Maria Janion | |
|---|---|
 Maria Janion, portrait by Zbigniew Kresowaty | |
| Born | (1926-12-24)24 December 1926 |
| Died | 23 August 2020(2020-08-23) (aged 93) Warsaw, Poland |
| Occupation | literary critic |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Warsaw |
| Academic work | |
| Notable works | The Project of Phantasmatic Criticism (1991) Romanticism, Revolution, Marxism (1972) |
Maria Janion (24 December 1926 – 23 August 2020) was a Polishscholar,literary theorist andcritic, as well as afeminist. She was a professor at the Institute of Literary Research of thePolish Academy of Sciences, specialising in literaryRomanticism.[1]
Janion was also a member of thePolish Academy of Learning. She held an honorary degree fromGdańsk University.
She was born on 24 December 1926 inMońki,Second Polish Republic, to father Cyprian Janion and mother Ludwika (née Kurdyk). Until 1945 she resided inVilnius, where she graduated from secondary school and spent the years of theSecond World War. She was a member of thePolish Scouting and Guiding Association (Polish:Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego, ZHP), which was affiliated with theHome Army, and worked as a liaison officer. After the war, she and her family moved toBydgoszcz as a result of thepostwar population transfers.[2]
In 1945, she passed theMatura high school leaving exam inToruń. She studiedPolish studies at theUniversity of Łódź. Since 1946, she attended aliterary criticism course run byStefan Żółkiewski of theKuźnica 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 theWieś ("Countryside") weekly. In 1948, she was employed at the Institute of Literary Research of thePolish Academy of Sciences where she worked until her retirement in 1996.[2]
Between the years 1948 and 1978 she was an active member of thePolish United Workers' Party.[citation needed]
In 1951, she obtained amaster's degree from theUniversity of Warsaw. In 1957, she started to work at the Higher Pedagogical School inGdańsk (WSP). In 1968, she was appointed head of the Department of History of 19th-Century Literature. After theevents 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 onPolish literature. After the establishment of theUniversity 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 thePolish 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 andmartyrdom. In 1976 she published a study on war and form, discussing the recently published Private Journal of theWarsaw Uprising by poetMiron 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 theSolidarity 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 ofmartial 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 thePolish Writers' Association and in 1991 the PolishPEN Club. In 1994, she was awarded anhonorary degree from the University of Gdańsk.[5] Between 1997 and 2004 she served on the jury of theNike 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 thePolish Academy of Sciences.[3]
She died at the age of 93 in Warsaw on 23 August, 2020.[6]
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 andgrotesque with regard to existence, expressed inirony andmelancholy. She traces the birth of Romanticism to the re-discovery of the modern "self", which in the beginning primarily manifested itself inindividualism exploring the experience and the mystery of a particular existence. The Romantic imagination revealed a new reality: an inner world of dreams andphantasms. 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 ofclassicism and its dogmatic and one-dimensional understanding oftradition, which restricted imagination. The Romantic multilateral and pluralistic perspective on tradition became the basis for the new culturalparadigm. However, in her workThe 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 newRomantic hero; a radical violation of thedeathtaboo; re-exploration of the hidden and forgotten which led to the ennobling ofvernacular cultures (folk culture in particular, but also pagan, Slavic, Nordic and Oriental cultures); the concept ofnature 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 atheophany; the dramaticphilosophy of existence stretching from salvation to nothingness; as well as suppressed existential experiences (that of a child, madman or a woman).
In the bookNiesamowita Słowiańszczyzna ("Uncanny Slavdom"), Janion deployedEdward Said's concept ofOrientalism to prove that in theMiddle AgesWestern Slavs underwent colonization byRoman 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 ofpostcolonial theory and a misinterpretation of the role ofChristianity in the Polish lands.
She publiclycame out as alesbian in book entitledJanion. Transe – traumy – transgresje.[9] She actively promotedfeminism in Poland and was known for her criticism ofracism,anti-Semitism,homophobia andmisogyny.[10]
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