Lech Sokół
The drama of initiation: Villiers de
l’Isle-Adam, Strindberg and S. I.
Witkiewicz
Literary Studies in Poland 11, 95-105
T he D ram a o f Initiation:
Villiers de ITsle-A dam ,
Strindberg, and S. I. W itkiew icz
A ugust S trin db erg ’s know ledge o f the w orks o f Villiers de l’lsle- -A dam (1838— 1889) is testified by a m ention in his essay Om
mode n it drama och m odem teater (1889), by his letter to L eopold
L itm ansson o f N ovem ber 6th, 1900, an d by his letter to H arriet Bosse o f F eb ru ary 25th, 1901. Régis Boyer proved fu rth er S trin d b erg ’s know ledge of Villiers de l’lsle-A dam as m uch m ore extensive th an m ention ed in letters; he showed th a t the w orks o f the French writer played quite an im p o rtan t p a rt in S trindberg's ow n creative work, especially in his late period. B oyer’s list o f influences an d o f co n verging points between the tw o a u th o rs could be continued and augm ented, but his m ain conclusion rem ains unchang ed; Villiers an d S trindberg ap p ear as a couple o f spiritual brothers, they breathe the sam e atm o sph ere and they evolve as artists in a sim ilar way. A s far as S trihdberg goes, one should ra th e r speak o f his im pregna tio n by Villiers th an o f any sort o f influence >.
Stanisław Ignacy W itkiewicz (1885—1939) w as an en thu siast o f S trindberg; he introduced The Ghost Sonata to the Polish theatre in 1926, an d there are m any links between his own d ram atic w orks a n d those o f the Swedish a u th o r 2. A s to Villiers, W itkiewicz, who
1 R. B o y e r . “ S trin d b erg et Villiers de l'ls le -A d a m .” R evue (l'H istoire du Théâtre, 1978, vol. I l l (A ctes d u C o llo q u e “ S trin d b erg à P a ris,” U niversité de P a ris-S o rb o n n e, o c to b re 1975).
2 Cf. A . N . U g g l a , Strindberg och den p o lsk a teatern 1890— 1970. En studie
was a general reader o f astonishing appetite, knew him early in Polish tran slatio n s an d p ro bably also in the original version. T he tales by Viliiers were tran slate d into Polish before 1900, the tran slatio n o f A x e l appeared in 1901 in the Polish Sym bolist periodical Chimera as the first tran slatio n o f the plav into any foreign language. In 1902 there ap p eared a de luxe edition o f A xel, while in 1917 we h ad a volum e contain ing b oth A x e l an d The Revolt.
W itkiewicz read A x e l as early as 1901. It m ay be seen from a letter which his fath er addressed to him on A u gust 28th (W itkiew icz-senior was a w riter, an a rt critic, a n d a painter). In their correspondence, o f wjiich only th e 'fa th e r’s letters have been preserved, they exchanged views and opinions on books, theatrical perform ances an d exhibitions. T here is an o th er letter o f M ay 20th, 1902 in which the father discusses the novel Prochno (M ould) by W aclaw B erent which he read upon his son s’s advice, an d speaks a b o u t the influences o f Przybyszewski an d of Viliiers. Both letters reveal th a t the tw o co rrespondents h ad a fairly extensive know ledge o f the w orks o f Viliiers de l’lsle-A dam an d th a t allusions to the texts o f Viliiers were a m atter o f com m on practice in th eir intellectual re la tio n s3.
In the w orks o f Stanislaw Ignacy W itkiew icz we can trace m ainly (though n o t exclusively) th e echoes o f A xel. Interesting coincidences m ay already be found in W itkiew icz’s first m atu re play M aciej
Korbowa and B ellatrix (1918) which, by the way, also alludes to
Strindberg, b u t the m ost evident traces o f A x e l are to be found in a play o f 1922 Nadobnisie i koczko da ny, czyli Zielona Pigulka.
Komedia z trupam i w 2 aktach i 2 odslonach (D ainty Shapes and H airy Apes, or the Green Pill. A C om edy with Corpses in 2 Acts and 3 Scenes).
