Miron Białoszewski Stanisław Swen Czachrowski 1942

Miron Białoszewski (; born 30 June 1922,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

; died 17 June 1983,

) was a Polish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

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 ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

Biography

Białoszewski studied

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

at the clandestine courses of the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

during the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. Following the end of the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

, he was sent to a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espe ...

in the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, and returned to Warsaw at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. First, he worked at the central post office, and then as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

for a number of popular magazines, some of them for children. In 1955 Białoszewski took part in the foundation of a small theatre called ''Teatr na Tarczyńskiej'', where he premiered his plays ''Wiwisekcja'' and ''Osmędeusze'', and acted in them with Ludmiła Murawska. In the same year Białoszewski debuted in ''Życie literackie'' along with another renowned Polish poet and his contemporary,

Zbigniew Herbert Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume titled ...

. Białoszewski was gay and for many years, he shared an apartment at Pl. Dąbrowskiego 7 with his live-in partner, the

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

Leszek Soliński. According to Joanna Nizynska from

University of California in Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

: His highly acclaimed

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

, ''Pamiętnik z powstania warszawskiego'' ("Memoir of the

") was published in 1970 (and translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

in 1977). In it, Białoszewski gave a

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

account of his wartime experiences 27 years after the fact. In 1982 he was awarded the Jurzykowski Prize by the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation. He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

on 17 June 1983. There is a large body of literature devoted to the critical analysis of Białoszewski's works - most notably by such writers and academics as

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...

Maria Janion Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

, Stanisław Barańczak, Jan Błoński,

Kazimierz Wyka Kazimierz Wyka (19 March 1910 – 19 January 1975) was a Polish literary historian, literary critic, and professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków following World War II. He was a deputy to the Polish parliament ( Sejm) from 1952 to 1956 ...

and

Artur Sandauer Artur Sandauer (14 December 1913, Sambir – 15 July 1989, Warsaw) was a Polish and Jewish literary critic, essayist and professor at the University of Warsaw. He coined the term allosemitism in a book published in 1982. Sandauer was married t ...

Works

The number given between square brackets after each book title and year of publication refers to the volume of Białoszewski's Collected Works (''Utwory zebrane'', Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy 1987) in which the texts published originally in these books have been reprinted.

Poetry

:*''Obroty rzeczy'' (1956) :*''Rachunek zachciankowy'' (1959) :*''Mylne wzruszenia'' (1961) :*''Było i było'' (1965) :*''Wiersze'' (1976) :*''Poezje wybrane'' (1976) :*''Miron Białoszewski'' n the series ''Poeci Polscy'' (1977) :*''Odczepić się'' (1978) :*''Wiersze wybrane i dobrane'' (1980) :*''Trzydzieści lat wierszy'' (1982) :*''Oho'' (1985)

Poetry and Prose

:*''Teatr Osobny'' (1973) :*''Rozkurz'' (1980) :*''Stara proza i nowe wiersze'' (1984) :*''Obmapywanie Europy. Aaameryka. Ostatnie wiersze'' (1988 – posthumously)

Prose

:*''Pamiętnik z powstania warszawskiego)'' (1970)
English translation by Madeline Levine: ''A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising'' (1977, 1991) :*''Donosy rzeczywistości'' (1973) :*''Szumy, zlepy, ciągi'' (1976) :*''Zawał'' (1977) :*''Przepowiadanie sobie'' (1981) :*''Konstancin'' (1991 – posthumously)

References

External links

Polish Literature in English Translation: Miron Białoszewski

Miron Białoszewski
at Culture.pl
Miron Białoszewski
biography and poems at poezja.org
The Kingdom of Insignificance: Miron Białoszewski and the Quotidian, the Queer, and the Traumatic

A memoir of the Warsaw Uprising

Post-war Polish Poetry

Hybrid Humour: Comedy in Transcultural Perspectives

The Historicity of Experience: Modernity, the Avant-Garde, and the Event

Miron Bialoszewski: Radical Quest Beyond Dualisms
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bialoszewski, Miron 1922 births 1983 deaths Burials at Powązki Cemetery Gay writers LGBT writers from Poland Polish male novelists LGBT dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Polish novelists 20th-century Polish poets 20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights Polish male dramatists and playwrights Polish male poets 20th-century Polish male writers LGBT poets 20th-century LGBT people