Bruno Schulz powraca do Drohobycza

   Culture.pl

Bruno Schulz “Autoportet”, 1920-22, cliché-verre

Na zachodniej Ukrainie rozpoczął się 3 czerwca 2016 siódmy festiwal Brunona Schulza. Nieznana wcześniej w ukraińskiej Galicji twórczość urodzonego tu autora “Sklepów cynamonowych” powraca do jego rodzinnego Drohobycza.

To organizowane co dwa lata wydarzenie jest jedną z najważniejszych imprez poświęconych Schulzowi.

“Schulza nie można oddzielić ani od Drohobycza, ani od Galicji” – powiedział Jurij Andruchowycz, znany pisarz ukraiński i tłumacz prac artysty. “W latach 90. jego nazwisko było dla Ukraińców prawie nieznane. Kilkanaście lat temu było z tym trochę lepiej, lecz dopiero teraz dochodzimy do czasów, kiedy Ukraińcy mówią, że nie tylko go znają, ale i uważają za swojego, za człowieka z Drohobycza” – wyjaśnił Andruchowycz.

Bruno Schulz, “Spotkanie”

Motywem przewodnim obrazu jest tytułowe spotkanie dwóch różnych światów, dwóch pozostających w…

Dyrektorka festiwalu Wiera Meniok zaznaczyła, że festiwal zajmuje ważne miejsce na mapie inicjatyw naukowych i kulturalnych Ukrainy. 

“Jego najważniejszym punktem będzie konferencja naukowa ‘Bruno Schulz a współczesna teoria kultury’. Spróbujemy na niej zrozumieć Schulza w kontekście naszych czasów. Nie chcemy mówić o nim językiem wybranych i wtajemniczonych, ponieważ ten język już się wyczerpał. Chcemy udostępnić go współczesnej kulturze” – powiedziała.

Meniok poinformowała, że Festiwalowi Schulza towarzyszyć będą spotkania literackie, w których wezmą udział cenieni literaci z Polski i Ukrainy. Do Drohobycza przyjedzie m.in. Daniel Odija, Ignacy Karpowicz oraz pisarze ukraińscy. 

“Ukraińskie gwiazdy to Taras Prochaśko, Jurij Andruchowycz, Jurij Wynnyczuk i Serhij Żadan, kultowy poeta i pisarz ukraiński, który wystąpi na rynku na zakończenie festiwalu ze swoim zespołem ‘Sobaky w kosmosi’. Andruchowycz wystąpi z kolei z polskim zespołem Karbido z Wrocławia, z którym współpracuje od lat” – dodała Meniok.

Dni schulzowskie w Drohobyczu to również projekty teatralne i akcje artystyczne, które odbywają się w miejscowym teatrze, uniwersytecie, synagodze i kościele. 

“Festiwal Schulza idzie wbrew odczuwanym dziś prądom, gdyż odwracamy się teraz od idei uniwersalnych i tolerancji. Festiwal pod patronatem Brunona Schulza, ofiary idei totalitarnej, rasizmu wprowadzonego w życie w sposób ostateczny i antysemityzmu, jest szczepionką na procesy, które widzimy dziś w Europie” – ocenił były dyrektor Instytutu Książki Grzegorz
Gauden. 

Bruno Schulz urodził się w 1892 r. w Drohobyczu niedaleko Lwowa w rodzinie zasymilowanych Żydów. Jego ojciec był właścicielem sklepu bławatnego. Był dzieckiem wątłym i chorowitym, a przy tym zdolnym uczniem tamtejszego Gimnazjum im. Cesarza Franciszka Józefa, gdzie w 1911 r. zdał maturę. Studiował architekturę na Politechnice Lwowskiej, ale z powodu choroby musiał przerwać naukę. Przez kilka miesięcy studiował na Politechnice w Wiedniu i na tamtejszej Akademii Sztuk Pięknych.

 

 

 

“Xięga Bałwochwalcza Brunona Schulza” w Krakowie [galeria]

W 1924 r. objął posadę nauczyciela rysunków w Państwowym Gimnazjum im. Władysława Jagiełły w Drohobyczu. Nauczycielem pozostał, z krótkimi przerwami, do 1941 r. Kiedy podczas wojny hitlerowcy zajęli Drohobycz, zatrudnili go przy katalogowaniu skonfiskowanych książek. 19 listopada 1942 r. Schulz został zastrzelony przez Niemca na ulicy w Drohobyczu. 

