Sources of art in Belzebub ’ s Sonata by S.I. Witkiewicz

Abstract

In the article, I present and analyze the views on the sources of art that Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885‒1939) included in one of his last dramas – Beelzebub ’ s Sonata. I refer Witkacy’s philosophical and aesthetic views presented there to the broader context of his views on culture, as well as to the changes in aesthetic thought and social imaginarium of the 19th and 20th centuries, which allows me to show both their originality and points of convergence with more common thought tendencies. I try to show that Witkiewicz’s work resists the passage of time both by posing “metaphysical” problems – going beyond the interests of particular epoch – and by elements of humour and irony that make it a work open to a multitude of interpretations.