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The Metaphysics of Sex: Strindberg, Weininger and S. I. Witkiewicz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Lech Sokół
Lech Sokół
Affiliation:
Lech Sokot isProfessor at the State Academy of Drama and Theatre, Warsaw.
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Extract

‘Otto Weininger sent me his Geschlecht und Charakter, a terrific book that seems to solve the most difficult of all problems. He pronounces clearly what I only managed to utter. Voilà un homme!’ These words, from Strindberg's article ‘Idolatry, Gynolatry’ are meant as an homage to Otto Weininger (1880–1903) who was barely twenty-three years old when he committed suicide. Strindberg's article was published by the famous Vienna periodical Die Fackel which played an important part in defending and propagating Weininger and his book. Weininger's extraordinary and scandalous work, the full title of which is Geschlecht und Charakter. Eine prinzipielle Untersuchung (Sex and Character. A Fundamental Investigation; English edition – 1906) was published in June 1903. It was a revised version of his doctoral thesis presented at Vienna University in June 1902. Outstanding as the book is, it also posseses some disturbing features and it did not receive the welcome its author had expected. This poor reception, or rather the lack of any serious response, was an important factor in the author's suicide on 4 October 1903. The book became the subject of critical interest only after its author's death: suicide turned out to be a good advertisement.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , Spring 1987 , pp. 39 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1987

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References

Notes

1. I quote Strindberg's article from Le Rider, Jacques, Le cas Otto Weininger. Racines de l'antiféminisme et l'antisémitisme (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982), p. 137.Google Scholar In volume 54 of the standard Swedish edition of Strindberg's works this article is published as Weininger. An Obituary Notice/Weininger. Eftermäle; the above words are omitted from the article (cf. Samlade skrifter av August Strindberg. Femtiofjärde delen. Suplementdel I: Efterslater, Stockholm: Bonniers, 1920, pp. 412–14).Google Scholar

2. Cf. Le Rider, J., Le cas Otto Weininger, pp. 151–2.Google Scholar

3. Cf. Robert, Marthe, ‘Strindberg et Weininger’Google Scholar, in: Obliques, 1972, no. 1Google Scholar: Strindberg, p. 72.Google Scholar

4. Ibidem.

5. cf. Le Rider, , op. cit., pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

6. Weininger, Otto, Plec i charakter. Rozbiór zasadniczyGoogle Scholar, Polish translation by Ostap Ortwin, Warszawa: Biblioteka Dziel Naukowych, 1926, vol. II, p. 6.

7. Ibidem, p. 7.

8. Ibidem, p. 96.

9. Cf.Le Rider, J., op. cit., pp. 121–5.Google Scholar

10. Weininger, O., op. cit., p. 216.Google Scholar

11. Ibidem, p. 113.

12. Cf. Le Rider, , op. cit., pp. 168–9.Google Scholar

13. Pomian, Krzysztof, Powiesc jako uypowiedz filozoficzna (Próba strukturalnej analizy ‘Nienasycenia’)Google Scholar, in: Studia o Stanislawie Ignacym Witkiewiczu. Edited by Glowinski, Michal and Slawinski, Janusz, Wroclaw: Ossolineum, 1972, pp. 9–31.Google Scholar

14. Stanislaw Przybyszewski published an essay in Die Fackel (1907)Google Scholar entitled ‘Das Geschlecht’ (‘The Sex’) dedicated to ‘Weininger's shadows’. In 1906 Felicja Nossig published Man and Woman. A Psychological Study Based on Weininger's Work ‘Geschlecht und Charakter’. In 1911, Leo Belmont published Otto Weininger; Genius and Enemy of Woman; Adam Zielenczyk wrote an article in Sfinks on the metaphysics of sex, from Plato to Schopenhauer and Weininger; Ostap Ortwin published the first edition of his translation of Sex and Character.

15. Witkiewicz, then director of the Formist Theatre, Zakopane, presented the Polish première of The Ghost Sonata in 1926.Google Scholar

16. In Witkiewicz, 's Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes, or The Green PillGoogle Scholar (Beelzebub Sonata, Plays, Essays and Documents). Edited and translated by Gerould, Daniel and Kosicka, Jadwiga, New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1980, p. 113)Google Scholar the innocent and virginal Tarquinius, expert in erotic theory, states: ‘I know the Kamasutra and Weininger, Freud and the Babylonian sexologists.’

17. Weininger, O., op. cit., vol. I, p. 56.Google Scholar

18. Gerould, Daniel, Witkacy. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1981, pp. 35–6.Google Scholar

19. Pomian, K., op. cit., p. 15.Google Scholar

20. Ibidem, p. 19.

21. Witkiewicz, S. I., The Madman and the Nun and Other Plays, translated and edited by Gerould, Daniel and Durer, C. S. (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1968) pp. 232–3.Google Scholar