T he m ain coincidences are those o f plot and o f som e them es. In b oth plays the m ain them e is the in itiatio n o f the hero by m asters o f occult science— M aster Jan u s in th e play o f Viliiers and P an deu s
T vâ eta p er av. m ed v eten h e t; L. S o k ó ł : “ A u gust S trin d b erg an d S tanisław Ignacv W itkiew icz. A P a ra lle l.” [in:] Sw edish-Polish L itera ry C ontacts. ed. N .O . N ilsson, Sto ck h o lm 1978; “ S trin d b erg et W itkiew icz,” L e Théâtre en Pologne, 1978, no. 6 —7, pp. 16—24.
' S. W i t k i e w i c z , L is ty do syna (L etters to Son), ed. B. D a n ek -W ojnow ska an d A. M icińska, W arszaw a 1969, pp. 47, 99.
in the play o f W itkiewicz. B oth nam es are allusions to som e god: in Villiers it is the tw o-faced Jan u s p robably sym bolizing the m ys terious, equivocal ch aracter o f the D o ctor, o r perhap s his universal knowledge. In W itkiew icz’s play the nam e o f P andeus refers to all the gods. In b oth plays the heroes w ho are to be initiated experience som e d o u b ts and finally resign from learning the m ystery. The tem p tatio n s o f life and o f the w orld, particularly o f wom en, have a great p a rt in their desertion. A xel’s refusal is partly m ade good in the th ird p art o f the play (“ Le m onde passionel” ); the desertion o fT a rq u in iu s in W itkiew icz’s play is forced upon him by the situ atio n : ow ing to a w o m an ’s intrigue his m aster betrays him and brings discredit upo n initiation itself which ultim ately proves to be an initiation into hom osexual practices. The h ero him self dies while fighting a duel with a w om an.
T he m o tif o f duel is closely connected with A xel. T he hero o f Villiers alm ost dies at the h an d o f S arah while the hero o f Witkiewicz actually dies in the duel with Sophia. B oth m en, as well as Sophia, are experts in fencing with foils, but b oth ultim ately use sw ords. Axel fights with C o m m an d er C asp ar von A uerperg w ho m ust die as the possessor o f the secret o f th e hidden treasure; Sophia an d T arq u in iu s fight a b o u t P andeus w hom the w om an w ants to recapture as her lover while the m an w ants to retain him as friend and m aster. Yet, the b ro a d er sense o f both duels seems to be the same. By killing the C o m m an d er Axel kills in his person the tem p tatio n s o f worldly life which he h ad presented to the hero in the preceding conversation. T arq u in iu s w ants to kill the tem p tation o f love which m ight bring a b o u t his fall and renouncem ent o f the initiation. Both with W itkiewicz an d with Villiers initiatio n is to be achieved by practising privations an d strict asceticism . W hat m ust be renounced is n o t only erotic life, but any sort o f life th a t is not entirely su b o rd in ated to the desire o f unveiling the m ystery. The h ard dilem m a fo r both heroes is th en : either life o r initiation.
T he d ram a o f Villiers de ITsle-Adam has tw o p lo ts —th at o f S arah and th a t o f Axel; b oth converge in the solution o f the fo u rth p a rt o f the play, although the solution is n ot com plete as Villiers never w rote the fifth p a r t— “ Le m onde astra l” —in which he m eant to describe the story o f the lovers after their death. W itkiew icz fully develops the p lot which is connected with T arquinius,
Pandeus and with initiation. The arrival o f Sophia su rro u n d ed by a crow d o f ad m irers d istu rb s this course o f action and brings a b o u t the tragic (or ra th e r grotesque) solution. A fter all, w hat we have here is “a com edy with corpses.” S o p h ia’s plot is shifted to prehistory an d we learn ab o u t it from num erous hints an d allusions m ade by the heroes on the stage.
