Polish Studies at Harvard University

• The Institution
• Polish Studies
• Language Instruction
• Poland-Related Courses
• Faculty

Polish Study Courses

Slavic 160 On the Margins: Polish Literature in the 20th Century @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introductory course to analyze Polish literature in the 20th Century, from Modernism to Postmodernism. Primarily focuses on the multiple cultural changes which took place in the last century and shaped the character of Polish literature. This transformation is considered a dynamic exchange between variously determined margins and centers and is analyzed on many levels. Several types of marginality are involved: political, metaphysical, existential, literary, and sexual.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Markowski, Michal

Slavic 161 Irony and Metaphysics: Constructing and Deconstructing Identity in Polish Modern and Postmodern Literature @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Advanced course that seeks to delineate two essential and opposite (p/P)oles of literary experience, Witold Gombrowicz and Czeslaw Milosz. The construction of one's identity on the basis of a true self-presentation (Milosz in his metaphysical poetry) is usefully compared with an author's ``deconstructive" attitude towards himself, the world, and literature (Gombrowicz in his ironic undermining of self-presence).
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Markowski, Michal

Slavic 162e Survey of Polish Literature from the Beginnings to 1795 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introductory course to show the birth and growth of Polish literature against the general cultural background of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Age of Enlightenment.

Slavic 162f Survey of Polish Literature, 1795-1890 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introductory course to analyze selected works from Polish Romantic and Positivist literature, up to the years of anti-Positivist crisis. Special emphasis on representative works for the formation of modern historical consciousness in Polish literature.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak , S.

Slavic 162g Survey of Polish Literature, 1890-1939 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Analysis of selected works representing the turn-of-the-century neo-Romantic movement of Young Poland and literature of the two decades between the World Wars. Special emphasis on literary experiment in works of such authors as Witkacy, Gombrowicz, Schulz, and others.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR:

Slavic 162h Survey of Polish Literature, 1939-Present @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Analysis of selected works representing literature of the World War II period, literature written in Poland under Communist rule as well as in exile between 1944 and 1989, and literature of the most recent years.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak , S.

Slavic 162r Readings in Polish Literature: From the Golden Age of the Renaissance to the Masterpieces of Our Time @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Close reading of selected masterpieces in the original, from the birth of Humanism in the 16th-century to 19th-century Romanticism to the modern and postmodern periods. Analyzes the works of Jan Kochanowski (16th c.), Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Slowacki, Cyprian Norwid, Boleslaw Prus (19th c.), Witold Gombrowicz, Bruno Schulz, Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert and others, emphasizing their artistic structure and role in the historical process.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak, A

Slavic 162r Readings in Polish Literature: 1945-2000, Between Literary Tradition and Sociopolitical Realities @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A close-reading course to analyze selected works, in the original, of the Polish post-WWII period. The selection of reading material will range from the Nazi-deathcamp stories of T. Borowski, to excerpted fiction of fiction of W. Gombrowicz and S. Lem, to the poetry of C. Milosz, Z. Herbert and W. Szymborska, to the poets of the "Generation '68" and new fiction in the 90s.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak, A.

Slavic 163 Survey of Polish Literature: Kochanowski to Krasicki @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Analysis of the major works of the late 16th to the late 18th centuries, with special focus on the Baroque.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Grabowicz, G

Slavic 164 Survey of Polish Literature: 1795 - 1918 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introductory course to examine the major writers and movements from Romanticism to Positivism and Medernism (Mloda Polska).
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Grabowicz, G

Slavic 202 Introduction to West Slavic Languages @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to the structure and history of Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Sorbian.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Brown, Sue

Slavic 291 Problems in the History of Early Ukrainian Literature @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An examination of the major developments and phases of Kievan and early Ukrainian literature. Topics include the interrelation of written and oral literature, the system of genres of Kievan literature (with special focus on hagiography), the Renaissance and the interrelation with Polish literature, the confraternities, Vyshens'kyj, the Baroque, the Mohyla Academy, Skovoroda.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Grabowicz, G.

History 1516 Nation Formation in East Europe, 1795-1921: Poland, Russia, Ukraine @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An examination of the making and remaking of nations in East Europe, focusing on the three interrelated cases of Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. This survey of intellectual and political history extends from the partitions of Poland by Russia, Austria, and Prussia to socialist and nationalist revolutions of 1917-1920 and the territorial and political settlement of 1919-1921.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Szporluk, R

Language Instruction

Slavic Da Beginning Polish I @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to the fundamentals of Polish designed for students with no previous knowledge of the language. Emphasis on oral practice of essential grammar structures in naturally occurring conversational patterns. Reading and discussion of simple prose and/or poetry.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak, A

Slavic Db Beginning Polish II @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Continuation of Slavic Da. Continued work on Polish grammar with increasing emphasis on reading. Continued oral work and writing for practice and reinforcement.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak, A

Slavic Dc Intermediate Polish @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: For students with an elementary knowledge of Polish. Emphasis on further development of reading, writing, and oral skills, with a systematic review of grammar. Readings to be selected according to student interest
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak, A.

