Kronos, czyli Witold Gombrowicz obnażony

Abstract

Witold Gombrowicz’s Kronos was published forty-four years after the writer’s death. Announced as a literary sensation, it caused numerous discussions and disputes. It was referred to as an outstanding literary work, but the logic of the publishing of private writings was also undermined. The aim of the article is to present the most important views on the novel. The author argues that, in fact, we are dealing with two texts that require different reading strategies, namely the author’s private notes and the book entitled Kronos which has been transformed into a novel by the editorial apparatus of footnotes and iconographic material. The author reflects upon the auto-communicative dimension of all Gombrowicz’s texts and the chronology of reading his books. In other words, he asks what will happen to the reception of Gombrowicz’s books if the contemporary reader will read Kronos as first.