T he basic peripeteia in the fates o f the heroes is b ro ug ht ab o u t by th e arrival o f S arah to A xel’s castle and the arrival o f Sophia to the palace o f Pandeus. B oth wom en are unusually beautiful an d possess a stro ng individuality. W hat is m ore im p o rtan t, they represent the etern al w om anly elem ent in a particu lar, dem oniac way. In his com m entary to the text o f A x e l Pierre M ariel explains the m eaning o f the nam es o f the h eroine: Eve requires no com m ent a p a rt from the reference to Gen. II 22. Sarah em bodies {Gen. XVII. 15) the w o m an h o o d o f the tim es o f the law o f Jehovah an d o f A b rah am (her nam e m eans lite rally : princess). E m m anuelle stan ds fo r the w om an ho o d o f the tim e o f G race (M at. I. 23) an d the nam e m eans “G o d is with us. ” 4
S arah can fight an d conquer. H er w eapons are the axe, the knife, the pistol, but also h er w om anly charm s. T he dem onism o f Sophia in W itkiew icz’s play is presented in a m uch m ore straight- -forw ard w ay: in the list o f dramatis personae she is characterized as “dem on ic.” H er present family nam e indicates th a t a t least at a tim e she used to have a husband. H er second, m aiden nam e is d 'A bencerage. T he allusion to C h a te a u b ria n d ’s novel {Les Aventures
du dernier Abencerage, 1826) is m eant to indicate the cruelty, the
passion an d the uncom prom ising n atu re o f S o p h ia’s love. W itkiewicz m ust have know n the novel in one o f the Polish translatio ns o r in the orig inal; he retains the French spelling o f the nam e A bencerage which was transcrib ed in Polish versions. Sophia openly declares her will to d om inate, to conq uer an d to subject P andeus to m ental an d perhaps also to physical to rture. She says: “ I’ll m ake bloody m incem eat out o f him . I ’ll eat his nerves sauteed over a slow flame. I feel the blood o f all the A bencerages boiling with m e.” 5 W hile
4 A. de V i l l i e r s d e l’l s l e - A d a m , A xel, in tro d . et no tes de P. M ariel, P aris I960, p. 259.
5 S. I. W i t k i e w i c z , D ram aty (The D ram as), ed. K . P uzyna, vol. 2, W arszaw a 1972, p. 182.
introducing herself to T arq u in iu s she says: “I am a m um m y. I am th o u san d s o f years old. and my cruelty is bound less.” 6 In this light S oph ia's duel w ith T arquinius acquires quite a clear, new m eaning: it is a poignantly draw n im age o f the struggle o f the sexes which plays such an im p o rtan t p a rt in the w orks o f W itkiewicz while at the sam e tim e the them e o f the dem onic w om an and o f sex struggle brings us inside the circle o f the ideas o f Strindberg.
We now d ro p the search for further connections between the plays o f Villiers and o f W itkiewicz in ord er to deal w ith the them e which these tw o au th o rs have in com m on with S trin d b erg —the them e o f initiation.
T he interest o f Villiers de l’lsle-A dam in occult studies which is so strongly reflected in A x e l is the result o f his connections with the w ork o f the great restorer o f occultism in F ra n c e —Eliphas Levy (A lphonse-L ouis C on stant, 1810— 1875), especially with his book in tw o volum es Dogme et rituel de haute magie (Paris 1861). The convergences are astounding and there is even a nu m ber o f direct q u o tatio n s from Levy’s boo k in A xel. S trin d b erg ’s occultist studies in P aris are a well-know n subject and have been extensively described by G u n n a r B randell in Strindbergs Infernokris, an d later on by other S trindbergian scholars. They also pointed to the role o f Levy in the shaping o f S trindberg’s views, although, o f course, it was not the only source o f occultist lore either for Villiers or fo r the Swedish au th o r.
W itkiewicz certainly does n o t belong to the sam e trad itio n and can be h ardly called an occultist. T heosophy and occultism were for him an object o f scorn and a sym bol o f decadence. Still, the m otit o f initiation and all sorts o f “occultist” occurrences do appear in his plays. The question is, then, how an d why these them es entered in to his w ork and w hat is their m eaning in the total pattern o f W itkiew icz’s ideas.
While trying to answ er the question it is h ard to overestim ate the role o f Villiers and, above all, th at o f Strindberg. It was owing to the know ledge and study o f his w orks th at W itkiewicz was able to tak e over certain trends o f E uropean thought and literature o f the tu rn o f the 19th and 20th century. A lthough he him self belonged
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to the avant-garde and his w ork developed an d exhausted itself in the nineteen-tw enties, he used sym bolist d ram a for his own purposes. O ne m ight say in this connection th at his im m ediate predecessors were m uch m ore im p o rtan t for him th an his co ntem p oraries. He felt independent from expressionism , futurism and surrealism . If he som etim es came to the conclusions postulated by these very m ovem ents, it was done in his own way. The only con tem p o rary w hom he esteem ed and confessed his dependence upon was T adeusz Miciriski (1873 — 1918) — a d ram atist, poet and philosoph er who is still alm ost entirely unknow n outside his own c o u n try 7. It is enough to state here that m any them es and ideas which W itkiewicz knew from Villiers de 1’Isle-A dam and from Strindberg, he also found in the strange w orks o f Miciriski who, in his turn, was a dilligent stu d en t o f Sw edenborg, o f magic and o f occultism . H e also knew well the w ritings o f Villiers and Strindberg. In this way m agic circle closes aro u n d W itkiewicz and his work.
