Apples and Oranges

In this article the author considers the diaries of Witold Gombrowicz and Andrzej Bobkowski as manifestations of strikingly different performative positions: Bobkowski's of a spontaneous storyteller, unconcerned about a potential audience yet in full command of his narrative—Gombrowicz's of a self-created performing persona, ever aware of the addressee of his refined act. One is an inspired and precise observer, an extrovert, the other, an introvert, who seldom veers from his subjective observations and interpretations. And yet, because of their passionate engagement with reality, they are connected, as the author asserts, by their profound humanism, not to mention the excellence of their prose

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Excellence · Humanism · Humanities · Literature · Narrative · Performative utterance · Persona · Presentation (obstetrics) · Central European Literary Studies · European Cultural and National Identity · Medicine · Philosophy · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies · Psychology