Associate professor (profesor nadzwyczajny dr hab.) in the Medieval Section of the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw; since july 2007 head of the section. Tenured since 2013.

I obtained my Ph.D. in 1987 on a thesis concerning the Middle Netherlandic abele spelen: "Untersuchungen ĂĽber die mittelniederländischen Abele Spelen (Herkunft - Stil - Motive)". It was a general study on the origin, the language and text structure, as well as the motifs in those 10 secular plays of the later 14th century. Until 2000 I have been teaching Dutch literature at the German Institute of the University of Warsaw (which I graduated in 1976). Before 1996 I was also literary translator (10 books of poetry, prose and modern drama of Dutch, Flemish and one South African author - I have a passive command of Afrikaans). My Słownik pisarzy niderlandzkiego obszaru kulturowego ("Companion to Literature of the Netherlandic Area" (1345 items; Holland, Flanders, Friesland, Surinam and the Afrikaans writers of South Africa) has been published in July 1999. Co-author of three dictionaries of Polish: Słownik synonimów (1993), Słownik antonimów (1995), Słownik stylistyczny języka polskiego (2007).

My studies on medieval drama in its social and intellectual (esp. religious) context have appeared in journals and books in Holland, Belgium, South Africa, Italy, the USA and Poland (in German, Dutch, English and Polish). My main interest is less historical, more comparative and theoretical. This is apparent in my book (in Polish) "Theatre and the Sacred in the Middle Ages" (2001), containing a theory of the relations between the forms of devotion and the drama genres. Parts of it have been presented in 1998-99 at the Medieval Congress (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo), at the 9th Biennial Interdisciplinary Conference on Netherlandic Studies (University of Wisconsin, Madison), and at the 3rd Conference on Medieval Drama (University of Camerino, Italy). The book has been awarded the Polish state prize for outstanding scholarly achievement of the year 2001.

I wrote a new academic handbook on the literary history of the Polish Middle Ages: Średniowiecze: Korzenie [The Middle Ages: The Roots] has appeared in September 2005. For more see below.

At present I am preparing a monograph on the Old Polish miracle plays in their European context, and a study of the role of cathedral schools in the transmission of knowledge and skills substantial for the theatre.

Together with Professor Teresa Michałowska, (head of the Medieval Section of our Institute until 2006), we organize "Medieval Meetings" - a series of one day workshop conferences on medieval literary studies in Poland, SPOTKANIA MEDIEWISTYCZNE. Every 3 or 4 months four younger and older scholars from the whole country come to deliver papers on their research topics.

"Korzenie"

History of Polish literature in 10 volumes – The Middle Ages. The Roots

The book presents the writing of the Polish Middle Ages (ca. 1000-ca.1500) in a series of studies on the most important topics and problems. The scope was interdisciplinary and the result is complementary to the existing books of its sort. Separate chapters bring new interpretations and new results of research, also of my own. Much attenton is given to the general historical and cultural circumstances of the emergence and function of literary phenomena.


Reviewed in "The Sarmatian Review", 26.2 (2006):
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Esarmatia/406/262books.html