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Tadeusz Konwicki

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Tadeusz Konwicki
Tadeusz Konwicki in 2008
Tadeusz Konwicki in 2008
Born22 June 1926
Nowa Wilejka,Poland[1](nowNaujoji Vilnia,Lithuania)
Died7 January 2015(2015-01-07)(aged 88)
Warsaw,Poland
OccupationWriter
LanguagePolish

Tadeusz Konwicki(22 June 1926 – 7 January 2015)[2]was a Polish writer and film director, as well as a member of thePolish Language Council.

Life[edit]

Konwicki was born in 1926 as the only son of Jadwiga Kieżun and Michał Konwicki in Nowa Wilejka, where he spent his earlychildhood.His father died early and Konwicki lived with his great-aunt and great-uncle who he later depicted in his novels. He attended a local King Zygmunt Augustgymnasium.Immediately following the outbreak ofWorld War II,Wilno was occupied by theSoviet Unionand subsequently byNazi Germany,and all education for Poles was discontinued.

Konwicki continued his studiesundergroundand joined the eighth Oszmiana Brigade of theHome Armythat took part in the nationwide guerrilla operation code-namedOperation TempestandOperation Ostra Brama.He later disarmed and went into hiding from the Soviet Army. In November 1944, he joined Tur's (Witold Turonek) unit and fought until April 28, 1945 - one of the last guerrilla units in the area.[3]After the war Wilno (retrieving its name as Vilnius in the process) was annexed by theSoviet Unionand Konwicki was expatriated.

In the spring of 1945 Konwicki moved toKraków,where he enrolled atJagiellonian University.He also started to work as a journalist atOdrodzenieweekly, moving toWarsawin 1947 to continue his work for the magazine. In the capital, he was one of the leading advocates forSocialist Realismin literature. In 1948 he finished his memoirs of his partisan years (Rojsty), but the book was not published until 1956. His literary debut was theProdukcyjniak[pl](production novel)Construction Site(1950,Przy budowie), which was followed by the novelPower(1954,Władza). His 1956 novelFrom a Besieged City(1956,Z oblężonego miasta) also became quite popular.

In the years 1952–1966 he was a member ofPolish United Workers' Party.By the mid-1950s, Konwicki had become disillusioned by the communist regime inPolandand fell out of grace with the party. His later works (beginning withA Hole in the Sky(1959,Dziura w niebie), are mostly concerned with the author's childhood and the semi-mythical, romantic land of his youth.

At this time Konwicki became the head of theKadr Film Studioand has since been recognized as one of the most notable members of thePolish Film School.However, his work veered away from the style pursued by his contemporaries, due to its uniquely bitter quality. As a filmmaker he is known for his Venice'58 Grand Prix winnerThe Last Day of Summer(Ostatni dzień lata,1958),All Souls' Day(Zaduszki,1961), as well as for his masterpiecesSalto(1962) andHow Far Away, How Near(Jak daleko stąd, jak blisko,1973), as well as film adaptations: of Nobel Prize Winner Czesław Miłosz's bookIssa Valley(Dolina Issy,1982), and of Adam Mickiewicz's dramaForefather's Eve–Lava(1989).

He is widely known for two novels, published by the Polish underground press:The Polish Complex(1977) andA Minor Apocalypse(1979).[4]The latter work, a bitter satire about a washed-up writer who is asked to burn himself in front of the Soviet-builtPalace of Culture and Science, Warsaw;the novel was adapted as a 1993 Frenchfeature film,directed byCosta-Gavras.A Minor Apocalypseis a post-Orwellian parody that refers to specific historical events, such as self-immolation protests against the communist regime byRyszard Siwiecin Poland andJan PalachinCzechoslovakia.

Literary works[edit]

  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1970).A Dreambook for Our Time(Sennik współczesny).The MIT Press.ISBN0-14-004115-X.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1977).The anthropos-spectre-beast(Zwierzoczłekoupiór).Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-271407-4.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1982).The Polish Complex(Kompleks polski).New York,Farrar Straus & Giroux.ISBN1-56478-201-8.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1983).A Minor Apocalypse(Mała apokalipsa).New York,Farrar Straus & Giroux.ISBN1-56478-217-4.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1987).Moonrise, Moonset(Wschody i zachody księżyca).New York,Farrar Straus & Giroux.ISBN0-374-21241-4.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1990).Bohin Manor(Bohiń).New York,Farrar Straus & Giroux.ISBN0-374-11523-0.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1991).New World Avenue and Vicinity(Nowy Świati okolice).New York,Farrar Straus & Giroux.ISBN0-374-22182-0.
  • Tadeusz Konwicki (1994).The Calendar and the Hourglass(Kalendarz i klepsydra).Review of Contemporary Fiction. ISBN B00092VYV8.

Films[edit]

Writer/Director[edit]

Writer[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Tim Woods.Who's who of Twentieth Century Novelists.Routledge. 2001. p. 200.
  2. ^"Tadeusz Konwicki obituary".The Guardian.21 January 2015.Archivedfrom the original on 26 April 2023.
  3. ^Katarzyna Zechenter, The Fiction of Tadeusz Konwicki. Edwin Mellen Press 2007, pp. 30-31.ISBN0-7734-5466-7
  4. ^Szporer, Michael (1986)."Beyond Aesthetics of Censorship: Tadeusz Konwicki's Ordinary Politicking".Modern Fiction Studies.32 1.

External links[edit]

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