Project idea
Andrzej Bobkowski is considered one of the most outstanding Polish diarists of the 20th century. In 1939, Bobkowski left Poland for France, where he wrote his famous diary between 1940 and 1944. After the Second World War, he emigrated to Guatemala, where he died of cancer at the age of 48. Unfortunately, he was almost completely forgotten during the People's Republic of Poland due to censorship measures. To this day, he is little known in Poland, although after the publication of Szkice piórokiem (1957) at the Instytut Literacki (Literary Institute), most intellectuals - not only in exile, but also at home - felt obliged to respond to this work. Today, there is an attempt to restore the memory of Bobkowski and this motivation is one of the pillars of the project. Most researchers point to the philosophical thoughts emanating from the diarist's texts, meanwhile, it is also worth looking at the artistic values of this prose, i.e. what constitutes Bobkowski's uniqueness not only as an intellectual, but above all as a writer. The project is therefore an attempt to restore Andrzej Bobkowski's place among artists of the word.
However, this is not an easy task, as most of his manuscripts and typescripts, which constitute the most valuable source for literary studies, are located outside Poland, an important part in the Literary Institute in Maisons-Laffitte and in the PIASA archive in New York. This is why the establishment of cooperation with the Jerzy Giedroyc Centre is so important. Thanks to the support of the Association of the Literary Institute "Kultura", it was possible to obtain numerous source materials, including Bobkowski's letters, essays and columns published in "Kultura".
In search of letters by Andrzej Bobkowski
The archives of the Kultura Literary Institute in Maisons-Laffitte preserve still unpublished texts concerning great writers of the 20th century. It was there that the search for hitherto unknown letters by the eminent Polish diarist Andrzej Bobkowski began. His magnum opus Szkice piókiem (Pen Sketches) was widely commented on and acknowledged by the most important writers of the last century, such as Witold Gombrowicz and Czesław Miłosz.
In the Institute's archives it was possible to find letters, which still have not been published by anyone, and which constitute an important testimony to what kind of person Bobkowski was. These texts reveal the attitude of a writer who preferred to face extreme poverty, suffer hunger and illness, rather than betray his professed values. And to renounce his individualism in favour of ideology.
Bobkowski is still, unfortunately, known only among specialists and graduates of Polish studies. One can hope that the research conducted in the project, as well as the forthcoming publications, will contribute to bringing the 'hooligan of freedom' out of the shadows and popularising him. For, to paraphrase Bobkowski himself, who wrote about the death of the philosopher Hermann Keyserling: "Today's Poland cannot afford to lose this kind of mind".
About the project
The project is being implemented as part of Science Hub of the University of Lodz - a university-wide collaboration platform that aims to support the UŁ academic community in implementing implementation of scientific projects in cooperation with the environment.
Project title: The archives of the Literary Institute as a source for research into Polish post-war literary culture
Supervisor: prof. dr hab. Marzena Woźniak-Łabieniec, Department of 20th-and 21st-Century Polish Literature, Faculty of Philology
Students: Agnieszka Nawrocka, Robert Grześkowiak, Natalia Jóźwiak, Filologia polska
Partner: Stowarzyszenie Instytut Literacki Kultura
Project description: The aim of the project is to create conditions for the use of the rich archival and library resources of the Literary Institute based in Maisons Laffitte, one of the most important centres in exile documenting Polish literary and cultural life.
Material: Project Team
Photo: Robert Grześkowiak
Edit: Science Hub UŁ