Tomasz Burek

(1938 – 2017) – critic, literary scholar, essayist.

Burek spent his early childhood and school years in Sandomierz, and in the years 1955-60 studied journalism at the University of Warsaw. He debuted in the press in 1957, with a review of a performance of Molière’s Don Juan. Initially he published in “Twórczość”, later also in “Nowy Wyraz” (where he was the deputy editor-in-chief since 1972), “Teksty”, “Tygodnik Kulturalny”, “Więź” (under the pen name Łukasz Ligięza) and “Współczesność”. In the years 1970-85 and 1989 he worked at the Institute of Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1976 he became an anti-communist oppositionist: he signed protest letters (for example the Memoral 101 in 1976), co-founded the Society for Academic Courses, lectured at an underground university, edited “Zapis”, worked with underground periodicals “Nowy Zapis”, “Almanach Humanistyczny”, “Kultura Niezależna” and “Puls” (published in London); in 1980 he joined Solidarity. In 1989 he became a member of the Polish Writers’ Association (where his roles included board member and deputy president). He worked for Radio Free Europe and the Polish Radio. He published in “Teksty Drugie” (where he was on the editorial team), “Twórczość”, “Arcana”, “Gazeta Polska”; he was a programme board member of the literary bimonthly “Topos”.

He was politically engaged: at the end of the 1980s he belonged, for a short time, to the Polish Socialist Party, and then to Porozumienie Centrum (Centre Agreement). Before the 2010 presidential election he was active in the support committee of Jarosław Kaczyński, and in 2015 – of Andrzej Duda.

Author of books considered classics within the genre of literary criticism in Poland: “Zamiast powieści” (Instead of a Novel, 1971), “Dalej aktualne” (Still Relevant, 1973), “Żadnych marzeń” (No Dreaming, 1987), “Dziennik kwarantanny” (Journal of a Quarantine, 2001), “Dzieło niczyje” (Nobody’s Work, 2001), “Niewybaczalne sentymenty” (Unforgivable Sentiments, 2011); his subsequent books were published posthumously. Referring to his masters – Stanisław Brzozowski, Karol Irzykowski, Andrzej Kijowski – he created a separate concept of Polish literature in the context of the transformations of modern culture and 20^th century history. He emphasised the educational and ethical aims of literary creation and was aware of literature’s social determinants, but also the way it was influenced by philosophical ideas and religious values. He proposed a new periodisation of writing in the last century and sketched out the evolution of prose (the myth of the grand novel and unfinished masterpieces). He created an original style of critical writing which involved syntactical richness, at times slightly archaised; an emotional, vivid language; combining irony with zeal, even pathos; he also introduced fictional elements, extremely rare in critical writing. He dabbled in many genres: review, sketch, historico-literary treatise, essay, polemic, column, reading journal. His favourite authors to write about were the great European novelists of the 20^th century, and Polish creators with whom he felt a spiritual kinship: Stanisław Brzozowski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Czesław Miłosz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, Marek Nowakowski, Zbigniew Herbert. Tomasz Burek’s work, spanning over half a century, evolved, but retained the basic elements of his individual style. Initially – in line with Marxist revisionists – he had hope for the project of Prometheist humanism and a socialist culture which would enable the political and economic emancipation of the peasant classes and their cultural advancement. In the middle period of his activity, through interpreting literary phenomena, he commented on the crisis of modern civilisation – especially the moral one – and focused on the process of rebuilding Poles’ national identity and their struggle for independence. He considered the essential characteristics of the “spiritual substance of Polish literature” to be its political, historiosophic and religious nature, and its “hyperliterariness”. From the 1990s onwards he was particularly interested in the metaphysical issues present in the activity of cultural creators, particularly crises of faith and the search for God in the works by eminent writers of the previous century. He also denounced the nihilism of modern anti-religious thought and criticised the kitschiness of postmodern art, particularly in Poland.

Laureate of literary awards: the Stanisław Piętak Award (1971), the Kościelski Award (Geneva, 1973), the Polcul Foundation award (Australia, 1988) and the “Master” Honorary Award given by the bimonthly “Topos” (2016).