SZYMUTKO Stefan

Born on 27 July 1958 in Mysłowice; son of Józef Szymutko and Maria, née Otkowicz. He attended the T. Kościuszko Grammar School (No. I) in Mysłowice. After completing advanced secondary education in 1977, he studied Polish philology at the University of Silesia (UŚ). In 1980, he received the silver Nicolaus Copernicus Primus Inter Pares award. He made his debut in 1981 with a review of S. Piskor's novel Ruchomy kraj (Mobile Country). The review appeared in the bi-weekly "Poglądy" (no. 8). That year he was awarded a master's degree with the distinction of the Special Prize of the Scientific Secretary of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He then took up a post at the Department of the History of Post-Romantic Literature at the Institute of Polish Literature and Culture (which in 1991 became the Institute of the Study of Polish Literature and in 2005 was named after Ireneusz Opacki) at UŚ. His research focused on twentieth-century Polish literature, in particular the works of Teodor Parnicki. He was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Polish Philology at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow from 1 October 1984 to 15 February 1985 and at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN) in Warsaw from 16 February to 30 June 1994. He published articles and essays in periodicals including "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1990, 1994, 1997, and 2010), "Ruch Literacki" (1991, 1994, and 1997), "FA-art" (intermittently 1995–2005), "Opcje" (1996, 2002–2004, 2008, and 2009), "Res Publica Nowa" (1995–1999), "Śląsk" (1996, 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2008; in 1999/2000 he was editor of the Criticism and Essay Section). He was awarded a doctoral degree from UŚ in 1991 for his dissertation Wielość i wielkość. O <> Parnickiego (Multiplicity and Greatness: On Parnicki's Koniec "Zgody Narodów" [The End of the "Concord of Nations"]), which was supervised by Prof. Tadeusz Bujnicki. He was subsequently appointed lecturer at UŚ. In 1997, he co-founded the Teodor Parnicki Literary Society, of which he was chair until 2001. He spent many years preparing a critical edition of Parnicki's novel Słowa i ciała (Words and Bodies), which he never completed. He received a habilitation degree from UŚ in 1999 for his study Rzeczywistość jako zwątpienie w literaturze i literaturoznawstwie (Reality as Doubt in Literature and Literary Studies). In 2002, he was made associate professor at UŚ and then state-appointed professor in 2007. He received the UŚ Rector's Prize on four occasions: third class in 1986, second class in 2000 and 2001, and first class in 2007. He married the bookkeeper Alicja Płachta. He died on 18 February 2009 in Mysłowice, where he is buried.