Ocalała literacka spuścizna Brunona Schulza to dwa cykle opowiadań: “Sklepy cynamonowe” i “Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą”, które przyniosły mu uznanie, a także kilka opowieści oraz szkice krytyczne zamieszczane w czasopismach. Niektóre opowiadania Schulza oraz materiały do powieści “Mesjasz”, którą przygotowywał, zaginęły. Zachowało się natomiast wiele jego rysunków oraz listy, m.in. do Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza,Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza, Juliana Tuwima.

Festiwal w Drohobyczu organizowany jest m.in. dzięki wsparciu Ministerstwa Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego RP, Instytutu Książki w Krakowie, Instytutu Polskiego w Kijowie i Konsulatu Generalnego RP we Lwowie.

Conference on the poetry of Anna Frajlich

by Brian Porter-Szucs

“Here I am / I inhabit my own life”. Poetry, prose and epistolary writings of Anna Frajlich

Guest of honour: Anna Frajlich-Zając

Anna Frajlich – poet, writer, essayist, editor, lecturer of Polish language and literature, Slavic Philology Ph.D. Born on the 10th of March 1942 in the settlement of Katta Taldyk in Kyrgyzstan (the former USSR). In 1946 her parents came back to Poland and the family settled in Szczecin. In 1960-65 Anna Frajlich studied Polish Philology at the University of Warsaw. As a result of anti-semitic events of March 1968 she left Poland and moved to the United States. She worked as Polish language teacher at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Columbia University in New York. She defended her Ph.D. dissertation in the Slavic Department of the New York University in 1990. In 1977-81 she worked for the Polish section of Radio Free Europe. Her poetry, articles and essays have been published in various journals in Poland (i.e. “Rzeczpospolita”, “Tygodnik Powszechny”, “Akcent”, “Migotania”, “eleWator”, “Kwartalnik Artystyczny”), the United States (i.e. “Tygodnik Nowojorski”, “Przegląd Polski”), and Europe (Paris “Kultura” and London “Wiadomości”). Anna Frajlich has been awarded with a Koscielski Foundation of Switzerland literary prize and a Literary Prize from W. & N. Turzanski Foundation. She has also received the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit and a title of honorary Ambassador of town of Szczecin. Frajlich is an author of 12 books of poetry (i.e. “Aby wiatr namalować”, “Tylko ziemia”, “Indian Summer”, “Który las”, “Jeszcze w drodze”, “Znów szuka mnie wiatr”, “Łodzią jest i jest przystanią”), one collection of short prose stories (“Laboratorium”) and essays (“Czesław Miłosz. Lekcje”). Two of her poetry volumes are bilingual: Polish-English (“Between Dawn and the Wind: Selected Poetry”) and Polish-French (“Le vent, à nouveau me cherche”).

recommended by:
Leon Rozenbaum

We remain assured that varied and prolific works of Anna Frajlich require wide research and inspire complex analyses. We would like to take into consideration not only the position of her writings in contemporary literature and culture but also encourage innovative interpretations of her poetry, prose and essays. We are also interested in the biography of the Poet perceived in the contexts of such cultural and methodological notions as identity, emigration, alienation or re-rooting. Thus, we expect the participants of our symposium to undertake the subjects of not only Frajlich’s poetry, prose, essays, dissertations and criticism but also her diaries and letters. Our aim is to create both an all-encompassing, general overview of her works, as well as a set of detailed analyses of specific texts. Therefore it is important to describe Frajlich’s individual poetics, discuss her place in literary tradition, analyze a variety of her styles, motives, topics and toposes used. We invite you to take part in the collaborative research of hidden meanings and cultural and contextual links of Anna Frajlich’s writings.

The conference takes place on 24-25th of October 2016. Applications of participation in the conference should be submitted via the e-mail address (frajlich.konferencjaUR@onet.pl) before 30th of May 2016. We reserve the right to choose only selected subject from the submitted applications.

After the application has been accepted by the organizers we request the conference fee to be settled before 15th July 2016 on the bank account:

Podkarpacki Bank Spółdzielczy Oddział w Rzeszowie

48 8642 1126 2012 1119 9353 0001

With the annotation: „Frajlich”

The conference fee is 500 zł and it covers the costs of symposium’s organization, conference proceedings and materials, accommodation, refreshments and lunches and publication of selected articles. The time needed for yours paper’s presentation should not be longer than 20 minutes.

