2013 Vol. 4 №4

This article analyses W. Gombrowicz’s novel Pornografia as a parodic interpretation of Nietzsche’s overman philosophy. The myth of the fall of man from the Book of Genesis and the biblical and eschatological myth of Antichrist are considered as the interpretive key to the novel.

The article identifies the conditions of the realisation of such crucial feature of V. Pyetuskh’s creative method as irony. It is shown that his irony is aimed at the key elements of the Russian identity — the history of Russia and the Russian national character. In this conditions, irony aims to emphasise weaknesses under the guise of humour in order to gather strength to overcome them in every moment of the present.