At first glance, our erotic drama comes across as a somewhat exotic educational manual that aims to reform the eternal battle of the sexes into a form that benefits the family and the state. However, Gombrowicz's text - like the writer's entire oeuvre - subtly plays with the proclaimed seriousness of its subject: it undermines the naive pathos with subdued irony, thus elegantly teetering on the very edge of mystification. Human hypocrisy is the author's lifelong theme, which, as a hidden thread, connects the essays in this publication: the acceptance of "masks" in the form of false ideas, appearances, myths, atavisms, customs and cults. Our erotic drama is thus not a mere "supplement" to Gombrowicz's work, but a full-fledged part of it, a concentrated document of the writer's thought and style.
Czech edition