Zofia Nałkowska (,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...

, 10 November 1884 – 17 December 1954, Warsaw) was a Polish prose writer, dramatist, and prolific essayist. She served as the executive member of the prestigious

Polish Academy of Literature The Polish Academy of Literature ( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury, PAL) was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933 and 1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was foun ...

(1933–1939) during the interwar period.

Biography

Nałkowska was born into a family of intellectuals dedicated to issues of social justice, and studied at the clandestine Flying University under the

Russian partition The Russian Partition ( pl, zabór rosyjski), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Po ...

. Upon Poland's return to independence she became one of the country's most distinguished feminist writers of novels, novellas and stage-plays characterized by socio-realism and psychological depth.

Literary output

Nałkowska's first literary success was the ''Romans Teresy Hennert'' (The Romance of Teresa Hennert, 1923) followed by a slew of popular novels. She is best known for her books ''Granica'' (Boundary, 1935), the ''Węzły życia'' (Bonds of Life, 1948) and ''Medaliony'' ('' Medallions'', 1947). In her writing, Nałkowska boldly tackled difficult and controversial subjects, professing in her 1932 article "Organizacja erotyzmu" (Structure of Eroticism) published in the '' Wiadomości Literackie'' magazine – the premier literary periodical in Poland at the time – that:

...a rational, nay, intellectual approach to eroticism must be encouraged and strengthened, to allow for a consideration of eroticism in conjunction with other aspects of the life of the human community. Eroticism is not a private matter of the individual. It has its ramifications within all domains of human life and it is not possible to separate it from them by way of contemptuous disparagement in the name of morality, discretion, or yet by a demotion on the hierarchy of subjects worthy of intellectual attention: it cannot be isolated by prudery or relegated to science for its purely biological dimension."

Tribute

On November 10, 2014,

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celebrated her 130th birthday with a

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Works

Novels

* Kobiety (''Women'', 1906), translated by Michael Henry Dziewicki, 1920 * Książę (''The Prince'', 1907) * Rówieśnice (''Contemporaries'', 1909) * Narcyza (1911) * Noc podniebna (''Heavenly night'', novella, 1911) * Węże i róże (''Snakes and roses'', 1914) * Hrabia Emil (''Count Emil'', 1920) * Na torfowiskach (''At the bogs'', 1922) * Romans Teresy Hennert (''The Romance of Teresa Hennert'', 1923), translated by Megan Thomas and Ewa Malachowska-Pasek, 2014 * Dom nad łąkami (''House upon the meadows'', autobiography, 1925) * Choucas (1927), translated by Ursula Phillips, 2014 (winner of the Found in Translation Award 2015) * Niedobra miłość (''Bad love'', 1928) * Granica (''Boundary'', 1935), translated by Ursula Phillips, 2016 * Niecierpliwi (''Anxious'',1938) * Węzły życia (''Living ties'', 1948) * Mój ojciec (''My father'', 1953)

Short stories

* '' Medaliony'' (Medallions, 1946), a collection of 8 short stories about German World War II atrocities in occupied Poland, translated by Diana Kuprel, 2000

Stage plays

* Dom kobiet (1930) * Dzień jego powrotu (1931) (''The Day of his Return'', translated by Marja Slomczanka, performed 1931) * Renata Słuczańska (1935)

References

* Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). ''Bunt wspomnień.'' Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. * This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in

Polish Wikipedia The Polish Wikipedia ( pl, Polskojęzyczna Wikipedia) is the Polish-language edition of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia. Founded on September 26, 2001, it now has more than articles, making it the -largest Wikipedia edition overall.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nalkowska, Zofia 1884 births 1954 deaths Writers from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate Members of the State National Council Members of the Polish Sejm 1947–1952 Members of the Polish Sejm 1952–1956 Women members of the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic Polish diarists Polish feminists Women diarists Polish women essayists Polish essayists Polish women writers Members of the Polish Academy of Literature Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta Recipients of the Order of the Banner of Work Burials at Powązki Cemetery 20th-century essayists Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland) 20th-century Polish women 20th-century Polish women politicians Flying University alumni