Specialists say th at the structure o f the m ystic d ram a o f the tu rn o f the century alm ost unavoidably takes the form o f spiritual initiation. Before M aster Jan u s decides to adm it Axel to the final initiation the latter m ust pass th ro u g h m any degrees o f purification an d initiatory p rocedures; the hero w ithdraw s alm ost in the last m om ent. In W itkie- wicz's play initiation is also stopped an d discredited in the last m om ent: Sophia treacherously gives P andeus a sexually stim ulating “green pill.” U nd er its influence he w ants to m ake T arq u in iu s his lover in spite o f fact th at he h as been cured fo r a long tim e from hom osexual experiences which he practised in his y outh in ord er to try everything th at is possible in life. H aving previously tasted o f everything and apparen tly feeling the nothingness o f luxury and enjoym ent, he now craves fo r initiation, but the p o in t is, what he is going to be initiated into.
In the case o f V illiers’ hero the aim was the know ledge o f the sup ern atu ral world in order to achieve power. The aim o f initiation in S trindberg's late w orks (To Damascus, The Ghost Sonata, the „cham ber plays”) can also be clearly deciphered. T he S tranger learns the necessity o f fighting, o f suffering an d o f self-forgetfulness; he
7 Cf. I. S ł a w i ń s k a . “ S trin d b erg a n d E arly E xpressionism in P o la n d ,” [in :]
undergoes the pains an d uncertainties o f a m an on the road to his conversion. T he student A rk enholtz realizes th a t the w orld is a place full o f illusions, th a t no thing is really w hat it seems to be. Sim ilar conclusions are attain ed by the heroes o f the Dream Play w hom the D aughter o f Indra m eets in her pilgrim age upon earth.
S u pernatural occurrences are a usual feature o f the dram a o f initiation in which they serve to unveil the sacred tru th . In his article “Sym bolist D ra m a: Villiers de l’lsle-A dam , S trindberg, and Y eats” H askell Block quotes a fragm ent o f Charles X I I in which Sw edenborg fortells and announces the d eath o f the k in g 8. There are m any m ore events o f this kind in S trindberg. In A x e l Sister L au d atio n w ants to strike Sarah, but her hand grow s m iracously paralyzed. When the nam e o f D o c to r Jan u s is first m entioned the ever-burning lam p in the sanctuary o f the abbey suddenly goes out.
The plays o f Witkiewicz include m any events o f this kind and m any o f them can be directly referred either to Villiers o r to Strindberg. In the play M aciej Korbowa and Bellatri.\ which we m entioned a while ago one o f the characters evokes the spectre o f an arm o u red knight “as if tak en from the picture o f P aolo U cello.” T he ghost appears in clear daylight and loses its hand as the result o f a blow inflicted upon it by one o f the characters. T he h and proves to be em pty arm o u r which, however, rem ains as a m aterial object after the ghost's disappearance. In exactly the sam e way V era’s ghost in the tale
Vera by Villiers leaves a real key in her h u sb a n d ’s cham ber.
C lairvoyant characters whose p rem onitions prove ultim ately true are not m issing from the plays o f Witkiewicz. W hat som etim es happens in those plays actually resem bles S trin d b erg ’s dram as. In the Ghost Sonata the Student sees the ghost o f the M ilkm aid which is not seen by H um m el. T he latter sees it only when it appears to an nounce his death. In the sam e way the living statue o f Alice d ’O r in W itkiewicz’s M ątw a (Cuttlefish) is first seen only by a few o f the characters; in M a tka (The M other) the m ysterious Voice is first heard only by the m o th er an d only later on by her son. A prophecy which resem bles th a t o f the death o f the king in S trin d b erg ’s
* H. M. B l o c k , “ Sym bolist D ra m a : Villiers de l'lsle -A d a m . S trin d b erg , and Y eats.” [in:] The O ccult in Language an d L iterature. ed. M. R iffaterre. N ew Y ork 1980, p. 46.
