Summary of Ferdydurke
Józio Kowalski, a 30-year-old writer, is visited by his former schoolteacher Pimko and inexplicably transformed back into his teenage self. He is forced to return to school, where is confronted with the repressive conformism and infantilisation of the education system. He falls in love with the daughter of the family he stays with, but unfortunately, his feelings remain unanswered.
Reasons to read Ferdydurke
“Ferdydurke” by Polish author Witold Gombrowicz is an avant-garde, absurdist novel that explores themes of self-awareness, immaturity and youth. The adults seem irrational from the perspective of the narrator as a teenager, while the adolescents seem equally irrational from his adult viewpoint. The novel can be read on many levels, including as a critique on Polish society, authority, and the education system. “Ferdydurke” was a sensation in Poland upon its publication but was deemed scandalous by the Nazis and the Communists and was banned in Poland for many years. It is now considered a cult novel and a modernist masterpiece of Polish literature.
Setting: Warsaw (Poland)
Original title: Ferdydurke
Year of publication: 1937
Nr of pages: 320
