Criminals, Artists, and Madmen: The Crazy Locomotive and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's Aesthetics of Crime.
Given the general instability of societal norms in Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's dramatic output, the concept of crime may seem inadequate for capturing the excessive violence underwriting these works. However, the obsessiveness with which the playwright invokes the theme of criminality warrants a c...
| Publicado en: | Polish Review Vol. 71; no. 2; pp. 81 - 103 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Illinois Press
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=193784263&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 193784263 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00322970 PLE jtl: Polish Review issn: 00322970 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 vid: 71 iid: 2 pid: 416 pub: University of Illinois Press artinfo: ui: 193784263 10.5406/23300841.71.2.04 ppf: 81 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 224KB tig: atl: Criminals, Artists, and Madmen: The Crazy Locomotive and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's Aesthetics of Crime. aug: au: Wodzyński, Łukasz affil: University of Wisconsin-Madison su: Recidivists Dramatists Violence Modernity Themes in literature Crises sug: subj: Recidivists Dramatists Violence Modernity Themes in literature Crises keyword: crime criminal modernity Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939) The Crazy Locomotive ab: Given the general instability of societal norms in Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's dramatic output, the concept of crime may seem inadequate for capturing the excessive violence underwriting these works. However, the obsessiveness with which the playwright invokes the theme of criminality warrants a closer look at the "vocational" criminals that populate his plays. This essay examines these ambiguous figures, focusing on Witkiewicz's Szalona lokomotywa [The crazy locomotive, 1923, 1962], where "crime for crime's sake" receives the most extensive treatment. My study unfolds in three stages. First, I trace the criminal motif in the broader context of violence that characterizes Witkacy's dramas, highlighting crime's transgressive potential but also its association with existential defeat. Second, I examine the "committed" criminal as he emerges in later plays, suggesting that existing scholarly typologies have largely overlooked this figure's ambivalent complexity, especially when it comes to its role in the author's catastrophic historiosophy. To illustrate my point, the final section of the article demonstrates how the criminal plot of The Crazy Locomotive subverts and revises the basic tenets of Witkacy's familiar outlook on modernity. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Polish Review is the property of University of Illinois Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Polish Review holder: University of Illinois Press dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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