Marian Pankowski

A writer, poet, novelist, playwright and translator; his style was marked by bold prose and a deliberate, self-extolling tone that cried out for recognition. Born in Sanok in 1919, died on 3 April 2011 in Brussels.

Sun, 11/09/1919 - 12:00 - Sun, 04/03/2011 - 12:00

Header picture

Tytuł w nagłówku

Marian Pankowski

Picture size

small (760 px)

Podpis obrazka

Marian Pankowski, photo Elżbieta Lempp

Parallax mode

Off

In 1938 he enrolled in Polish studies at the Jagiellonian University; it was also the time of his debut as a poet in Lviv’s leading periodical Sygnały. A prisoner of Nazi camps (Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen and Nordhausen), he settled in Belgium after the war and continued studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he was later appointed the head of its Slavic Studies.

Pankowski’s many literary studies and essays have been printed in the Parisian Kultura, the London-based Oficyna Poetow and other journals. His PhD dissertation, ‘Lesmian – La révolte d’un poéte contre les limites’ (Leśmian – the revolt against limits), was published in 1963 (the Polish translation came out in 1999). Pankowski has also translated Polish and other poetry (Anthologie de la poésie polonaise, 1961), but his main occupation has been writing of poetry, prose and dramas.His output includes poetry volumes in Polish and French (Pieśni Pompejanskie / Pompeian Songs, Wiersze Alpejskie / Alpine Poems, Podpłomyki / Pancakes, Couleuer de Jeune Mélèze, Poignée du présent, Sto Mil Przed Brzegiem / A Hundred Miles to the Shore, Zielnik Złotych Sniegów / Herbarium of Golden Snows, Moje Słowo Prowincjonalne / My Provincial Speech), novels and short stories (Matuga Idzie: Przygody / Here Comes Matuga: Adventures, Bukenocie, Kozak i Inne Opowiesci / Cossack and Other Stories, Patnicy z Macierzyzny / The Pilgrims from Macierzyzna, Rudolf, Gość / A Visitor, Powrót Białych Nietoperzy / The Return of the White Bates, Putto, Fara na Pomorzu / A Parish Church in Pomerania, W Stronę Miłości / Towards Love, Z Auszwicu do Belsen / From Auschwitz to Belsen, Bal Wdów i Wdowcow / Widows and Widowers’ Ball) and dramas, of which the major ones have been collected in two volumes and published in London (Nasz Julo Czerwony i Siedem Innych Sztuk / Our Red Julo and Four Other plays, Teatrowanie nad Swiętym Barszczem i Pięć Innych Sztuk / Theatre-Making over the Holy Borschch and Five Other Plays).

Most of Pankowski’s works has been translated into French, German and Flemish.

The novel Matuga Idzie: Przygody (Brussels 1959, Lublin 1983), the first of his mature works, is considered to be Pankowski’s artistic creed. This creed sets him apart from the émigré tradition with its cultural and literary emploi, as well as delineating an individual experimental programme. Rejecting the heritage of the 19th century Great Emigration and the related post-war emigration, Pankowski looks for inspiration in the low, unenlightened and plebeian culture, notably the early Polish obscene works and treatises on daily life, the picaresque mockery, the macabre and fantasy of Baroque origin, Leśmian’s poetry as well as Western European writing, especially by Francois Rabelais and Belgian Michel de Ghelderode.

A work in opposition to Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, Matuga deconstructs the template of a national epic with its patriotic rhetoric and the model of ‘exile writing’ with its longing for the lost and idealised homeland. Matuga is also a work of experimental prose whose new artistic language, ostentatiously transgressing accepted literary standards, grows out of the Young Poland movement and avant-garde searches and of the exploration of the marginal literature.
These two traits of Pankowski’s novel have been acknowledged and appreciated by the critics. Alicja Lisiecka wrote:

Text

A prose so bold, stripping, deliberately turpist and Slavic at the same time, plebeian, yet styled ... It is akin to Gombrowicz, Białoszewski and Schulz.

Author

'Oficyna Poetów'

Jan Zieliński highlighted another aspect:

Text

‘Matuga Idzie’, a book written in opposition to ‘Pan Tadeusz’, was a deliberate and self-extolling ‘masterpiece’ which cried out for recognition, yet admitting unfitness for inclusion in prescribed school readers.

