BURSKA Lidia

Born on 27 September 1953 in Radom; daughter of the highly-qualified metalworker Tadeusz Rola and the teacher Stanisława, née Ziętek. She attended the Jan Kochanowski Grammar School (No. 6) in Radom. After completing advanced secondary education in 1972, she took a degree in Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW). In 1977 she graduated with a master's degree from UW and started working at the Institute of Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). She was a researcher at the Department of Contemporary Literature (Pracownia Literatury Współczesnej). At the same time, she studied the history of philosophy at the Christian Philosophy Faculty of the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw (Akademia Teologii Katolickiej, now UKSW – Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University), doing so until 1983. She made her debut as a literary critic in 1979 with a review of Paavo Juhani Haavikko's novella Białe kamienie (White Stones). The review appeared in "Nowe Książki” (no. 6). Burska continued to contribute to this periodical until 1981. She also regularly published book reviews in "Tygodnik Kulturalny" (1980–81) and "Twórczość" (1981–86). Burska conducted lectures for teachers, middle school pupils, students and doctoral researchers at IBL. She published her debut article, Samoobrona czy walka o nową treść? (Self-defence or the struggle for new content?), on the subject of the periodicals "Puls" and "Zapis", in the underground journal "Wezwanie" in 1982 (no. 2/3). She later became co-editor of this publication. She was made a teaching assistant at IBL PAN the same year. She married the poet and journalist Tomasz Burski (d. 2001) in 1984. They were both active in Poland's democratic opposition under communism. In subsequent years, her reviews, essays and articles appeared in periodicals including "Res Publica Nowa" (1988, 1990–94, 1996–98, 2000 and 2003–05), "Teksty Drugie" (1990–91, 1993–96, 1998–2000 and 2003) and "Gazeta Wyborcza" (1991–91, 1998–2003 and 2006–08). She defended her doctoral thesis Ludzie i dzieje. Literackie ujęcie procesu historycznoliterackiego we współczesnych narracjach o dziejach (People and History: Literary perspectives on the literary-historical process in contemporary narratives on the past) in 1997. It was supervised by Prof. Alina Brodzka. She subsequently received a promotion and was made senior teaching assistant, before being appointed lecturer a year later. She was a member of the jury of the prestigious Nike Literary Prize between 2003 and 2005.
She had two children, Franciszek (b. 1984) and Maryna (b. 1987). She died on 8 August 2008 at her summer house in Jeleńcz in the Kashubian region and is buried at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.