BIO
Born on 13 March 1943 in the village of Łopatki near Łask; son of the farmers Tadeusz Figlus and Józefa Świegocka. After the war, he and his mother moved to her home village of Czestków, where he attended primary school between 1949 and 1956. He continued his education at the T. Kościuszko Grammar School in Łask. During this period, he was involved in the Grabia ’59 poetry group, while from 1959 to 1965 he was a member of the Correspondence Club for Young People (which in 1961 became the Correspondence Club for Young Writers). He made his debut in 1959 with the poem Spojrzenie wstecz (Looking back), which appeared in the scouting weekly "Na przełaj" (no. 36). After completing advanced secondary education in 1961, he attended a two-year Training Programme for Primary School Teachers in Piotrków Trybunalski. In 1963, he started working as a Polish language teacher at Primary School no. 4 in Bolesławiec in Lower Silesia. A year later, he started a degree at the University of Lodz (UŁ), initially in Polish philology and then from 1968 in philosophy. In March 1968, he co-organized student protests at the university against the communist authorities. In 1970, he was awarded a master's degree from UŁ for his dissertation Dziedzictwo Norwida w twórczości Krzysztofa Kamila Baczyńskiego (The Legacies of Norwid in the Works of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński), which was supervised by Prof. Stefania Skwarczyńska. In 1970/71, he worked as a librarian at the Lodz Automobile Technical School. His poems, articles and book reviews appeared in periodicals including "Tygodnik Kulturalny" (1962 and 1966), "Odgłosy" (1963-73), "Biuletyn Filologiczny" (1968), and "Poezja" (1969). During this period, he was a member of two Lodz-based poetry groups: Wiadukt (1966-75) and Centrum (1966). He was the recipient of several awards and prizes in national poetry competitions. In 1972, he ran his parents' farm because they were both suffering from illness. That year, he moved to Warsaw and continued his studies in the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy at the University of Warsaw (UW). In 1975, he was a awarded a master's degree in philosophy from the Chair of Aesthetics at UW for his study Cypriana Norwida koncepcja prawdy (Cyprian Norwid's Idea of Truth), which was supervised by Prof. Alicja Kuczyńska. From 1975 to 1977, he taught courses in philosophy as a doctoral student. His poems, articles and reviews appeared during this period primarily in "Poezja" (1973-74, 1980, and 1984-86), "Tygodnik Kulturalny" (1973-74 and 1982), "Miesięcznik Literacki" (1979-80, 1984, and 1988), and in "Odgłosy" (1982-83). From 1977 to 1985, he was employed as a senior assistant at the Department of Philosophy at Warsaw University of Technology. He defended his doctoral thesis, Światopogląd autentyzmu na przykładzie twórczości Stanisława Czernika i Jana Bolesława Ożoga. Analiza antropologiczna (The Authenticist Worldview illustrated on the basis of the Works of Stanisław Czernik and Jan Bolesław Ożóg), in 1986 at the Faculty of Polish Philology at UW. He was supervised by Prof. Helena Karwacka. That year, he was appointed lecturer at the Chair of Philosophy at the Higher School of Agriculture and Education in Siedlce, before becoming a senior lecturer in 1996 at the Institute of Polish Philology. He was released from his post in 1999 and received sickness benefits. In 2001, he was appointed professor at the State Higher Vocational School in Ciechanów, where he taught at the Institute of Philology and History, which was based in Mława. He retired in 2008. He received the L. Benedyktowicz Prize in 1990, the W. Pietrzak Prize in recognition of his literary oeuvre in 2007, and the C.K. Norwid Prize in 2008. In 2011, he was awarded a habilitation degree from the Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) in Torun for his study Wizje człowieka w poezji. Analiza antropologiczna twórczości Adama Mickiewicza, Cypriana Norwida i Bolesława Leśmiana (Visions of Humanity in Poetry: An anthropological analysis of the works of Adam Mickiewicz, Cyprian Norwid and Bolesław Leśmian). In 2012, he was appointed professor in Polish philology at the University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz. He built up a significant collection of classical music recordings and albums of reproductions of paintings. He married the philosopher and musician Blandyna Łukomska in 1979. They have a son, Marcin (b. 1979), and daughter, Helena (b. 1987). He lives in Warsaw.
