Zbigniew Żakiewicz

(1933–2010) – prose writer, literary critic, literary historian, author of children’s books.

Zbigniew Żakiewicz was born in the Vilnius region into a landed gentry family. After the war, he was repatriated to Poland and lived in Łódź, Wrocław, Opole and Gdańsk. He worked as a researcher at the University of Gdańsk.

As a writer, he identified strongly with the state of being an exile from his homeland, a wanderer, which was clearly reflected in his work. After many years in Poland, he found his place in the Kashubian region, which he described as follows: “My first years spent in Kashubia were years of putting down roots again after the repatriation exodus of 1946. And for the first time since then, I felt like I was coming back to myself” (“Ujrzane, w czasie zatrzymane”, Seen, Frozen in Time). Żakiewicz’s work is situated within the borderland prose trend, and can even be considered its classic realisation. In each of his books, he reverently evokes the world of the north-eastern borderlands of Poland – perhaps to the greatest extent in “Saga Wileńska” (The Vilnius Saga), which consists of three volumes: “Ród Abaczów” (The Abacz Clan, 1968), “Dolina Hortensji” (Hydrangea Valley, 1975) and “Wilcze łąki” (Wolf Meadows, 1992). Weaving autobiographical threads into the texts, he presents the childhood and youth of the protagonist growing up in the border areas where various cultures, languages ​​and religions intermingled. As is often the case in this type of prose, Żakiewicz’s borderland world is on the verge of an inevitable catastrophe that will irreversibly destroy it, which is why it contains so much “noble longing” and nostalgia. Wanting to preserve the memory of this world through literature, Żakiewicz saturated his prose with descriptions of nature and customs, while also trying to preserve the specificity of the borderland language, which combines elements from different linguistic systems. His prose also addresses the problems of the exile who, having left both his homeland and the “paradise of childhood”, searches for a place that he can consider his own, trying to put down roots again. His work touches on the concepts of taking root in real space (for example, in “Ciotuleńka”, Auntie, 1988) and searching for a metaphysical sanction of life (“Ujrzane, w czasie zatrzymane”, 1996).

In 1971, Żakiewicz received the Kościelski Award in Geneva, and in 1981, he won the Koga Gdańska Award for work with young writers, awarded by the “Żak” Coast Students’ Club in Gdańsk. He received the Mayor of Gdańsk’s award in the field of culture in 2003. He was also awarded the Gold Cross of Merit (1976), the badge of honour “For Merit to Gdańsk” (1980), the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1989), the badge of honour “For Merit to the Opole Region” (1995), and the Medal of the National Education Commission (1998). In 2000, he received the Pomeranian Art Award for his book “Gorycz i sól morza. Gdańskie Smorgonie” (Bitterness and Sea Salt: Gdańsk’s Smarhon).