ROWIŃSKI Cezary

Born on 12 February 1934 in Piaseczno, near Warsaw; son of the farmers Aleksander Rowiński and Anna, née Bajer. He completed his education at the State Grammar School in Piaseczno in 1952 before spending several months working as a dispatcher at the Prasa Workers' Publishing Collective. From December 1952 to January 1954 he assisted his parents on their farm. In January 1954 he took up a post at the University of Warsaw Library, before starting a degree in Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW) a year later. In 1957 he started collaborating with the Office for International Courses at UW for Slavonic Studies Students. After graduating he was appointed junior assistant at the Polonicum Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners, which replaced the Office. He made his debut in 1960 with a review of Stanisław Zieliński's collection of short stories Kalejdoskop. The review was published in the weekly "Nowa Kultura" (no. 7), where he continued to publish pieces of literary criticism. He joined the Polish Teachers' Union (ZNP) in 1961, serving as secretary of the Union's Faculty Council from 1963 to 1965. He was delegated by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education to work as a tutor in Polish language at Clermont-Ferrand University, France, from 1965 to 1968. During this period he published articles in French on Polish drama, with his works appearing in periodicals including "Cahiers d’Auvergne", "Arlequin" (Lausanne) and "Annuaire Faculté des Lettres d’Université de Clermont-Ferrand". From 1968 he was employed as a lecturer at UW. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1973 for his thesis „Legenda Młodej Polski” Stanisława Brzozowskiego na tle epoki (Stanisław Brzozowski's "Legenda Młodej Polski" [The Legend of Young Poland] in the context of its era), which was supervised by Prof. Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski). He left for France again that year and worked as a lecturer at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris until 1977. He joined the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society in 1978, serving on its Executive Board until 1983. From 1979 to 1984, he was deputy director of Polonicum before becoming director in 1984/85. He served in this role again from 1990 to 1993. He published articles and essays in periodicals and journals including "Literatura na Świecie" (1974, 1992-93, and 1996), "Miesięcznik Literacki" (1974, and 1979-87), "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (1974-75, 1982, and 1992), "Studia Filozoficzne" (1974, 1977, and 1981-84), and "Dialectics and Humanism" (1983-84). He was awarded a habilitation in 1980 for his study Człowiek i świat w poezji Leśmiana (Humanity and the World in the Poetry of [Bolesław] Leśmian). From 1985 to 1989, he was director of Centre d’Etudes Polonaises at Université IV Paris – Sorbonne, where he also lectured on the history of Polish literature. In 1991, he was made associate professor at UW. Between 1992 and 1994, he also lectured on Polish literature at the now defunct private university Mazovian Higher School of Humanities and Education (Mazowiecka Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Pedagogiczna) in Łowicz. In 1971, he married Regina Żarczyńska, with whom he had a daughter Inga Luiza (b. 1983). He was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit in 1981. He died on 17 September 1994 in Warsaw, where he is buried at the Wilanów Cemetery.