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Maria Janion

August 24, 2023

Maria Janion (24 December 1926 – 23 August 2020) was a Polish scholar, literary theorist and critic, as well as a feminist. She was a professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, specialising in literary Romanticism.[1]

Maria Janion
Maria Janion, portrait by Zbigniew Kresowaty
Born(1926-12-24)24 December 1926
Mońki, Poland
Died23 August 2020(2020-08-23) (aged 93)
Warsaw, Poland
Occupationliterary critic
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Warsaw
Academic work
Notable worksThe Project of Phantasmatic Criticism (1991)
Romanticism, Revolution, Marxism (1972)

Janion was also a member of the Polish Academy of Learning. She held an honorary degree from Gdańsk University.

Life and career

She was born on 24 December 1926 in Mońki, Second Polish Republic, to father Cyprian Janion and mother Ludwika (née Kurdyk). Until 1945 she resided in Vilnius, where she graduated from secondary school and spent the years of the Second World War. She was a member of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association (Polish: Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego, ZHP), which was affiliated with the Home Army, and worked as a liaison officer. After the war, she and her family moved to Bydgoszcz as a result of the postwar population transfers.[2]

In 1945, she passed the Matura high school leaving exam in Toruń. She studied Polish studies at the University of Łódź. Since 1946, she attended a literary criticism course run by Stefan Żółkiewski of the Kuźnica weekly magazine. In 1947, she started to publish her own articles and reviews and joined the Academic Union of Youth Struggle "Life". In 1948, she became a member of the editorial staff of the Wieś ("Countryside") weekly. In 1948, she was employed at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences where she worked until her retirement in 1996.[2]

Between the years 1948 and 1978 she was an active member of the Polish United Workers' Party.[citation needed]

In 1951, she obtained a master's degree from the University of Warsaw. In 1957, she started to work at the Higher Pedagogical School in Gdańsk (WSP). In 1968, she was appointed head of the Department of History of 19th-Century Literature. After the events of March 1968, she was dismissed from her position at the WSP as the communist authorities were concerned about her growing influence on the university students. Her lectures placed emphasis on revolutionary and libertarian aspects of Romanticism which did not adhere to the official and generally accepted interpretation of the literary canon and encouraged her students to adopt a bold, defiant and original perspective on Polish literature. After the establishment of the University of Gdańsk, she began to work at the Faculty of Polish Philology.[2]

In 1970 Janion joined secret societies aimed against communism in Poland. She was one of the founders of an independent Society of Study Courses. In 1973, she received the title of humanities professor. In 1979, she became a member of the Polish Writers' Union (Związek Literatów Polskich).[3]

She became more critical of the imposed views and values in regards to Polish literature, both classical and contemporary, and to Polish views on war, soldiers, heroism, military uprisings and martyrdom. In 1976 she published a study on war and form, discussing the recently published Private Journal of the Warsaw Uprising by poet Miron Białoszewski. Because she described the journal as a work portraying war and uprising from a civil, non-mythological, non-heroic perspective, she was widely criticized. She was accused, like Miron Białoszewski, of disgracing Polish values. Her independent opinions, which won respect among students and academic members, as well as her connections to the opposition, caused her to become a potential enemy of the state.[4]

When the Solidarity movement began, Janion signed the letter issued by 64 intellectuals supporting the strikes, yet calling for actions that would not contribute to bloodshed. In 1981 she made an appearance at the Congress of Polish Culture, which was interrupted by the introduction of martial law in Poland. She called for the huge national movement, which was so far mainly driven by passion, to be turned into an intellectual effort.[3]

In the 1990s, she joined the Society for Humanism and Independent Ethics (Stowarzyszenia na Rzecz Humanizmu i Etyki Niezależnej). In 1989, she became a member of the Polish Writers' Association and in 1991 the Polish PEN Club. In 1994, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Gdańsk.[5] Between 1997 and 2004 she served on the jury of the Nike Award, Poland's top literary prize, and from 2000 to 2004 she worked as chairperson of the jury. From 1992 until 2010, she continued to give open lectures at the Institute of Sociology and Philosophy of the Polish Academy of Sciences.[3]

She died at the age of 93 in Warsaw on 23 August, 2020.[6]

