„...do parku... do parku”. Przyczynek do interpretacji pewnej sceny parkowej

Abstract

A park is described in this article as a scene of public life where members of the modern society develop their shared forms of behaviour. This is also the perspective of interpretation for the final scene of Witold Gombrowicz’s short story Lawyer Kraykowski’s Dancer. A humorous portrait of manners drawn by the author could constitute a peculiar commentary to the nightlife of the Warsaw parks of the 1920s. A park seems to be a suitable metaphor chosen to tell the story of a lawyer and “a dancer”, as well as of the complex social relations determined by humanizing actions and the feeling of uncertainty about human nature which constantly evades them. The authors of the article are particularly interested in this “uncertain” aspect of nature inscribed in the figure of an urban garden, which reminds us that all our calls for regulation are just an appearance, a veil hiding an always distant phantasm.