JAROSIŃSKI Zbigniew

Born on 21 March 1946 in Warsaw; son of the surveying engineer Edward Jarosiński and Stanisława, née Poszytek, who worked in a planning office. He attended the T. Rejtan Grammar School in Warsaw, completing his advanced secondary education in 1964. He started studying Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW) the same year. During his studies he was heavily involved in research activities, participating in the Warsaw Circle of Polish Philology Scholars (Warszawskie Koło Polonistów), becoming chair of the group in the 1967/68 academic year. He served in the role throughout the fourth and fifth years of his degree. He was chair of the Coordinating Committee of Circles of Polish Philology Scholars (Komitet Koordynacyjny Kół Naukowych Polonistów), which was the leading organization of Polish philology scholars in the country and part of the Central Council of the Polish Students' Association (ZSP). He made his debut in 1967 in "Współczesność" (no. 10) with the article Sympozjum Warszawskiego Koła Polonistów (The Warsaw Circle of Polish Philology Scholars Symposium), which reported on the discussions of the subject of tradition in literary history research. The event had been organized by the Warsaw Circle in April of the same year. He published articles and literary reviews in "Kultura" (1967-69, 1974 and 1976) and "Odra" (1968-69, 1971, 1979, and again in 1995). He graduated with a master's degree in 1969 and was then appointed assistant at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). He initially worked at the Department of Literary Psychosociology before becoming senior assistant at the Department of Contemporary Literature in 1971. His research largely focused on the history of interwar and post-1945 Polish literature, particularly works by left-leaning authors. He spent six months on a fellowship in the USSR in 1972, conducting research in Moscow and Leningrad on the ideas of the Russian formalists. He published articles and reviews in "Tygodnik Kulturalny" (1970-71, 1979), "Biuletyn Polonistyczny" (intermittently 1970-85) and "Teksty" (1973, 1975, 1979). He was secretary of the IBL PAN Doctoral Programme between 1973 and 1989. He was awarded a doctoral degree from IBL PAN in 1974 for his thesis Polska lewicowa myśl literacka lat 1918-1935 (Polish Left-wing Literary Thought, 1918-1935), which was supervised by Prof. Maria Janion. He was appointed lecturer at IBL PAN in autumn 1975. From 1975 to 1978, he was head of the Department of Contemporary Literature, which was part of the Centre for Twentieth-Century Literature at IBL PAN. In spring 1976, he spent three months on a research fellowship in Paris. Between 1978 and 1990, he had an additional part-time post at the Faculty of Humanities at the Bialystok campus of the University of Warsaw (UW). He gave an introductory lecture on contemporary literature and ran the master's seminar. From 1988 to 1992, he was deputy director general of IBL PAN. Between 1990 and 1993, he served as representative of the early career researchers on the Scientific Council of IBL PAN. He later also gave lectures and courses in the graduate schools at IBL PAN. He was awarded a habilitation degree from IBL PAN in 1999 for his study Nadwiślański socrealizm (Socialist Realism on the Vistula). He married the IBL PAN researcher Izabela Szubert in 1970. They divorced in 1971. In 1981, he married the linguist Danuta Bartol, née Lisiak, who worked at the Institute of Polish Language at UW. They subsequently divorced. He died suddenly on 13 January 2000 in Warsaw. He is buried at the city's Bródno Cemetery.