Romanticism as a revolution of thought

According to Janion, Romanticism is a revolution of thought which allows different insights into history, nature and humanity. She stressed that in Romanticism with time there is increasing importance of a sense of the absurd and grotesque with regard to existence, expressed in irony and melancholy. She traces the birth of Romanticism to the re-discovery of the modern "self", which in the beginning primarily manifested itself in individualism exploring the experience and the mystery of a particular existence. The Romantic imagination revealed a new reality: an inner world of dreams and phantasms. She introduced the idea of the "subconscious human" expressing previously hidden and repressed thoughts even though there still remained various spheres of suppression. The Romantic liberation was made possible thanks to the rejection of classicism and its dogmatic and one-dimensional understanding of tradition, which restricted imagination. The Romantic multilateral and pluralistic perspective on tradition became the basis for the new cultural paradigm. However, in her work The Romantic Fever, she demonstrates that Romanticism could not hold itself to a static and unambiguous system — not even among its epigones, since they merely reinforced its antinomies and transformed them into stereotypes.[7]

In her books, she discussed numerous aspects of this new paradigm such as the new Romantic hero; a radical violation of the death taboo; re-exploration of the hidden and forgotten which led to the ennobling of vernacular cultures (folk culture in particular, but also pagan, Slavic, Nordic and Oriental cultures); the concept of nature as a model; a mode of existence which in an inevitable way identifies creation with destruction or even self-destruction and life with death; the understanding of history as a theophany; the dramatic philosophy of existence stretching from salvation to nothingness; as well as suppressed existential experiences (that of a child, madman or a woman).

Uncanny Slavdom

In the book Niesamowita Słowiańszczyzna ("Uncanny Slavdom"), Janion deployed Edward Said's concept of Orientalism to prove that in the Middle Ages Western Slavs underwent colonization by Roman Catholicism. According to Janion, Poles entering the realm of Latin influence severed them from pagan tradition and has become for them a source of trauma, which continues to affect their present collective identity. This interpretation has been challenged by Dariusz Skórczewski[8] as a misapplication of postcolonial theory and a misinterpretation of the role of Christianity in the Polish lands.

Personal life

She publicly came out as a lesbian in book entitled Janion. Transe – traumy – transgresje.[9] She actively promoted feminism in Poland and was known for her criticism of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and misogyny.[10]

Awards and honours

Published works

In Polish:

  • Lucjan Siemieński, poeta romantyczny, PIW, Warsaw, 1955
  • Zygmunt Krasiński, debiut i dojrzałość, Wiedza Powszechna, Warsaw, 1962
  • Romantyzm. Studia o ideach i stylu, PIW, Warsaw, 1969
  • Romantyzm, rewolucja, marksizm, ("Romanticism, Revolution, Marxism"), Wydawnictwo Morskie, Gdańsk, 1972
  • Humanistyka: Poznanie i terapia, PIW, Warsaw, 1974
  • Gorączka romantyczna, ("Romantic Fever"), PIW, Warsaw, 1975
  • Romantyzm i historia ("Romanticism and History"), co-written with Maria Żmigrodzka, PIW, Warsaw, 1978
  • Odnawianie znaczeń, ("The Refurbishment of Meanings"), Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1980
  • Czas formy otwartej, PIW, Warsaw, 1984
  • Wobec zła, ("In View of Evil"), Verba, Chotomów, 1989
  • Życie pośmiertne Konrada Wallenroda, ("The Posthumous Life of Konrad Wallenrod"), PIW, Warsaw, 1990
  • Projekt krytyki fantazmatycznej ("The Project of Phantasmatic Criticism"), PEN, Warsaw, 1991
  • Kuźnia natury, Gdańsk, 1994
  • Kobiety i duch inności, ("Women and the Spirit of Dissidence"), Warsaw, 1996
  • Czy będziesz wiedział, co przeżyłeś, Warsaw, 1996
  • Płacz generała. Eseje o wojnie, Warsaw, 1998
  • Odyseja wychowania. Goetheańska wizja człowieka w "Latach nauki i latach wędrówki Wilhelma Meistra", co-written with Maria Żmigrodzka, Aureus, Kraków, 1998
  • Do Europy - tak, ale razem z naszymi umarłymi ("To Europe : Yes, but Together with our Dead"), Warsaw, 2000[17]
  • Purpurowy płaszcz Mickiewicza. Studium z historii poezji i mentalności, Gdańsk, 2001
  • Żyjąc tracimy życie: niepokojące tematy egzystencji, ("Living to Lose Live"), W.A.B., Warsaw, 2001
  • Wampir: biografia symboliczna ("Vampire: A Symbolic Biography"), Gdańsk, 2002
  • Romantyzm i egzystencja, ("Romanticism and Existence") with Maria Żmigrodzka, 2004
  • Niesamowita Słowiańszczyzna, WL, Kraków, 2006

