PACZOSKA Ewa

Born on 2 January 1952 in Warsaw; daughter of the poet and prose writer Henryk Gaworski, and the book seller Natalia, née Traczyk. She attended the Zygmunt Modzelewski Grammar School No. XLIX in Warsaw. After completing her advanced secondary education in 1969, she studied Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW). During this period, and later during her doctoral studies, she was actively involved in the student art world as a singing author (appearing as Ewa Gaworska). She won numerous student song competitions, including the National Songwriting Review (Ogólnopolski Przegląd Piosenki Autorskiej – OPPA), the Warsaw Student Song Fair (Jarmark Piosenki Studenckiej) and various reviews of travelling songs. She also collaborated with the student clubs Hybrydy, with its Song Club, and Sigma, with its Authors' Club. She performed with many bands at student clubs, including the group Zegar z Kukułką, which she formed in the 1980s with Marek Majewski (the band reformed for the 2012 edition of OPPA). She became a member of the Association of Polish Authors and Composers (Związek Polskich Autorów i Kompozytorów – ZAKR) in 1980. The following year she published the lyrics of two songs, Dom w górach (A House in the Hills) and Sad (Orchard), in "Barbakan Warszawski" (no. 2), the bulletin of the Warsaw branch of the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Turystyczno-Krajoznawcze – PTTK). In 1986, under the name Gaworska, she published lyrics in the periodical "Politechnik". After graduating with a master's degree in 1974, she worked at the Research Group on Literary Life in Warsaw from 1865 to 1895, which was based at the Faculty of Polish Philology at UW. She was its secretary for several years. In 1978, she enrolled in the doctoral programme at the Faculty of Polish Philology at UW. Her research focused on literature of the Positivist, Young Poland and interwar periods. She made her debut as a literary scholar (as Ewa Gaworska) in 1983 with the article Problemy życia literackiego drugiej połowy XIX w. w oczach ówczesnej krytyki (Contemporary Critics' Perspectives on Literary Life in the second half of the Nineteenth Century). It appeared in the edited volume Problemy życia literackiego w Królestwie Polskim 2. połowy XIX w. (Literary Life in the Kingdom of Poland the second half of the Nineteenth Century). She was awarded a doctoral degree in 1983 for her dissertation Krytyka literacka pozytywistów (Positivist Literary Criticism), which was supervised by Prof. Janina Kulczycka-Saloni. In 1984, she was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities at the Bialystok branch of UW (which became the University of Bialystok in 1997). She was head of the Department of Literature there for several years. From 1988 she was involved in the Olympiad of Polish Literature and Language, organized by the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN), serving on the Presidium and chairing the District Committee in Bialystok and, later, in Warsaw. She produced textbooks on Positivist and Young Poland-era literature for Polish language courses in post-primary schools. She made her debut as a literary critic in 1984 with an article on the work of Andrzej Bursa, Słowo w świecie milczenia (The Word in a World of Silence), which was published in the periodical "Powściągliwość i Praca" (no. 3; using the name: E. Gaworska). She continued to collaborate with this periodical, where she also published poetry, until 1989. In 1989 she published her first translation of poetry, excerpts of Vikram Seth's novel in verse Golden Gate, which appeared in "Literatura na Świecie" (no. 7). She returned to the Faculty of Polish Philology at UW in 1995, where she worked at the Department of Literature and Culture of the Second Half of the 19th Century at the Institute of Polish Literature (ILP). She served as head of the Department for several years. She was awarded a habilitation from UW in 1997 for her book „Lalka” czyli rozpad świata (Bolesław Prus' "The Doll" and the Collapse of a World). She was subsequently appointed associate professor. From 2002 to 2007 she also worked in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. Her articles, reviews and translations appeared in subsequent years in periodicals and journals including "Res Publica Nowa" (1996 and 1999), "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1996, 1999, and 2000), "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (1999 and 2010), and "Wiek XIX. Rocznik Towarzystwa Literackiego im. Adama Mickiewicza" (2008 and 2014). She continued to pursue her passions for songwriting and sailing. From 2005 she was head of the jury of the International Bard Festival (as OPPA was renamed that year). In 2014, she recorded the album Portowe gadanie (Port Talking), with a follow up in 2016 Stały meldunek (Permanent Residency). In 2006, she sailed the River Dnieper in a reconstructed ancient Slavonic boat, while in 2007 she sailed the Pacific in a catamaran. She was made state-appointed professor in 2006, while in 2011 she was made full professor at the Faculty of Polish Philology at UW. In 2011, she was made head of the Section of Central and East European Modernist Literature at ILP at UW. She was also appointed the Committee on Literary Studies (KNoL) of the Polish Academy of Science. Since 2011 she has been scientific editor of the publication series Doświadczenie Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w Kulturze Modernizmu (Central and Eastern European Experiences in Modernist Culture). In 2012, she was appointed director of the Institute of Polish Literature at UW. She married the electronic engineer Krzysztof Paczoski, who is also a keen violinist. They have a daughter, Krystyna (b. 1988). Ewa Paczoska lives in Brwinów, near Warsaw.