Charles X I I occurs in the play W m alym dom ku (In a Sm all Country House). H ere W itkiewicz no t only uses, bu t p arod ies The Ghost Sonata. Instead o f “g h o s ts ’ su p p er” we have here a “g h o sts ’ b re ak fa st”
with living characters an d a ghost w ho eats heartily an d helps him self to vodka. O ne o f the ch aracters in the play is a creatively im potent poet with a m an ia for writing. A fter long pains he gives birth to a poem describing tw o sisters tak in g poison, their death and some o th er events. F o r reasons unknow n, as the poem is pure graphom ania, it m akes a trem endous im pression up o n the listeners to w hom the a u th o r reads it. We understand the reason when we see soon th a t the d eath o f the tw o sisters an d also the o th er events have com e true.
W itkiewicz also uses an o th e r trick which was considered an e rro r in realistic dram a, b u t which was very often used in sym bolist or occultist plays, nam ely parallel repetitions. T he best exam ple here is Kurka nodna (The W ater H en) with the subtitle A Spheric Tragedy. T he central event is repeated twice in identic scenery and under alm ost identic circum stances; E dgar V alp or twice shoots his m istress under a lan tern. Exam ples o f typically sym bolist m otifs an d situ atio ns in W itkiewicz’s plays could be m ultiplied, and yet it is im possible to place him unreservedly along with Villiers de lTsle-A dam , Strindberg, o r Yeats. In their plays we have the them e o f initiation presented in a serious way, even with solem nity and unction, whereas W itkiewicz treats it with m ockery in a sneering an d grotesque way. The distan c ing o f the them e established by grotesque an d m ockery is to be explained in the light o f the general aim s which W itkiewicz a p pointed to him self as a d ram atist.
His chief concern in plays, novels an d philosophical w ritings was the decline an d fall o f the individual cau gh t up in the p ro cess o f social developm ent which, according to Witkiewicz, was bringing the dow nfall o f religion, o f a rt a n d o f philosophy. A rt and philosophy are m anifestations o f the h u m an individual; they furnish m an with a m etaphysical experience w hich, in turn, sup po rts his uniqueness an d his sense o f inner unity. A rt is capable o f bringing a b o u t the experience o f the M ystery o f Being by its sheer co nstruction al features which W itkiewicz called Pure F orm in his system o f aesthetics. The inability to experience the M ystery o f Being, o f experiencing m etaphysics in general, is the price which m an
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kind pays for the benefits o f social progress, o f the developm ent o f social justice and o f dem ocracy. T he basic question for the a u th o r and for his heroes is how to retain the benefits o f progress w ithout bringing a b o u t the d eath o f the individual and the end o f art and philosophy. T he heroes eith er attem p t to face the dang er on a global scale (like Leon in M atka), o r they ju s t try to save their own persons by finding access to m etaphysics. Y et, m etaphysical ecstasy is not to be h ad fo r m erely w anting it. It can not be achieved even by co n scious attem p ts to arrange o n e ’s life in search o f stro ng experiences. W itkiewicz's heroes talk a b o u t initiation, they m ake attem p ts to gain it, bu t they live in a w orld in which it is no longer possible. T h eir individuality has already been castrated by social progress a n d the only thing which connects them with the w orld into which they can n o t en ter any m ore is the consciousness th a t they have lost som ething o f extrem e, priceless value. T hose w ho m ay com e after them will no longer be conscious even o f th e loss. M eanw hile, the heroes organize clubs o f initiates, b ro th erh o o d s o f searchers for the A bsolute, b u t w hatever they d o is tainted w ith disbelief, with pretend ing, or even with bad faith. In itiatio n has becom e im possible because the candid ates are deprived o f th eir m etaphysical ro o ts; their tragedy is the im possibility o f reaching their goal. W hat is m ore, they a re so ridiculous and u n au th en tic in their m isfortune th a t w hat they present is not tragedy, but grotesque. W hat Villiers an d S trindberg treated with earnest, W itkiewicz m ust trea t with jeers an d sarcasm .
