Maria Janion

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.

Janion was also a member of the Polish Academy of Learning.

She held an honorary degree from Gdańsk University.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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 1979, she became a member of the Polish Writers' Union (Związek Literatów Polskich).

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 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.

In 1989, she became a member of the Polish Writers' Association and in 1991 the Polish PEN Club.

In the 1990s, she joined the Society for Humanism and Independent Ethics (Stowarzyszenia na Rzecz Humanizmu i Etyki Niezależnej).

From 1992 until 2010, she continued to give open lectures at the Institute of Sociology and Philosophy of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In 1994, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Gdańsk.

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.

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

According to Janion, Romanticism is a revolution of thought which allows different insights into history, nature and humanity.