Ameryka według Sławomira Mrożka

Abstract

The author explores the role of North and Meso-America in the formation of Sławomir Mrożek’s worldview. Gutkowska’s discussion is based on his autobiographical writings contained in his correspondence, Dziennik (“Journal”), Dziennik powrotu (“The Journal of Return”), and Baltazar. Autobiografia (“Balthasar: An Autobiography”). She shows how Mrożek’s initial fascination with the United States — its freedom, openness, technological development — gradually, begins to chime with a critique of the civilizational changes initiated by them and which are throwing off balance the equilibrium between humankind and the world. Mrożek found an antidote to contemporary, technological, globalized reality in Mexico, which opened before him a metaphysical dimension to being.