BIEŃKOWSKA Ewa

Born on 13 September 1943 in Warsaw; daughter of the teacher, prose writer and poet Flora, née Trynkus and the columnist, journalist, sociologist and politician Władysław Bieńkowski, who was active in the Polish Workers' Party (PPR – Polska Partia Robotnicza) and then the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR – Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza) to 1970, before associating with the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR – Komitet Obrony Robotników), from 1976. She spent her childhood in Warsaw, where she attended the Narcyza Żmichowska Grammar School. After completing advanced secondary education in 1961, she studied Romance studies at the University of Warsaw (UW). In 1963, she published her first article Koncepcje postaw w teatrze Corneille’a (Conceptions of attitudes in Corneille's theatre), which appeared in "Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny" (no. 3). After graduating with a master's degree in 1966, she was a doctoral researcher at the Department of Foreign Philologies at UW, where she defended her doctoral thesis Poezja i tradycja w „Tygodniach” Guillaume’a de Salluste du Bartas (Poetry and tradition in Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas' "Weeks") in 1970. It was supervised by Prof. Mieczysław Brahmer. She made her debut as a translator in 1972 with a Polish version of Paul Ricoeur's essay Événement et sens dans le discours (in Polish as Wydarzenie i sens w mowie), which appeared in "Teksty" (no. 6). She contributed as an essayist, reviewer and translator to "Twórczość" from 1971, "Tygodnik Powszechny" from 1972, "Znak" from 1972 and "Więź" from 1974. In 1975 she was appointed lecturer at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL – Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski) where she lectured in French literature and literary theory until 1981. In 1977 she received the Kościelski Award from the Geneva-based Kościelski Foundation. In 1981 she was awarded a habilitation degree by the Institute of Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Science (IBL PAN) for her study of the history of German culture, W poszukiwaniu królestwa człowieka. Niemiecka utopia sztuki od Kanta do Tomasza Manna. (In search of the kingdom of man. German artistic utopias from Kant to Thomas Mann). In 1982 she left for France and worked at the Université d’Avignon as an associate lecturer until 1987. In 1983 she became a member of the editorial board of "Zeszyty Literackie", contributing regularly to this periodical which was initially published in Paris before moving to Warsaw. She continued cooperating with the journal until 2018, publishing short pieces and essays on European culture. In 1993 she had a regular column, List z Wersalu (Letter from Versailles). From 1983 she also published in the London-based monthly "Aneks", contributing numerous pieces crossing the boundaries between literature and philosophy. She travelled regularly to Greece and Italy, writing essays about the culture of both countries. In 1989, she became a member of the Association of Polish Writers (SPP – Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich). In 1994/95 she was a consultant at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Paris office. She continued to publish in periodicals including "Znak”, "Res Publica” (and later in "Res Publica Nowa") and the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza". In 1999 she appointed associate professor at the Institute of Polish Philology at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (UKSW – Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego) in Warsaw, where she taught and lectured in Polish and world literature. Until her retirement in 2013, she served as chair of European Modernism at UKSW. She served on the jury of the Kościelski Foundation Award in Geneva. In 2008 she became a regular reviewer for the periodical "Przegląd Polityczny".
She is married to the aerodynamics engineer Jean-Paul Chancel. She lives in Versailles, France.