Twórczość
1. Genealogia. [Wiersze]. [Łódź]: Wydawnictwo Łódzkie 1974 , 69 s.
Zawartość
2. Kazimierz Świegocki. [Wiersze]. [B.m.:] Urząd Miasta i Gminy w Łasku, Łaski Dom Kultury 1977, k. 4 nlb. Spotkania autorskie.
Zawartość
3. W zbóż czerwieni. [Wiersze]. Warszawa: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza 1981, 60 s. Arkusze Sieradzkie..
4. Światopogląd poetów Ziemi. [Rozprawa]. Powst. 1986. Siedlce: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Wyższej Szkoły Rolniczo-Pedagogicznej 1996, 147 s. Monografie, nr 35.
5. Przymierze z czasem. [Wiersze]. Warszawa: Związek Literatów Polskich 1992, 45 s. Bibliografia Poezji Współczesnej. Wyd. nast. tamże: wyd. 2 zmienione 1993, 76 s., wyd. 3 poprawione 1994. Przedruk zob. poz. ↑, ↑.
Zawartość
6. Morze utracone. [Wiersze]. Wstępem poprzedził M. Filipiak. Posłowie: R. Skwarski. Warszawa: Warszawski Klub Młodej Sztuki; Siedlce: Wydawnictwo Podlaskie 1995, 144 s.
Zawartość
7. Przebiśniegi. [Wiersze]. Poddębice: Poddębickie Towarzystwo Regionalne 1996, 61 s. Arkusze Sieradzkie. Seria 2.
8. Labirynt. [Wiersze]. Warszawa: Herbud WKMS [Warszawski Klub Młodej Sztuki] 1997, 71 s.
Zawartość
9. Cień nad równiną. Wiersze wybrane. Warszawa: Slavica Orientalia 2001, 134 s.
Zawartość
10. Poezje wybrane. Warszawa: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza 2004, 169 s., Biblioteka Poetów.
11. Człowiek wobec Boga i świata w poezji. Antropologiczne motywy w twórczości Adama Mickiewicza, Cypriana Norwida, Wisławy Szymborskiej. [Rozprawa]. Warszawa: PAX 2006, 222 s.
Zawartość
12. Od romantyzmu do postmodernizmu. Wybrane szkice literackie z lat 1970-2003. Warszawa: PAX 2006, 414 s.
Nagrody
Zawartość
Przekłady
angielski
esperanto
niemiecki
13. Norwid i poeci Powstania Warszawskiego. [Studia i eseje]. Warszawa: PAX 2007, 244 s. Wyd. nast.: Pierwsze wydanie [!] Warszawa: Stowarzyszenie imienia W. Hulewicza 2023, 376 s.
Nagrody
Zawartość
14. Wizje człowieka w poezji. Analiza antropologiczna twórczości Adama Mickiewicza, Cypriana Norwida i Bolesława Leśmiana. Warszawa: PAX 2009, 343 s. Wyd. 2 pt. Wizje człowieka i świata w poezji Mickiewicza, Norwida i Leśmiana. Łódź: AHE [Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna] 2013.
Zawartość
15. Kamień i czas. Wiersze, poematy, eseje. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Akademii Humanistyczno-Ekonomicznej 2014, 347 s.
16. Mickiewicz egzystencjalny. [Szkice]. Warszawa: Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich. Oddział Warszawa 2021, 279 s. Kolekcja Literacka, Seria 2, t. 12.
Zawartość
Artykuły w czasopismach i książkach zbiorowych, m.in.
Wybory utworów literackich w przekładach
białoruski
rosyjski
Przekłady utworów literackich w antologiach zagranicznych
francuski
ukraiński
Prace redakcyjne
Omówienia i recenzje
• Ankiety dla IBL PAN 2012, 2013.