Gabriela Zapolska
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Maria Gabriela Stefania Korwin-Piotrowska (1857–1921), known as Gabriela Zapolska, was a Polish novelist,
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic and stage actress. Zapolska wrote 41 plays, 23 novels, 177 short stories, 252 works of journalism, one film script, and over 1,500 letters. Zapolska received most recognition for her socio-satirical comedies. Among them, ''The Morality of Mrs. Dulska'' – a tragic-farce about petty-
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
– is considered the most famous internationally. It is regarded as a landmark of early modernist Polish drama. Her stage plays were translated into foreign languages, and performed at Polish and European theatres, as well as adapted for radio and film. Zapolska herself acted on stage in over 200 plays in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań,
Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
, Saint Petersburg and Paris.


Life

Zapolska was born on 30 March 1857 in
Podhajce Pidhaitsi ( uk, Підгайці, Pidhajci, pl, Podhajce, yi, פּידײַיִץ, Podhaitza) is a small city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is located ''ca.'' 15.5 mi south of Berezhany, 43.5 mi from Ternopil ...
in
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
, to a wealthy family of Polish landed gentry. At that time, as a result of the Third Partition of Poland, this territory was annexed by Austria-Hungary. Her father, Wincenty Kazimierz Jan Korwin-Piotrowski, was a marshal of Volhynian
szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...
. Her mother - Józefa Karska, a former ballet dance

Zapolska studied at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris, Sacré Coeur Institute and in the Institute of Education and Science in
Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
. In 1876 she was forced by her family to marry a Polish lieutenant in the Tsarist guard, Konstanty Śnieżko-Błocki, but soon left him and divorced in 1888. During the years of 1879–1880 she lived in Warsaw, where she acted in an amateur theatre ran by the Philanthropy Society. In 1881 Zapolska became pregnant by an out-of-wedlock relationship and left her family. The same year she made her own short story debut by ''Jeden dzień z życia róży'' (''One Day in the Life of a Rose''). The following year, in 1882, she became a professional actress in the Kraków theatre, and assumed the pseudonym of Gabriela Zapolska. She also acted in Poznań, and in travelling troupes throughout the
Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
. In October 1888 she reportedly made a suicide attempt. In 1889 Zapolska moved to Paris in hope to make an artistic career. There, she played minor roles in boulevard theatres, Théâtre Libre and Théâtre de l'Œuvre. She played in a stage adaptation of ''Intérieur'' (''Interior'') by Maurice Maeterlinck in Théâtre de l'Oeuvre. In Paris, Zapolska established contacts within the artistic milieu as well as with Polish socialist emigrants, which influenced her social views. After coming back to her country, she settled in Kraków and acted in garden theatres, travelling troupes, and then in Kraków
Juliusz Słowacki Theatre Juliusz Słowacki Theatre ( pl, Teatr im. Juliusza Słowackiego w Krakowie) is a 19th-century Eclectic theatre-opera house in the heart of Kraków, Poland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Erected in 1893, it was modeled after some of the best ...
directed by Tadeusz Pawlikowski. Her defiant, suffragist nature led to conflicts with theatre principals. Following Pawlikowski's departure, in 1900 she abandoned her contract. After that, Zapolska set up her own stage which was active time-by-time. In 1902 Zapolska ran a drama school in Kraków and the Gabriela Zapolska Independent Theatre was founded later. Her experiences in Paris let her to produce two Maeterlinck stage adaptations – ''Princess Maleine'', and ''L'Intruse'' (''The Intruder''), both produced in 1902. In 1904 she moved to Lwów and married a painter, Stanisław Janowski. She became a patron of the travelling theatre named after her (Gabriela Zapolska Theatre) which during the years of 1907–1908 toured
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
. She divorced her second husband in 1910. In the years of 1912–1913 Zapolska was a literary director of Teatr Premier. As a feuilletonist and theatre critic she collaborated with ''Gazeta Krakowska'', ''Słowo Polskie'', ''Nowa Reforma'', ''Ilustracja Polska'' and ''Wiek Nowy''. In 1915, after Lwów was captured by the Russian Army, she ran a small confectionery. Zapolska died on 17 December 1921 in
Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
(now Lviv, Ukraine) and buried at the
Lychakivskiy Cemetery Lychakiv Cemetery ( uk, Личаківський цвинтар, translit=Lychakivs’kyi tsvyntar; pl, Cmentarz Łyczakowski we Lwowie), officially State History and Culture Museum-Preserve "Lychakiv Cemetery" ( uk, Державний істор ...
there.