In English:

References

  1. ^ Gozlinski, Pawel (4 April 2011). "What they're reading in Poland". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "Maria Janion". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  3. ^ a b c "Biogram". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  4. ^ "Jest jedną z najsłynniejszych badaczek polskiej literatury. Maria Janion kończy 90 lat". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  5. ^ "Doktorzy Honorowi Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  6. ^ "MARIA JANION NIE ŻYJE. MIAŁA 93 LATA". Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  7. ^ ""Gorączka romantyczna", Maria Janion, Warszawa 1975: recenzja" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-08-06.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ Skórczewski, Dariusz (2020). Polish Literature and National Identity: A Postcolonial Perspective. Rochester: University of Rochester Press - Boydell & Brewer. pp. 193–207. ISBN 9781580469784.
  9. ^ . Archived from the original on 2017-02-26. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  10. ^ "Maria Janion. Rozmowy poszczególne". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  11. ^ . Archived from the original on 2019-08-05. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  12. ^ . Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  13. ^ . Archived from the original on 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  14. ^ "Laureaci Nagrody Miasta Gdańska w Dziedzinie Kultury "Splendor Gedanensis"". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  15. ^ "MARIA JANION KOMANDORKĄ FRANCUSKIEGO NARODOWEGO ORDERU ZASŁUGI". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  16. ^ "Maria Janion z Nagrodą PEN Clubu im. Jana Parandowskiego". Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  17. ^ "To Europe : Yes, but Together with our Dead - Maria Janion". Retrieved 2019-08-06.

