The Undoing of Culture: Witkacy’s Tragedy of the End of the West

Witkacy’s Tragedy of the End of the West

Abstract

The article Undoing Culture: Witkacy’s Tragedy of the End of the West looks at Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s historiosophical conception of the condition of Western culture in the first half of the 20th century. The reading of the Polish artist’s literary works – dramas, novels as well as his philosophical and aesthetic treatises and journalistic writings – runs parallel to the reading of works by contemporary thinkers, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This juxtaposition makes Witkacy’s observations, diagnoses and visions more relevant. They thus become an important tool for understanding the phenomena occurring in the world around us. They are also extremely helpful in studying modernity as such. One of them is the concept of the undoing of culture that is repeatedly considered by the characters in Witkiewicz’s works. As a caricatured embodiment of totalitarian ideas, it is an important point of reference for reflecting on the events of the past century, the effects of which are still being felt today. Witkacy took a keen interest in the condition of the West as a civilizational formation. He was convinced of its decline. The undoing of culture is supposed to delay it, while being one of the signs of the impending and ultimate catastrophe. It will be a strange tragedy. For as a result of it, people will achieve the happiness they have dreamed of since the dawn of time. They will, however, cease to be human. And this is what Witkiewicz feared most.