Organizers of the conference: prof. dr hab. Wojciech Ligęza (UJ), dr hab. prof. UR Jolanta Pasterska (UR)

Secretary of the conference: mgr Anna Fiedeń frajlich.konferencjaUR@onet.pl

Scientific committee:

• prof. dr hab. Stanisław Uliasz (UR)
• dr hab. prof. UR Zenon Ożóg (UR)\
• dr hab. Kazimierz Adamczyk (UJ)
• dr hab. Józef Wróbel (UJ)

Sponsors:

• University of Rzeszów
• Polish Philology Institute
• Literary Theory and Anthropology Department
• Workshop of Research and Record of Literary Culture
• Polish Philology Faculty of Jagiellonian University
• History of the XX-th Century Polish Literature Department

Anna Frajlich-Zając

Anna Frajlich-Zając, photo courtesy of the writers’s family archive

Polish poet in exile, Slavic scholar. Born on rhe 10th of March 1942 in the settlement of Katta Taldyk near Osh in Kyrgyzstan (the former USSR).
Anna Frajlich-Zając was born to a Jewish couple from Lviv who came back to Poland in 1946. Anna Frajlich spent her early years in Szczecin and she finished secondary school there (in 1960). Her press debut came in 1958 in “Głos Szczeciński” and in “Nasz Głos” (the Polish supplement to the Jewish newspaper “Fołks-Sztyme”). In 1960-65 she studied Polish literature at Warsaw University (completing her Master’s thesis on Stanisław Brzozowski). When she finished studies she worked as a secretary to the blind writer Jacek Szczygieł, and next – under his direction – she worked in a magazine for the blind until 1969.

The landmark in her biography, like in lives of many Polish intellectuals, was a wave of antisemitism inspired and steered from the top, which started with the Israel-Arab war in 1967. It was popularly called “March 1968”. At the end of 1969, as a result of this “witch hunt”, Frajlich emigrated with her husband, Władysław Zając, an engineer, and their small son through Vienna to Rome, and next to New York. She worked as an instructor of Polish language at the State University Stony Brook and in Kimbell Research Institute in New York (1971-75). In 1972 Frajlich started to publish her poetry in the London “Wiadomości”. In 1977-81 she worked for the Polish section of Radio Free Europe. Since 1982 Frajlich has lectured in Polish literature at Columbia University in New York. In 1991 she received her PhD title at the Department of Slavic Languages at New York University. In 1995-2003 she worked as an examiner and consultant for court interpreters.

In 1984-86 Frajlich was on the staff of Tygodnik Nowojorski, a Polish-language weekly in New York, and since then she has closely cooperated with graphic artist Bartek Małysa. Frajlich publishes poems, essays and reviews in the Polish immigrant press (especially in Przegląd Polski, a weekly supplement to New York’s Nowy Dziennikrun by Julita Karkowska) and also in Poland: in Akcent, Midrasz, Odra, Plus Minus”(supplement to the Rzeczpospolita daily) and Tygodnik Powszechny.

So far Frajlich has published nine books of poetry which contain lyrical, often erotic poems, poems about different aspects of emigration, about traumatic feeling of rejection that can be overcome thanks to contacts with the mother tongue – which is the essence of the poetry and brings back links with the lost homeland. Frajlich often writes, in an interesting and critical way, about current Polish problems seen from the immigration perspective. In her poetry the big role is played by paintings and other works of art which inspire her and give a pretext to pose philosophic questions.

Frajlich received the Kościelski Foundation Award (1981) and W.&N. Turzański Foundation Award (2003), the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit (2002) and a title of honorary Ambassador of town of Szczecin (2007).

Literary profile
The poetry of Anna Frajlich can be called the poetry of removal, the poetry of uprooting and poetry of dreams of return. She began writing as a teenager and it seems that it was through writing that her world was shaped. Trees, bushes and birds from Szczecin were taken along on her journey through the world. Living on the other side of the ocean, she looks for them in the New World, compares the reality that surrounds her with that lost paradise. In an extensive autobiographical interview Frajlich says,

read more: Anna Frajlich-Zając

In Krakow, Night of the Synagogues Bolsters Jewish Pride, Promotes Awareness

Ruth Ellen Gruber

For the sixth year in a row, the seven synagogues in Krakow’s historic Jewish district opened their doors for 7@Nite, a one-night mini-festival.

American rapper Kosha Dillz performs at the Tempel Synagogue during Night of the Synagogues, Krakow, Poland, June 4, 2016. Ruth Ellen Gruber / JTA Photo Archive

JTA – For the sixth year in a row, the seven synagogues in Krakow’s historic Jewish district, Kazimierz, opened their doors for 7@Nite – or the Night of the Synagogues, a one-night mini-festival aimed at bolstering Jewish pride and promoting Jewish awareness among the public.

