OLKUSZ Wiesław

Born on 1 March 1950 in Opole; son of the lawyer Witold Franciszek Olkusz and the civil servant Stefania, née Solima. Between 1965 and 1968 he attended the Nicolaus Copernicus Grammar School No. I in Opole. After completing his advanced secondary education, he studied Polish philology at the Higher School of Education (WSP) in his home city. In 1973, he was awarded a master's degree for his dissertation Orientalizm w poezji Młodej Polski (Orientalism in the Poetry of Young Poland). He then spent two months working at the State Children's Home in Turawa. On 1 October 1973 he took up a post as a trainee assistant at the Chair of Positivist and Young Poland Literature at the Institute of Polish Philology (later the Institute of Polish Philology and Cultural Studies) at Opole WSP (which in 1994 became the University of Opole – UO). Between 1974 and 1976, he was an assistant, becoming senior assistant in 1977. He made his debut in 1975 with the article Recepcja myśli buddyjskiej w poezji Młodej Polski (The Reception of Buddhist Thought in the Poetry of Young Poland), which appeared in "Zeszyty Naukowe WSP im. Powstańców Śląskich w Opolu" (vol. 13). He published numerous works and articles in this journal in subsequent years. His research mainly focused on the reception of the literature and culture of the Orient during the Positivist and Young Poland periods, and relations between literature and painting. Later he turned to positivist-era paremiography, children's and youth literature of the same period, works of literature produced for radio, and contemporary popular literature. In 1980, he was awarded a doctoral degree for his study Literatura a malarstwo. Z zagadnień recepcji dzieł sztuki przez polskich pisarzy realizmu i naturalizmu (Literature and Painting: On the reception of works of art by Polish Realist and Naturalist writers), which was initially supervised by Dr. Stefan Smak and then later by Prof. Jerzy Pośpiech. In 1981, he was appointed lecturer. In 1983, he joined the Opole Society of the Friends of Science (Opolskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk). In 1984/85 he was involved in a collaborative research project that explored literary life in the Opole region. He joined the Henryk Sienkiewicz Literary Society in 1986. Between 1989 and 1995, he was deputy director of the Institute of Polish Philology at Opole WSP (later UO). In 1993, he was awarded a habilitation degree from Opole WSP for his study Poszukiwanie „nowej Golkondy piękna” i „prastarej mądrości Indii”, czyli pozytywiści polscy wobec kultury Orientu (In Search of a "new Golconda of beauty" and "the ancient wisdom of India", or: The Polish Positivists on Oriental culture). In 1996, he was appointed associate professor at UO, before being made state-appointed professor in 2002. During the 2008/09 academic year he also lectured at the State Higher Vocational School in Wałbrzych. He was appointed Chair of Literary History and Theory at the UO Institute of Polish Philology and Cultural Studies (which later became the Chair of Literary History, Comparative Literature and Literary Anthropology). He received the Gold Cross of Merit in 1993 and the Medal of the Commission of National Education in 2011. In 1976, he married Jolanta Frątczak, a tutor at the Institute of Education Research at Opole WSP (later UO). They have a daughter, Ksenia (b. 1977). He lives in Opole.