W itkiewicz presents in his plays either the attem p ts to penetrate the m ystery which are doom ed to failure from their very beginning, o r a strange w orld in which m ysteries are revealed am ong fake, falsified surroundings. The very subjects o f Villiers. an d S trindberg which these au th o rs were able to treat in a serious way now simply m ust be tain ted with laughter. M otifs o f S trindb erg o r o f E dgar A llan Poe (w hom both S trindberg an d W itkiewicz had in high esteem ) m ay ap p e a r in the plays o f the Polish au th o r, but they d o so in a significantly m odified way. In M eta fizyka dwugłowego cielęcia (The
M etaphysics o f a Two-H eaded Calf) there a p p e ars a m ysterious hooded
ch a racter — th e em bodim ent an d ann o u n cer o f the plague. It is called K ala-A zar. as the play is located in New G u in ea an d A ustralia. R esem blances with P o e’s M asque o f Red Death are striking. When unm asked, the strange new com er appears, however, to be a dandy
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in a dress c o a t—a playboy from Sidney o f the nam e o f M oorphy. Still, he says th a t he is an em bodim ent o f the plague an d we are left uncertain a b o u t w hat is true, o r we ra th e r d o not know w hat we are to believe.
The Beelzebub Sonata presents a still m ore poig nan t exam ple.
A ccording to an old legend Beelzebub is to ap p e a r in a sm all tow n in H u n g ary in o rd e r to find a victim who, w hen possessed by him, is to com pose a so n ata th a t will be the em bod im en t o f m etaphysical evil. Hell in the play resem bles a m usic-hall, bu t the m usic-hall is situated at the b o tto m o f a disused pit. Ju st when we have started believing th a t w hat we see is a genuine cafe c h a n ta n t (although we do not know w ho runs it and for w hat purpose it has been opened in a pit), H ell appears again, this tim e next d o o r to the draw ing room o f the Baroness, one o f the characters o f the play. Witkiewicz disconcerts his audiences by cleverly using the dialectics o f created and destroyed illusion. Every tim e we have accepted a solu tion. we are forced to d ro p it, and finally we do no t know which attitu d e to choose. T he procedure which W itkiewicz uses in o rd e r to achieve such effects seems to point to conn ection s with som e devices introduced in d ra m a by Sym bolist authors.
They were attra cted by esoteric lore m ainly because it gave them a chance to introduce new, unused im ages an d new contents. As far as form goes, such interests im plied the rejection o f realism or n a tu ra lism y. T his is th e case in A x e l, alth o u g h Villiers was closer to R om anticism than to strictly taken Sym bolism . Strindberg w ho h ad never been a full-fledged natu ralist was gradually going aw ay from naturalism in the course o f his developm ent. Still, his connections with Sym bolism were o f a fairly com plicated n ature. W itkiewicz to tally rejected realism and n atu ralism ; he anathem ized the kind o f sym bolism represented by M aeterlinck, alth o u g h he used the m eans and ways elab o rated by o th er representatives o f the Sym bolist m ove m ent. The action o f S trin d b erg ’s plays o f his late period (e.g. P a rt I o f To D am ascusl()) is located in a b o rd erlan d between dream and
D. G e r o u l d , J. K o s i c k a , “T he D ra m a o f the U nseen. T u rn -o f-th e C en tu ry P arad ig m s fo r O ccult D ra m a .” ibidem, pp. 6 —7.
10 G . B r a n d e l l . Strindberg in Inferno, tran sl. by B. Ja co b s. C am bridge. M ass.. 1974. pp. 222 — 276; E. T o r n q v i s t . “ S trin d b erg a n d th e D ra m a o f H a lf-R ea lity .” [in:] Strindberg a n d M odern Theatre.
realism . T he w orld in the plays o f W itkiewicz which is co n stru ct ed according to the dialectical principle o f creating and shattering illusion seems to be a fu rth er developm ent o f S trin d b erg ’s concept. In spite o f all the differences there is a sim ilarity in this respect betw een Villiers, S trindberg, and W itkiewicz an d it is possible to establish here som e scale o f evolution.
The three w riters in troduce the them e o f initiation in to their w orks, although initiation can no longer be achieved by the heroes o f W itkiewicz. In A x e l the su p ern atu ral ap p ears in a way which harm onizes with the atm osphere o f m ystery: everything is still possible. S trindberg suspends the w orld o f his later plays between dream and reality. W itkiewicz refuses to m ake a choice between realism and fantasy and accepts an issue th at m ight have seemed im possible to his predecessors: he chose a way which was neither fantasy nor realism .