Author

Now Książki

The two trends which manifested themselves in Matuga remained crucial for Pankowski’s writing longer-term. The challenge of ‘Polishness’ and the mockery of the Polish mindset and national myths, started from the ‘barefoot and pissed’ Kartoflania as the symbol of Poland in Matuga, and continued with the satire on religious pilgrimages in Patnicy z Macierzyzny and with the image of the invariably drunk Antek having his alcoholic visions of Our Lady of Czestochowa in the play Nasze Srebra / Our Silverware.

Indeed, it is in his dramas that Pankowski is particularly scathing: Nasz Julo Czerwony assails Słowacki’s legend and the myth of a poet as a national prophet, while Nasze Srebra challenges the stereotypes of Polish post-war emigration and the idea of the Great Exile, Smierc Białej Pończochy / The Death of a White Stocking and Zygmunt August denounce the prime time of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania during the Jagiellonian golden age.

Pankowski also undermines and deconstructs the main standards of Polish drama going back to the Romantic and Young Poland periods (the latter with its monumental vision of national history à la Wyśpianski) and exploited by the post-war exile playwrights. Pankowski responds to their celebration of the noble history and national cause by using the deprecating conventions of burlesque, sketch, vaudeville, and thus approaching the works of the so-called ‘deriders’.

Where he is at his most controversial, however, is in his works dealing with World War II. Ostentatiously anti-martyrdom, they violate the discoursive taboo by combining erotic motifs with suffering caused by the war. Pankowski’s Teatrowanie nad Świętym Barszczem replaces the leitmotif of the oppressor and the victim with a theme of homosexual love in camp realities. The short story My SS Rottenführer Johanna from the volume Złoto Żałobne / The Mourning Gold recounts a love affair between a concentration camp prisoner and an SS woman. The plot of Rudolf, a novel about homosexuality, is triggered off by a meeting of an ex-inmate of Nazi camps and a German for whom the wartime was dominated by homoerotic excesses.

The other, more universal current of Pankowski’s work is equally denouncing, though it applies mainly to the toposes of European culture. The Three Magi find the everyday humdrum instead of the Revelation in Biwak pod Gołym Niebem / Camping under the Sky, Złote Śzczęki / Golden Jaws deconstruct the myth of paradise, Brandon, Furbon i Spółka / Brandon, Furbon and Company vivisect creation mechanisms of mass culture idols who replace mythological heroes. These plays track down falsehood in commonly accepted notions and cultural stereotypes of reality, pulling out the areas which are left unsaid, excluded, marginalised.

Pankowski’s prose is similar: Putto deals with paedophilia, one of the protagonists of Granatowy Gozdzik / The Navy Blue Carnation collects inscriptions from the town’s toilets. The characters of his many short stories are fascinated by their escapades to disreputable districts and dives.

What Henryk Bereza called ‘the senior period’ has a special place in Pankowski’s literature, which includes a number of prose works having the eroticism of old age as their main theme. A defence against biological destruction, this ‘senior’ eroticism is also a tool of intensifying sensual sensitivity which drives perception of the en bloc reality. Another transgression, this one is triggered off by a protest against the exclusion of desire in the old age, the domain of ugliness. This transgressional eroticism is one of Pankowski’s ways of artistic exploration of this area of human experience as well as an exploration of the language’s capability to absorb and convey an intensively sensuous and eroticism-filled sense of the world, one reminiscent of George Bataille.

Pankowski, who has been favourably received in the West, was until recently hardly acknowledged in Poland and in emigrant communities. There were a number of reasons for that, including the fact that rather than living out the ethos of a Polish exile writer, he would visit the People’s Republic of Poland and would have his books published by official publishers. His critical approach to the widely recognised national heritage, exploitation of taboos and orientation towards developing an independent artistic stance have been frowned upon. The reception of his writing is remindful of the response to Witold Gombrowicz, another exile iconoclast, to whom Pankowski has often been compared.

The recent years, however, have brought a change helped by the many publications of Pankowski’s works (by Twórczość and others), nomination for the 2001 NIKE literary award for Z Auschwitzu do Belsen / From Auschwitz to Belsen), as well as the rapid development of extensive research into the output of exile writers since 1990s. In 2009, Pankowski received the Silver Medal – Gloria Artis for his contributions to Polish culture, and ultimately passed away on 3 April 2011 in Brussels at the age of 92.