August 24, 2023
maria, janion, december, 1926, august, 2020, polish, scholar, literary, theorist, critic, well, feminist, professor, institute, literary, research, polish, academy, sciences, specialising, literary, romanticism, portrait, zbigniew, kresowatyborn, 1926, decembe. Maria Janion 24 December 1926 23 August 2020 was a Polish scholar literary theorist and critic as well as a feminist She was a professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences specialising in literary Romanticism 1 Maria JanionMaria Janion portrait by Zbigniew KresowatyBorn 1926 12 24 24 December 1926Monki PolandDied23 August 2020 2020 08 23 aged 93 Warsaw PolandOccupationliterary criticAcademic backgroundAlma materUniversity of WarsawAcademic workNotable worksThe Project of Phantasmatic Criticism 1991 Romanticism Revolution Marxism 1972 Janion was also a member of the Polish Academy of Learning She held an honorary degree from Gdansk University Contents 1 Life and career 2 Romanticism as a revolution of thought 3 Uncanny Slavdom 4 Personal life 5 Awards and honours 6 Published works 7 ReferencesLife and career EditShe was born on 24 December 1926 in Monki Second Polish Republic to father Cyprian Janion and mother Ludwika nee Kurdyk Until 1945 she resided in Vilnius where she graduated from secondary school and spent the years of the Second World War She was a member of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association Polish Zwiazek Harcerstwa Polskiego ZHP which was affiliated with the Home Army and worked as a liaison officer After the war she and her family moved to Bydgoszcz as a result of the postwar population transfers 2 In 1945 she passed the Matura high school leaving exam in Torun She studied Polish studies at the University of Lodz Since 1946 she attended a literary criticism course run by Stefan Zolkiewski of the Kuznica weekly magazine In 1947 she started to publish her own articles and reviews and joined the Academic Union of Youth Struggle Life In 1948 she became a member of the editorial staff of the Wies Countryside weekly In 1948 she was employed at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences where she worked until her retirement in 1996 2 Between the years 1948 and 1978 she was an active member of the Polish United Workers Party citation needed In 1951 she obtained a master s degree from the University of Warsaw In 1957 she started to work at the Higher Pedagogical School in Gdansk WSP In 1968 she was appointed head of the Department of History of 19th Century Literature After the events of March 1968 she was dismissed from her position at the WSP as the communist authorities were concerned about her growing influence on the university students Her lectures placed emphasis on revolutionary and libertarian aspects of Romanticism which did not adhere to the official and generally accepted interpretation of the literary canon and encouraged her students to adopt a bold defiant and original perspective on Polish literature After the establishment of the University of Gdansk she began to work at the Faculty of Polish Philology 2 In 1970 Janion joined secret societies aimed against communism in Poland She was one of the founders of an independent Society of Study Courses In 1973 she received the title of humanities professor In 1979 she became a member of the Polish Writers Union Zwiazek Literatow Polskich 3 She became more critical of the imposed views and values in regards to Polish literature both classical and contemporary and to Polish views on war soldiers heroism military uprisings and martyrdom In 1976 she published a study on war and form discussing the recently published Private Journal of the Warsaw Uprising by poet Miron Bialoszewski Because she described the journal as a work portraying war and uprising from a civil non mythological non heroic perspective she was widely criticized She was accused like Miron Bialoszewski of disgracing Polish values Her independent opinions which won respect among students and academic members as well as her connections to the opposition caused her to become a potential enemy of the state 4 When the Solidarity movement began Janion signed the letter issued by 64 intellectuals supporting the strikes yet calling for actions that would not contribute to bloodshed In 1981 she made an appearance at the Congress of Polish Culture which was interrupted by the introduction of martial law in Poland She called for the huge national movement which was so far mainly driven by passion to be turned into an intellectual effort 3 In the 1990s she joined the Society for Humanism and Independent Ethics Stowarzyszenia na Rzecz Humanizmu i Etyki Niezaleznej In 1989 she became a member of the Polish Writers Association and in 1991 the Polish PEN Club In 1994 she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Gdansk 5 Between 1997 and 2004 she served on the jury of the Nike Award Poland s top literary prize and from 2000 to 2004 she worked as chairperson of the jury From 1992 until 2010 she continued to give open lectures at the Institute of Sociology and Philosophy of the Polish Academy of Sciences 3 She died at the age of 93 in Warsaw on 23 August 2020 6 Romanticism as a revolution of thought EditAccording to Janion Romanticism is a revolution of thought which allows different insights into history nature and humanity She stressed that in Romanticism with time there is increasing importance of a sense of the absurd and grotesque with regard to existence expressed in irony and melancholy She traces the birth of Romanticism to the re discovery of the modern self which in the beginning primarily manifested itself in individualism exploring the experience and the mystery of a particular existence The Romantic imagination revealed a new reality an inner world of dreams and phantasms She introduced the idea of the subconscious human expressing previously hidden and repressed thoughts even though there still remained various spheres of suppression The Romantic liberation was made possible thanks to the rejection of classicism and its dogmatic and one dimensional understanding of tradition which restricted imagination The Romantic multilateral and pluralistic perspective on tradition became the basis for the new cultural paradigm