Style and themes

Gabriela Zapolska's works were dominated by naturalism – a literary movement seeking to replicate everyday reality. She was mainly influenced by Émile Zola, a French naturalist writer. Her output has a journalistic and didactic tone. She portrayed the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people including proletarians, Jews, servants, prostitutes, etc. Characters in Zapolska's works are mostly of ordinary type. She tends to skip psychological analysis as it was specific for the
Young Poland Young Poland ( pl, Młoda Polska) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism. Young Pola ...
writers. She also brought up controversial subjects, such as prostitution and venereal disease (''O czym się mówi'', ''O czym się nawet myśleć nie chce''). Zapolska created acrimonious and embittered literary characters, such as those in her best-known works, ''Moralność pani Dulskiej'', ''Żabusia'', ''Ich czworo. Tragedia ludzi głupich'', ''Sezonowa miłość'', and ''Panna Maliczewska''.


Prose

Gabriela Zapolska made her own short story debut in 1881 by ''Jeden dzień z życia róży''. Many of her early works was published in parts in Lwów and then, in Warsaw press, mainly in ''Przegląd Tygodniowy''. She collected her early short stories in the volume of ''Z dziejów boleści'' (1890). Her novels and short stories were translated into many languages, including English, Russian, German, Swedish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian. Zapolska was criticized by conservatives for the more naturalist aspects of her works, such as perceived immorality, squalor, taboo subjects, etc. Notable Zapolska prose works include: * ''Jeden dzień z życia róży'' (''One Day in the Life of a Rose'', 1881) * ''Małaszka'' (1883) * ''Kaśka Kariatyda'' (''Cathy the Caryatid'', 1885–1886) * ''Przedpiekle'' (1889) * ''Menażeria ludzka'' (1893) * ''Janka'' (1895) * ''Fin-de-sièclistka'' ('' Fin-de-siècle-ist'', 1897) * ''Zaszumi las'' (1899) * ''Sezonowa miłość'' (1904) * ''Córka Tuśki'' (1907) * ''Pani Dulska przed sądem'' (1908) * ''O czym się nie mówi'' (1909) * ''Śmierć Felicjana Dulskiego'' (''Death of Felicjan Dulski'', 1911) * ''Kobieta bez skazy'' (1913) * ''O czym się nawet myśleć nie chce'' (1914)


Dramas

Zapolska is best known for her dramas, socio-satirical comedies and tragicomedy works. Her ''Moralność pani Dulskiej'', a 'petty-bourgeois tragic-farce', is considered by her most-known work and regarded as a landmark of early modernist Polish drama. The story of ''Moralność pani Dulskiej'' was continued in two short stories—''Pani Dulska przed sądem'' and ''Śmierć Felicjana Dulskiego''. Her dramas were translated into other languages, played at the Polish and European stages, and adapted into radio and film. Notable Zapolska dramas include: * ''Żabusia'' (''Froggie'', 1897) * ''Małka Szwarcenkopf'' (1897) * ''Jojne Firułkes'' (1898) * ''The Morality of Mrs. Dulska'', (1906) * ''Ich czworo. Tragedia ludzi głupich'' (1907) * ''Skiz'' (1908) * ''Panna Maliczewska'' (''Miss Maliczewska'', 1910)


Film adaptations

Movies based on Zapolska novels or dramas include: * ''Carewicz'' (1918) – directed by Marian Fuks * ''Tamten'' (1921) – by Władysław Lenczewski * '' The Unspeakable'' (1924) – by Edward Puchalski * ''Policmajster Tagiejew'' (1929) – by Juliusz Gardan * ''Moralność pani Dulskiej'' (1930) – by Boleslaw Newolin; the first Polish movie with sound recorded on a gramophone record * ''O czym się nie mówi'' (1939) – by Mieczysław Krawicz * ''Morálka paní Dulské'' (adaption of ''Moralność pani Dulskiej'', 1958) – by Jiří Krejčík; a Czechoslovakian movie


See also

*
Feminism in Poland According to one scholarly postulation, the history of feminism in Poland can be divided into seven periods, beginning with the 19th century first-wave feminism. The first four early periods coincided with the foreign partitions of Poland, which ...
* List of feminist literature * List of Poles * Polish literature


Notes and references

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Further reading

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External links

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Gabriela Zapolska
at e-teatr.pl {{DEFAULTSORT:Zapolska, Gabriela 1857 births 1921 deaths 19th-century Polish novelists 20th-century Polish novelists 20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights Polish women novelists Polish publicists Polish stage actresses Polish theatre critics Polish translators Writers from Lviv Pseudonymous women writers Socialist feminists Burials at Lychakiv Cemetery Women theatre critics Polish women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Polish women writers 19th-century Polish women writers 19th-century translators 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers People from Pidhaitsi Polish positivism