Bibliography:

Wiersze alpejskie, Bruxelles: itd. R-J Sténuit, 1947
Granatowy goździk, London: “Oficyna Poetow i Malarzy”, 1972; Warszawa: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1975
Bukenocie, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1979
Smagła swoboda, Warszawa: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1980
Matuga idzie: przygody, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 1983
Rudolf, Warszawa: “Czytelnik”, 1984
Bajki dla Marty, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 1986
Pątnicy z Macierzyzny, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 1987
Gość, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 1989, London: “Oficyna Poetow i Malarzy”, 1987
Powrót białych nietoperzy, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 1991
Zielnik zlotych sniegow, Lublin: “Fis”, 1993
L’or funÈbre; récits trad. du pol. par Elisabeth Destrée-Van Wilder. Arles: Actes Sud, 1993
Putto, Poznan: “Softpress”, 1994
Teatrowanie nad swiętym barszczem: selection of drama works, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1995
Balustrada, London: “Oficyna Poetow i Malarzy”, 1996
Ksiądz Helena: selection of drama works, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1996
Rudolf; transl. by John and Elizabeth Maslen, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1996
Un presbytère en Poméranie; trad. du pol. par Elisabeth Destrée-Van Wilder, Arles: Actes Sud, 1997
Fara na Pomorzu, Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1997
Lida, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej, 1997
Moje słowo prowincjonalne, Sanok: Muzeum Historyczne, 1998
Leśmian czyli Bunt poety przeciw granicom; transl. Andrzej Krzewicki, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej, 1999
Polak w dwuznacznych sytuacjach Marian Pankowski talks to Krystyna Ruta-Rutkowska; Instytut Badan Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Warszawa: IBL. Wydawnictwo, 2000
Z Auszwicu do Belsen: przygody, Warszawa: “Czytelnik”, 2000
Pięć dramatów, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 2001
Post-scriptum à l’amour; trad. du pol. par Yolande Lamy. Arles : Actes Sud, 2001
W stronę miłości, Warszawa: Biblioteka Narodowa, 2001
Złoto żałobne, Koszalin: “Millennium”, 2002
”De arte poetica”, Sanok: Muzeum Historyczne, 2004
Bal wdów i wdowców, Kraków: Korporacja Ha!art, 2006

Theatre productions in the West:

Brandon, Furbon et Cie., dir. G. Cambreleng, Théâtre de Fortune, Paris 1973
Le Rois Luis, dir. J. Monod, La Comédie, Génève 1973
Brandon, Furbon et Cie, dir. G. Cambreleng, Théâtre de Fortune, Paris 1974
Les machoires d’or, dir. Cambreleng, Théâtre de Fortune, Paris 1976
Les Capucines en chasses à Bécaussines, dir. G. Cambreleng, Théâtre de Fortune, Paris 1979
Brandon, Furbon et Cie., dir. G. Le Fur, Théâtre du Lys, Paris 1981
Petit Théâtre autour de la soupe do Noël, dir. J-M Petiniot, Théâtre de l’Ancre, Charleoi 1985
De Miekevers, dir. P. Niedźwiecki, {C} Korrekelder, Bruges 1990
Les machoires d’or and Le Rois Luis, dir. M. Vericel, INSA Universtiy Theatre, Lyon 1999
Les Capucines en chasses à Bécaussines and La mort d’un bas blanc, dir. M. Vericel, INSA University Theatre, Lyon 2000

Theatre productions in Poland:

Przygody Matugi, dir. J.W. Krzyszczak, Teatr im. J. Osterwy, Lublin 1986
Nasz Julo Czerwony, dir. B. Litwiniec, OTO Kalambur, Wroclaw 1987
Chrabąszcze, dir. B. Litwiniec, OTO Kalambur, Wroclaw 1990
Chrabąszcze, dir. T. Wolanczyk, Stara Prochownia, Warszawa 1990
Ręce na szyje zarzucić, dir. D. Banek, Teatr Slaski im. St. Wyspiańskiego, Katowice 1996
Śmierć białej pończochy, dir. T. Malinowska-Tyszkiewicz, Teatr Polski, Szczecin 1998
Trzej Królowie, Teatr Dramatyczny, Legnica 1998
Biwak pod gołym niebem, dir. J. Kulczyński, Teatr Polski, Warszawa 2000

Author: Ruta-Rutkowska, November 2006, updated March 2021 by AZ