However in her work The Romantic Fever she demonstrates that Romanticism could not hold itself to a static and unambiguous system not even among its epigones since they merely reinforced its antinomies and transformed them into stereotypes 7 In her books she discussed numerous aspects of this new paradigm such as the new Romantic hero a radical violation of the death taboo re exploration of the hidden and forgotten which led to the ennobling of vernacular cultures folk culture in particular but also pagan Slavic Nordic and Oriental cultures the concept of nature as a model a mode of existence which in an inevitable way identifies creation with destruction or even self destruction and life with death the understanding of history as a theophany the dramatic philosophy of existence stretching from salvation to nothingness as well as suppressed existential experiences that of a child madman or a woman Uncanny Slavdom EditIn the book Niesamowita Slowianszczyzna Uncanny Slavdom Janion deployed Edward Said s concept of Orientalism to prove that in the Middle Ages Western Slavs underwent colonization by Roman Catholicism According to Janion Poles entering the realm of Latin influence severed them from pagan tradition and has become for them a source of trauma which continues to affect their present collective identity This interpretation has been challenged by Dariusz Skorczewski 8 as a misapplication of postcolonial theory and a misinterpretation of the role of Christianity in the Polish lands Personal life EditShe publicly came out as a lesbian in book entitled Janion Transe traumy transgresje 9 She actively promoted feminism in Poland and was known for her criticism of racism anti Semitism homophobia and misogyny 10 Awards and honours EditZycie Literackie Award for the book Romantyzm rewolucja marksizm Romanticism Revolution Marxism 1972 Polish Academy of Sciences Secretary Award for the book Goraczka romantyczna Romantic Fever 1977 Polish Academy of Sciences Secretary Award for the book Romantyzm i historia Romanticism and History co written with Maria Zmigrodzka 1979 Jurzykowski Prize 1980 Honorary degree at the University of Gdansk 1994 Great Culture Foundation Award Nagroda Wielkiej Fundacji Kultury 1999 Kazimierz Wyka Award 2001 11 Amicus Hominis et Veritatis Prize 2005 Golden Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis 2007 12 Paszport Polityki Award 2007 Finalist of the Nike Award for the book Niesamowita slowianszczyzna 2007 13 Splendor Gedanensis Award 2007 14 Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage 2009 Hiacynt LGBT Award conferred by the Equality Foundation 2009 Special Award of the Congress of Women 2010 Ordre national du Merite France 2012 15 Jan Parandowski PEN Club Prize 2018 16 Published works EditIn Polish Lucjan Siemienski poeta romantyczny PIW Warsaw 1955 Zygmunt Krasinski debiut i dojrzalosc Wiedza Powszechna Warsaw 1962 Romantyzm Studia o ideach i stylu PIW Warsaw 1969 Romantyzm rewolucja marksizm Romanticism Revolution Marxism Wydawnictwo Morskie Gdansk 1972 Humanistyka Poznanie i terapia PIW Warsaw 1974 Goraczka romantyczna Romantic Fever PIW Warsaw 1975 Romantyzm i historia Romanticism and History co written with Maria Zmigrodzka PIW Warsaw 1978 Odnawianie znaczen The Refurbishment of Meanings Wydawnictwo Literackie Krakow 1980 Czas formy otwartej PIW Warsaw 1984 Wobec zla In View of Evil Verba Chotomow 1989 Zycie posmiertne Konrada Wallenroda The Posthumous Life of Konrad Wallenrod PIW Warsaw 1990 Projekt krytyki fantazmatycznej The Project of Phantasmatic Criticism PEN Warsaw 1991 Kuznia natury Gdansk 1994 Kobiety i duch innosci Women and the Spirit of Dissidence Warsaw 1996 Czy bedziesz wiedzial co przezyles Warsaw 1996 Placz generala Eseje o wojnie Warsaw 1998 Odyseja wychowania Goetheanska wizja czlowieka w Latach nauki i latach wedrowki Wilhelma Meistra co written with Maria Zmigrodzka Aureus Krakow 1998 Do Europy tak ale razem z naszymi umarlymi To Europe Yes but Together with our Dead Warsaw 2000 17 Purpurowy plaszcz Mickiewicza Studium z historii poezji i mentalnosci Gdansk 2001 Zyjac tracimy zycie niepokojace tematy egzystencji Living to Lose Live W A B Warsaw 2001 Wampir biografia symboliczna Vampire A Symbolic Biography Gdansk 2002 Romantyzm i egzystencja Romanticism and Existence with Maria Zmigrodzka 2004 Niesamowita Slowianszczyzna WL Krakow 2006In English Hero Conspiracy and Death The Jewish Lectures translated by Alex Shannon 2014 Poland Between the West and the East translated by Anna Warso 2014 in Teksty Drugie 1 pp 13 33 Special Issue English Edition http rcin org pl Content 51830 WA248 71041 P I 2524 janion poland pdf References Edit Gozlinski Pawel 4 April 2011 What they re reading in Poland The Guardian Retrieved 19 April 2011 a b c Maria Janion Retrieved 2019 08 05 a b c Biogram Retrieved 2019 08 05 Jest jedna z najslynniejszych badaczek polskiej literatury Maria Janion konczy 90 lat Retrieved 2019 08 05 Doktorzy Honorowi Uniwersytetu Gdanskiego Retrieved 2019 08 05 MARIA JANION NIE ZYJE MIALA 93 LATA Retrieved 2020 08 23 Goraczka romantyczna Maria Janion Warszawa 1975 recenzja PDF Retrieved 2019 08 06 permanent dead link Skorczewski Dariusz 2020 Polish Literature and National Identity A Postcolonial Perspective Rochester University of Rochester Press Boydell amp Brewer pp 193 207 ISBN 9781580469784 Coming out Marii Janion Archived from the original on 2017 02 26 Retrieved 2017 02 25 Maria Janion Rozmowy poszczegolne Retrieved 2019 08 05 Laureat 2001 Maria Janion Archived from the original on 2019 08 05 Retrieved 2019 08 05 Gloria Artis dla badaczy polskiej literatury Archived from the original on 2015 07 22 Retrieved 2019 08 05 Nike 2007 Archived from the original on 2019 03 27 Retrieved 2019 08 05 Laureaci Nagrody Miasta Gdanska w Dziedzinie Kultury Splendor Gedanensis Retrieved 2019 08 05 MARIA JANION KOMANDORKA FRANCUSKIEGO NARODOWEGO ORDERU ZASLUGI Retrieved 2019 08 05 Maria Janion z Nagroda PEN Clubu im Jana Parandowskiego Retrieved 2019 08 05 To Europe Yes but Together with our Dead Maria Janion Retrieved 2019 08 06 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Maria Janion amp oldid 1155243114, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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