Dawid Kujawa

(b. 1989) – a critic, theorist and editor.

His major fields of intellectual work are Polish contemporary poetry, the ontology of the literary text and aesthetics, and philosophy, above all, though not exclusively, the intellectual legacy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, heterodox Marxism, radical Italian political philosophy and Baruch Spinoza. His articles and books combine literary analysis and aesthetic solutions with broader philosophical/social/political issues. He has published in such journals as Praktyka Teoretyczna, Przestrzenie Teorii, Widok. Teorie i Praktyki Kultury Wizualnej, Znak, Przegląd Humanistyczny, KONTENT and Mały Format. He lives in Katowice.

In 2012–18, he was tied to the Opcje Publishers’ Initiative Association and Culture Quarterly. Until 2017, he was editor-in-chief of Opcja 1.1. Since 2016, he has been a regular contributor to the academic journal Praktyka Teoretyczna. In 2016, he was also co-nominated for the Wrocław WARTO Award for editing Przerzutnia Magazyn Literatury i Badań nad Codziennością.

In 2016, an anthology of political poetry appeared, ‘Zebrało się śliny’ (The Saliva Has Gathered), which included a critical text by Kujawa. He also took active part in discussions on the politics of poetry and the notions of involvement and autonomy in biBLioteka, a web journal published by Biuro Literackie, and on the web site of Mały Format, a young literary journal.

In 2020, he joined Rafa Wawrzyńczyk and Jakub Skurtys in publishing and co-editing a selection of poems by Jarosław Markiewicz: ‘Aaa!… 111 wierszy’ (Aaaah!… 111 Poems).

In 2016, Kujawa published his first book of literary criticism, ‘Wideopoezja. Szkice’ (Videopoetry: Sketches), but it was his next volume, ‘Pocałunki ludu. Poezja i krytyka po roku 2000’ (Kisses of the People: Poetry and Criticism after the Year 2000, 2021), using theses from the author’s PhD, that sent ripples through the world of literary criticism. The book’s first part concerns the reductive approach to deconstruction accompanying changes in Polish criticism and research, motivated by neo-liberal politics. The second part includes chapters on selected poets. The various chapters are interwoven with theoretical voices, in which the author accessibly explains his basic concepts. The central category remains the ecstatic, which Kujawa understands as poetry’s ability to go beyond the present-day politico-economic circumstances and conceptualise what is possible.

Three years later, Kujawa released a new book of literary criticism, ‘Niedzielne ziemie. Poezja i dobra wspólne’ (Sunday Lands: Poetry and the Commons, 2024), in which the author grasps the new Polish poetry as a common good, a concept taken from the Italian heterodox Marxists (primarily Massimo De Angelis). A year later, Kujawa published a book of essays, ‘W myśl praw geometrii. Jak lewica pokochała logikę towarową i przestała się martwić’ (Mindful of the Laws of Geometry: How the Left Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Commodity Logic, 2025), where he puts aside purely literary topics in favour of broader political reflections on today’s leftists.