Chaotic reality in Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz and The Investigation by Stanisław Lem

Abstract

In my article, I compare Cosmos, a novel by Witold Gombrowicz with The Investigation, written by Stanisław Lem, highlighting the similarities in showing the philosophical problem of the individual being confronted with chaos – the underlying element of reality.

Recognizing that both works, apart from purely literary elements, contain philosophical reflections, I subject them to a detailed analysis in that scope, establishing that both The Investigation and Cosmos refer to the notions of chance and chaos in the same way as these notions are shaped by existential philosophy. Both works, in their narrative layer, manifest a process, which initially aims to explain the reasons of a single phenomenon’s occurrence, but ultimately leads  to the discovery of the lack of not only the principle explaining that particular phenomenon but also of the one ordering the whole reality – the characters in both novels are confronted with the chaos of singular and individual elements that intertwine with one another in an entirely random and casual manner, creating only an illusion of order. In this aspect, both aforementioned works are philosophical treatises ‘disguised’ as novels and, in terms of final conclusions, share a similar metaphysical concept, attempting to find and define the universal underlying element of the surrounding reality.
concept, attempting to find and define the universal underlying element of the surrounding reality.