Buenos Aires, Borges i Gombrowicz – poszukiwanie tożsamości metropolii pierwszej połowy XX wieku

• Authors: Natalia Gendaj

Title variants

EN

Buenos Aires, Borges and Gombrowicz – Searching for the Identity of the Metropolis of the First Half of the 20th Century

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article is a brief analysis of the writings of two authors, Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges and Polish Witold Gombrowcz, who face the changes of the rising metropolis of Buenos Aires. After spending many years abroad, Borges arrives to the city which is in a stage of rapid development. At this time, Buenos Aires tends to be the most modern city of Latin America. In spite of this, Borges’s attempt is to ignore this expansion and to return immediately to his childhood district and to the “mythical” (as he calls them) times of the colonial foundation of the city. The non-central harbor district, Retiro, plays the same role for Gombrowicz as the old part of the city plays for Borges. The two writers each walk the outskirts of the city by night, omitting the modern and crowded center. For both of them, Buenos Aires seems to be abandoned. Although Buenos Aires is the main subject of Borges’s writings and the city is merely mentioned by Gombrowicz in his works, their visions of the metropolis share some significant similarities. The comparable perspective of Borges and Gombrowicz may result from the analogous condition of them both being “outsiders”. Bilingual Borges (English-Spanish) and European immigrant Gombrowicz were both looking at the city from an exterior rather than interior perspective, just as the conquistadors had done – from aboard ships just entering the harbor, rather than from the land itself.

Keywords

EN

Comparative literature; Literary journey; Buenos Aires in literature; Witold Gombrowicz; Jorge Luis Borges

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
• Journal: Rocznik Komparatystyczny
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 2
• Pages: p. 195-208

Contributors

author

Natalia Gendaj

• Uniwersytet Szczeciński, Wydział Filologiczny, Instytut Polonistyki i Kulturoznawstwa, Pracownia Komparatystyki, al. Piastów 40 B, 71-065 Szczecin