Centenary Celebrations

FFor the centenary of Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, several events will be held in Buenos Aires, where the author lived for twenty-four years.

The Borges Cultural Centre’s literary adviser, Alejandro Vacaro, told IPS that Gombrowicz and his works “continue to be an enigma” for many Argentines, given that the now famous Polish writer “cultivated amongst his peers the art of being unpleasant, and he did nothing to disseminate his writing,” which explains the local indifference towards him while he lived in Buenos Aires.
After leaving Argentina, Gombrowicz was the first to be surprised by his fame. He was soon acclaimed by his colleagues in Europe and Argentina alike, and in the 1970s was mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Kundera has said that Gombrowicz’s work was a precursor to the modern European novel, and has compared him to no less a figure than Czech author Franz Kafka.

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