FILIPKOWSKA Hanna

Born on 30 June 1936 in Legionowo, near Warsaw; daughter of the health-and-safety technician Józefat Filipkowski and the bookkeeper Stanisława, née Murawska. She lived in Legionowo until 1942 when she moved to the Lublin region, where her father was in hiding from the occupying German forces. She was a pupil at the primary school in Sierpawki and then moved to the school in Włodawa after the war, studying there from 1946 to 1948. She then returned to Legionowo, completing her primary education in 1950. She was then a pupil at the local grammar school, completing her advanced secondary education in 1954. The same year, she began a degree in Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW). As a result of her father's illness and financial difficulties subsequently faced by her family, she graduated with a certificate of completion (rather than a full degree) and began working at the Dom Książki bookshop, initially as a salesperson and then, from March 1959, as deputy manager. In March 1960, she became a project worker at the Department for Scientific Documentation of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Polish Literature (Pracownia Dokumentacji Naukowej XIX i XX w.) at the Institute of Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). She defended her master's thesis in 1962. It was supervised by Prof. Jan Kott. She then acquired a permanent post at IBL PAN, initially as a trainee and then as a technical assistant, documentary assistant and then senior assistant. She was involved in producing entries to Słownik współczesnych pisarzy polskich (The Dictionary of Biography of Contemporary Polish Writers), which in 1966 was awarded the collective prize of the Polish Academy of Sciences' Social Science section. In 1969, she defended her doctoral thesis Dramaty antyczne Stanisława Wyspiańskiego na tle teorii i problematyki mitu (Stanisław Wyspiański's Classical Dramas in the context of Theories and Problems related to Myth). It was supervised by the senior lecturer Ewa Korzeniewska. In March 1970 she was appointed lecturer and was transferred to the Department of Literary History from 1890 to 1918 (Pracownia Historii Literatury Okresu od 1890 do 1918 r.), before moving to the Department of the Psycho-sociology of Literature (Pracownia Psychosocjologii Literatury) in July of the same year. In 1973, she joined the Department of Literature from the Young Poland Period (Pracownia Literatury Okresu Młodej Polski). She published reviews in "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1970-90) and research reports in "Biuletyn Polonistyczny" (1974-75). She spent several months in Paris in 1972 on a research fellowship, collecting materials on literature of the Young Poland movement. From February 1976 she spent a short period collaborating with the Higher School of Eduction (WSP) in Siedlce as a teacher. From the 1975/76 winter semester she taught at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), joining this institution permanently in October 1979, working at the Chair of Polish Literature of the Positivist and Young Poland Periods (Katedra Literatury Polskiej Pozytywizmu i Młodej Polski). In 1980/81, she was involved in the underground independent union movement and gave lectures as part of the Solidarity (Solidarność) Teacher Training School (Wszechnica Nauczycielska). She was also a member of the editorial board of the periodical "Miesiące" published in Lublin by the Central-Eastern Region of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity. She also cooperated with the students publishing the independent magazine "Spotkania". In 1988 she received a habilitation degree for her book Koncepcje mitu i jego związków z literaturą w krytyce literackiej Młodej Polski (Concepts of Myth and its relations to Literature in the Literary Criticism of the Young Poland Period). In 1989, she was appointed senior lecturer and in 1992 was made associate professor. She continued to teach and research while battling cancer. She died on 21 June 1996 in Legionowo.