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24
Introduction
relativenovelisticspace-timevariabilityormediationofcharacters’voic-
es,buttheyemploymonologicity,concurrencyandorality-phenomena
ofdramaticorigin.Theshowingmodeisutilisedinordertoenrichthe
traditionalnovelisticsemantics,nottoquestionornegateit.Thatisto
say,Gombrowiczisheavilyindebtedtotheepicmodebecauseheuses
veryspecificepicgenres.ThedominantgenreusedinTrans-Atlantyk,
PornografiaandCosmosisfictionalautobiography.Yetitsmainfeatures,
suchasthefinishednessoftherelatedevents,stableandsolidmemory
andknowledge,andthedominanceofthenarrateddomain,arepartly
subvertedbymonologicity,concurrencyandorality.Thethreedevices
introducetheHdramatic”atthecostofthenarrative,butatthesametime
theyheavilyrelyuponit.Thesetwoopposingsemanticsystemscreate
asortofcontinuumwithvaryingintensity:oncecomingclosertothedra-
matic,theothertimetothenarrative.Theygohandinhandandbecome
integratedinthenovel.Gombrowicz’snovelsarethus,byandlarge,co-
herent,uniformandsuccessive.
BeckettinturnoffersaHtheatrical”novelinthathegoesfurtherindis-
mantlingthenarrativestructureofthenovelform.Itmoreapproximates
aspectacleandalivestageeventbypreferringdeicticstabilityovervari-
abilityandcompleteabsorptionofthenarratedrealminthemonologi-
cal,concurrentandoralworks.Beckett’snovelsgofurtherthanGom-
browicz’sinthattheirsemanticsmakenarrativechangeitsfundamental
function.Firstofall,itisnotthe(present)narratingof(past)eventsbut
the(present)narratingofthenarratingofthe(past)events.Theprocess
isthereforemoreauto-reflexiveandcritical.Itaccentuatesthenarrative
subjectinchargeoftheveryprocess.Secondly,thenarratingprovides
matrixnotforcomplexsemanticunitscomposedbymeansofsentenc-
esandparagraphsbutforsmallsemanticunits:wordsandsounds.The
fundamentallydistinctsemantics,Gombrowicz’sdramaticandBeckett’s
theatrical,arethemainreasonsfordealingwiththePolishnovelistfirst
andonlysubsequentlydiscussingtheIrishwriter.
Finally,Beckett’sHtheatrical”narrativesasaconceptisareversal
ofGontarski’sargumentofBeckett’sHnarrativetheater,”thatis,theatre
Hwherenarrativedominates”[2004:199].HehypothesisesthatHThekey
tothelatetexts[byBeckett-B.L.],proseandtheater[ł]is,then,Beckett’s
earliestfictionandpoetry”inwhichHidentityisverymuchthespectacle”
[2004:199].Simultaneously,myconceptalsoalludestoEnochBrater’s
observationsinDramaintheText:Beckett’sLateFiction.Thescholarde-
