more in common with classical tradition than one might initially think. In the text, I analyze the links between the literary and philosophical work by Witkacy and Greek antiquity. Firstly, I examine the influence of the Greek theatre on the concept of the formist theater and then compare Witkacy’s criticism of the novel not considered a work of art with the function literary works played in ancient Greece and their criticism, in particular from Plato.