POKRZYWNIAK Józef Tomasz

Born on 16 January 1947 in Czempiń, near Poznan; son of the stationery shop owner Michał Pokrzywniak and the office worker Anna, née Farulewska. After completing primary school in Czempiń, he attended the Grammar School in Kościan from 1961. He completed his advanced secondary education in 1965 and started a degree in Polish philology at the Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) in Poznan the same year. He was a member of the Polish Students' Association (ZSP), chairing the organization's University Council in 1969/70. He graduated with a master's degree in 1970 and was appointed assistant at the Department of the History of Polish Culture at the Institute of Polish Philology (IFP) at UAM where he focused primarily on Enlightenment-era literature. He made his debut in 1975 with the article Autora francuskiego satyry na krój polski przerobione. (Z dziejów spolszczeń w wieku Oświecenia) (A French Author's Satires Adapted for Polish Tastes: On the history of Polonizations during the Enlightenment), which appeared in the Poznan-based journal "Studia Polonistyczne" ( vol. 2). He also published his findings in the bimonthly "Teksty" (1976, and 1978-79) and in "Ruch Literacki" (1976 and 1980). He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1978 for his dissertation Jan Gorczyczewski – tłumacz, satyryk i krytyk (Jan Gorczyczewski: Translator, satirist, critic), which was supervised by Prof. Włodzimierz Dworzaczek. In 1979, he was appointed lecturer at the Department of the History of Polish Culture at the Institute of Polish Philology (IFP) at UAM. He joined the Poznan Society of the Friends of Science the same year. In 1980, he joined the Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity and served as editor-in-chief of the union monthly "Środowisko" until 1981. He became a member of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society in 1988. His articles and reviews, as well as critical editions, appeared in journals and periodicals including "Pamiętnik Literacki" (intermittently 1979-89) and the monthly "Życie i Myśl" (1984-89). He was also interested in approaches to teaching literature. He published on the subject, including one article using the pseudonym Tomasz Ostowiak in Glosariusz, vol. 2 Od starożytności (Glossary: Since the Classical Age; expanded, second, expanded edition, Wroclaw: 1989), which was published outside the reach of state censorship. The volume included teaching materials for middle school teachers of Polish language. In 1994, he was awarded a habilitation degree for his study Komedie Ignacego Krasickiego (Ignacy Krasicki's Comedies). A year later he was appointed associate professor at UAM. He was elected to the UAM Senate in 1996, serving until 2016. In 1996, he was appointed director of the Institute of Polish Philology at UAM, serving until 2005. He was a member of the Committee on Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences from 1996 to 2002. He was also a founding member of the Society of Eighteenth Century Studies that was established in 1996. He was made state-appointed professor in 1999 and full professor at UAM in 2001. He co-founded and chaired the Conference of University Polish Philology Departments (Konferencja Polonistyk Uniwersyteckich), which was established in response to the reforms of the University Accreditation Committee that was established in 2001. Pokrzywniak was head of its expert team from 2003. He was a member of the Wojciech Kętrzyński Learned Society in Olsztyn from 2001. Between 2005 and 2012, he was dean of the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology at UAM. From 2006 to 2010 he was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (IBL PAN). He was later chair of the Scientific Council of "Biuletyn Polonistyczny”, which was revived in 2015. In 2007, he was appointed head of the Department of Old Polish and Enlightenment Literature at IFP at UAM. For several years he lectured at the S. Linde Higher School of Foreign Languages in Poznan. He was one of the founders of the UAM Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts in Kalisz, where he was dean in 2014. In 2015, he served on the Chapter of the Poznan Science Prize. He was a regular visitor to Italy. He was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit in 2000 and received the Honour for Services to the City of Kalisz in 2011. In 1971 he married Wanda Rybińczuk, who graduated from the administration programme in the Law Faculty at UAM. He is father to Jakub (b. 1976), Adam (b. 1980) and Anna (b. 1983). He died on 15 January 2017 in Poznan. He is buried at the cemetery in Suchy Las, near Poznan.