Tadeusz Różewicz

Tadeusz Różewicz
Tadeusz Różewicz in 2006
Born	9 October 1921 Radomsko, Second Polish Republic
Died	Wrocław, Poland
Occupation	Writer
Language	Polish

Tadeusz Różewicz (9 October 1921 – 24 April 2014) was a Polish poet, dramatist and writer. Różewicz belonged to the first generation of Polish writers born after Poland regained its independence in 1918 following the century of foreign partitions. He was born in Radomsko near Łódź. His first poems were published in 1938. During the Second World War, like his brother Janusz (also a poet), he was a soldier of the Polish underground Home Army. His other brother Stanisław was a noted film director.

Life and career

Tadeusz Różewicz was the son of Władysław and Stefania Różewicz, his mother née Gelbard, being a Jewish convert to Catholicism. Unlike his elder brother Janusz, also a highly promising poet, who was executed by the Gestapo in 1944 for serving in the Resistance, Tadeusz survived the war. On finishing high-school, he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, and then in the late 1940s moved to Gliwice where he lived for the next thirty years. In 1968 he moved to Wrocław where he lived for the rest of his life. Czesław Miłosz hailed his poetic gifts in a poem in 1948. His literary debut as a highly innovative playwright began in 1960 with The Card Index (Kartoteka), by which time he was already the author of fifteen acclaimed volumes of poetry published since 1944.

He had written over a dozen plays and several screenplays. The eruption of dramaturgical energy was also accompanied by volumes of poetry and prose. Some of his best known plays other than The Card Index include, The Interrupted Act (Akt przerywany, 1970), Birth Certificate (Świadectwo urodzenia, screenplay to an award-winning film by the same title, 1961), Left Home (Wyszedł z domu, 1965), and The White Wedding (Białe małżeństwo, 1975). His New Poems collection was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008. Some of his works were translated into all major languages.

Różewicz died in Wrocław on 24 April 2014 from natural causes. He was 92.

Awards and decorations

• 1948 – Army Medal for War 1939-45
• 19 July 1955 – Gold Cross of Merit
• 1955 – State Prize, 2nd class
• 1966 – State Prize, 1st class
• 1974 – Home Army Cross
• 1974 – Polish Army Medal
• 1977 – Order of the Banner of Work, 2nd class; for his entire literary work
• 15 August 1981 – Medal for Operation Tempest
• 7 October 1991 – Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Wroclaw
• 11 November 1996 – Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
• 1997 – Award "Golden Ball"
• 1997 – Award of the Polish PEN Club. John Parandowski
• 22 January 1999 – Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Silesia
• 2000 – Order Ecce Homo – Polish church decoration awarded by the Chapter of the Order of the Ecce Homo by exploring the dark side of a world full of chaos and divisions, the hope of beating the assessment everyday, seemingly impassive gray, for coming to terms with the inevitability and consistency in the pursuit of the truth about man, even worst. For poetry that "touches the hearts and stuff ..."
• 10 March 2000 – honorary doctorate from the University of Opole
• 2000 – Doctor Honoris Causa of the Jagiellonian University
• 4 April 2001 – Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Warsaw
• 1 June 2006 honorary doctorate at the University of Gdansk
• 26 November 2006 – Award Golden Sceptre

8 October 2007 – title honoris causa by the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw

• 2007: European Prize for Literature
• 2008 – Golden Laurel Olympic 2008 in poetry
• 22 March 2009 – Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis
• 25 June 2009 – title honoris causa by the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce
• 18 January 2011 – Special Award Policy Wizard "Culture 2010" – "Award for the fidelity of poetry and themselves. Certificate data for several subsequent epochs and questions that included the Polish literature and theater in the European debate on the most important experiences of modern man. "
• 2012: Griffin Poetry Prize International shortlist for Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Różewicz, translated by Joanna Trzeciak

Selected bibliography

Różewicz' works include:

• 1947: Niepokój ("Anxiety")
• 1948: Czerwona rękawiczka ("The Red Glove")
• 1960: Rozmowa z księciem ("Conversation with a Prince")
• 1961: Głos Anonima ("The Anonymous Voice")
• 1962: Nic w płaszczu Prospera ("Nothing Dressed in Prospero's Cloak")
• 1964: Twarz ("The Face")
• 1968: Twarz trzecia ("The Third Face")
• 1968: Kartoteka ("The Card Index")
• 1969: Stara kobieta wysiaduje ("The Old Lady Sits Waiting")
• 1972: Na czworakach ("On All Fours")
• 1975: Białe małżeństwo ("White Wedding")
• 1982: Pułapka ("The Trap"), Warszawa: Czytelnik
• 1991: Płaskorzeźba ("Bas-Relief"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 1992: Nasz starszy brat ("Our Elder Brother")
• 1996: Zawsze fragment. Recycling ("Always a Fragment: Recycling"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 1999: Matka odchodzi ("Mother Departs"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2001: Nożyk profesora ("The Professor's Knife"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2002: Szara strefa ("Gray Zone"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2004: Wyjście ("Exit"), Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie
• 2007: nauka chodzenia, Wrocław: Biuro Literackie
• 2008: Kup kota w worku, Wrocław: Biuro Literackie

Sources

• Stanisław Burkot: Tadeusz Różewicz. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1987; ISBN 978-83-02-03249-3.
• Robert Cieślak: "Oko poety". Poezja Tadeusza Różewicza wobec sztuk wizualnych. Gdańsk: słowo-obraz terytoria, 1999.
• Ewangelia odrzuconego. Szkice w 90. rocznicę urodzin Tadeusza Różewicza, red. J.M. Ruszar, Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Warszawa 2011.
• Halina Filipowicz, A Laboratory of Impure Forms: The Plays of Tadeusz Różewicz, Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated, 1991.
• Grażyna Sztukiecka, Umrę cały? Rozmowy w cieniu śmierci. Senilna poezja Czesława Miłosza, Tadeusza Różewicza, Zbigniewa Herberta i Jarosława Marka Rymkiewicza, Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Warszawa 2011.
• Kazimierz Wyka: Różewicz parokrotnie. Warszawa: PIW, 1977. OCLC 14677617
• Katarzyna Zechenter, 'Poet and dramatist haunted by the second world war and the suffering of Poland. Tadeusz Różewicz's obituary'. The Guardian, 4 May 2014, www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/04/tadeusz-rozewicz

External links

• Tadeusz Różewicz at the Internet Movie Database
• Instytut Książki ("Books Institute") Web page on Różewicz (in English)
• Tadeusz Różewicz at culture.pl
• Search results: Tadeusz Różewicz. Selection of articles. The Polish Book Institute 2013, (in English).