Each synagogue – from the Gothic Old Synagogue, now a Jewish historical museum, to the ornate 19th century Tempel Synagogue, used for both services and cultural events – hosted an exhibit, concert, film or other event illustrating contemporary Jewish culture in Poland and around the world.

“The most important message is that this is an open event, carried out by Jews — for everybody,” said Karina Sokolowska, the Poland director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Organized by the JDC, the Krakow Jewish Community Center and the Krakow Jewish Religious Community, 7@Nite first took place in 2011.

Since then it has become an annual event that begins with an open-air Havdalah ceremony ending Shabbat conducted from the roof of the JCC.

From the conclusion of Havdalah – at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday — until 2:30 a.m. Sunday, thousands of people troop off to visit the synagogues, all of which are located within a few blocks of each other.

Organizers estimated that this year’s Havdalah, on Saturday, drew a record 1,400 people who crowded into the JCC courtyard.

“Go and enjoy the synagogues,” JCC Executive Director Jonathan Ornstein told them. “The Jewish heritage of Krakow does not just belong to the Jews but to all of us. As Cracovians, be proud.”

The event was advertised with posters throughout the city, and a constant flow of people moved in and out of the synagogues throughout the opening hours. The overwhelming majority were young, non-Jewish Cracovians.

With only about 20,000 Jews, Poland has experienced a public fascination with Poland’s Jewish heritage, including dozens of Jewish museums and culture festivals often run by non-Jews.

Some said they had made it a point to come to Kazimierz to take part.

“It’s the only day of the year that you can see all the synagogues, and I came last year and two years ago, too,” said Natalia Giemza, 23, who is not Jewish but said she had taken university courses on Jewish history.

Other visitors made a quick visit to a synagogue or two part of a Saturday night out. In recent years, the Kazimierz district has become the city’s liveliest center of youth-oriented nightlife, and pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants were crowded on a warm night.

“We were just out drinking and thought, why not?” said Mateus, 22, who joined a group of friends visiting the baroque Izaak Synagogue after 1 a.m.

Built in the 17th century, the Izaak has a towering vaulted ceiling and frescoed decoration and is used for regular services. For 7@Nite it hosted an exhibit on Ethiopian Jews with a hummus and pita snack bar in its courtyard.

“I’ve been in other synagogues, but never the Izaak,” Mateus said. One of the reasons he had wanted to visit, he said, was “to gain knowledge about our roots.”

“I’m not Jewish or Catholic, but I think there is some Jewish blood in my ancestry,” he said. Mateus said he did not, however, plan to join the JCC or take any other steps toward affiliation.

His friend Jakub said he was Catholic, but he and his parents “have always been interested in Jewish things.”

The 7@Nite event was staffed by volunteers who managed crowds, handed out kippot to visiting men and kept head counts of visitors. Most were not Jewish and, according to the JDC’s Sololowska, some had come from as far as the northwestern city of Szczeczin, hundreds of miles away, to take part.

“I’m Catholic and I started volunteering at the JCC two years ago,” said graduate student Anna Wilkosz, who said that by midnight well over 1,000 people had visited the Kupa synagogue. “I felt it was urgent to be involved.”

Not everyone who turned out for the event, however, demonstrated a positive interest in Jewish and Judaism.

Outside the Tempel Synagogue, where young Poles danced wildly to freestyling by the American Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz, a bald man in his 30s said he was “mad at the Jews.”

“I’m mad at the Jews because Jews all say that the Poles killed them in World War II, but I know history — Poles saved them,” declared the man, who said he was a tour guide.

His remarks appeared to reflect a campaign in recent months by Poland’s new hard-right government to absolve Poles of charges of complicity in the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.

Much of that campaign centers on the Polish-American historian Jan Gross, the author of several books since 2000 that examine episodes during and after the Holocaust, including the murder of Jews in the village of Jedwabne, in which Poles killed their Jewish neighbors or targeted Jews with violence.

In October, soon after coming to power, the government opened a libel investigation against Gross based on an article he wrote asserting that “Poles killed more Jews during the [Second World] war than they did Germans.” Prosecutors questioned Gross for five hours in April.

The investigation was based on an article in the Criminal Code that punishes those who “insult” Poland.

Yet most visitors seemed to take part in the Night of the Synagogues in a spirit of good will. At midnight, Giemza and a friend entered the 17th-century Kupa Synagogue, which is decorated with colorful frescoes. It hosted a special photo and interview exhibit about contemporary Polish Jewish identity.

They carried hamsas, the hand-shaped Middle Eastern good luck charm, that they had made in an art workshop taking place at another of the synagogues.