Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Room 131; Tel. (22) 6572-876

Members of the Department:
Chair: Professor Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz
Professor Tomasz Chachulski
Dr. Magdalena Górska
Ms. Klara Leszczyńska-Skowron, M.A.
Dr. Agata Roćko
Dr. Magdalena Ślusarska

Retired scholars who participate in the activities of the Department:
Professor Teresa Kostkiewiczowa

The Department meetings: Thursdays 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

About the Department:
The first impulse that awakened our interest in the era of Enlightenment was Tadeusz Mikulski’s article titled "Stan badań i potrzeby nauki o literaturze wieku Oświecenia" [The State of Research and the Needs for the Study of Enlightenment Literature] published in the periodical Pamiętnik Literacki [Literary Memoir] in 1950. The author of the article initiated the need for research into this epoch conducted first in Wroclaw, and then within the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Department of Enlightenment Literature.

Research interests of the members of the Department include, among other things, the problems of textology and editing. This is evidenced by the numerous critical editions of the works of the era‘s most eminent writers, as well as by the publications of anthologies of poetry, occasional and political writings, and collections of letters. Studies of the epoch’s cultural life resulted in publications of dramas, selections of newspaper articles, and works devoted to cultural institutions and esthetic and theoretical awareness of the era. As a result of the research undertaken in various areas of knowledge, four volumes of Nowy Korbut [New Bibliography] were published; devoted to Enlightenment writings, this compendium is a basic source of bibliographic information. Other publications include, among others, (1) Słownik literatury polskiego Oświecenia [Literature Dictionary of the Polish Enlightenment], which accumulates knowledge of the wide-ranging literary phenomena of the era, (2) a three-volume edited work Pisarze polskiego Oświecenia [Writers of the Polish Enlightenment], which contains biographies of the leading representatives of the Polish Parnassus, (3) academic textbooks, and (4) numerous studies of various issues related to the Age of Reason, also in the European context.

The members of the Department cooperate with other scholarly centers both in Poland and abroad. The results of the cooperation include, among others, Miscellanea z doby Oświecenia [Miscellanea of the Enlightenment] published as part of the Literary Archive, Zofia Sinko’s collaboration on compiling the volume Les Lumieres en Pologne et en Hongrie, and the article by Teresa Kostkiewiczowa published in Histoire comparée des littératures de langues européennes. The Department participates in various conferences devoted to the study of the era. It is also the organizer of such meetings.