Slavic Dr Supervised Readings in Intermediate/Advanced Polish @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Emphasis on reading with some practice in speaking and writing. Conducted as a tutorial based on student course proposals.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Baranczak, A

History 1515 States and Nations: 1905-1991 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An introduction to theoretical literature concerning nationalism and communism, as well as to historical treatments of the states of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, with special attention to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as well as to the experience of Yugoslavia and Poland.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: R. Szporluk

History 1516 Nation Formation in East Europe, 1795-1921: Poland, Russia, Ukraine @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An examination of the making and remaking of nations in East Europe, focusing on the three interrelated cases of Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. This survey of intellectual and political history extends from the partitions of Poland by Russia, Austria, and Prussia to socialist and nationalist revolutions of 1917-1920 and the territorial and political settlement of 1919-1921.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: R. Szporluk

History 1518 The Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Orthodox Reform in Eastern Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Explores the history of religious reform in the traditional Orthodox lands of Eastern Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on the impact of the confessionalization of Western Christianity on the Orthodox churches of the region.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: S. Plokhii

History 2511 Socialism and Nationalism: Seminar @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Nationalism and socialism and their interaction with special reference to Poland, Russia, and Ukraine in the 19th and 20th centuries.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: R. Szporluk

History 1522 East-Central Europe in the 20th Century @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An introduction to the history of the lands between Germany and Russia/USSR (with particular reference to the experiences of Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Slovaks, and Jews) during a century of tremendous change. Will explore life in the final years of the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, and Romanov empires; the problematic "nation-states" of the interwar period; the watershed of World War II; the post-war communist experience; the revolutions of 1989; and post-communism. Sources include literary works and film.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Patrice Marie Dabrowski

History 1523 Forging the Future, Imagining the Past: Festivals and Commemorations in Modern Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Examines the phenomenon of publicly celebrated festivals and commemorations and their impact on national development in modern Europe-East as well as West-since the French Revolution. Topics include memory and forgetting; the "invention of tradition"; the popularization of cult figures and collective heroes; the erection and destruction of monuments; and the reconfiguring of time and space - visual announcing course bears photo of the unveiling of the Grunwald statue in Krakow in 1910.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Patrice Marie Dabrowski

Poland-Related Courses

Slavic 202 Introduction to West Slavic Languages @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to the structure and history of Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Serbian.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Flier, M. S.

History 1512 20th-Century Ukraine @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An introduction to main themes in Ukrainian history: Ukrainians in Russia and Austria-Hungary before 1914; Russian and Polish views of Ukraine; historical tradition and modern politics; the First World War and the Ukrainian Question; Ukrainians in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania; from Destalinization to Independence.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Szporluk, R

Faculty

Baranczak, Anna Preceptor, Slavic Languages and Literatures Department, Harvard University @

Ph.D. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland, 1977
Phone: (617) 495-5808 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: barancz@fas.harvard.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Beginning through advanced Polish language instruction, oral proficiency testing.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Beginning Polish I , II
• Readings in Polish Literature: From the Golden Age of the Renaissance to the Masterpieces of Our Time

Baranczak, Stanislaw Alfred Jurzykowski Professor of Polish Language and Literature, Harvard University @@

Ph.D. , Adam Mickiewicz University. Poznan, 1973
Phone: (617) 495-5808 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: barancz@fas.harvard.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Modern Polish literature, Polish poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, literary translation.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
HONORS

• Recipient of the Nike Literary Prize, Poland's most coveted literary award, for his collection of 25 poems Chirurgiczna precyzja. Elegie i piosenki z lat 1995-1997 the

BOOKS

• A Fugitive from Utopia: The Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert, Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1987
• Breathing Under Water, and Other East European Essays, Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1990

TRANSLATIONS

• View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems by Wislawa Szymborska ed. and transl. with Clare Cavanagh 1995
• Laments by Jan Kochanowski, transl. with Seamus Heany, 1995,
• Spoiling Cannibals' Fun': Polish Poetry of the Last Two Decades of Communist Rule: , Northwestern University Press, January 1992

Flier, Michael S. Oleksandr Potebnja Professor of Ukrainian Philology @

Ph.D., University of California/Berkeley. 1968
Phone: (617) 495-2178 / Fax: (617) 496-4466 / E-Mail: flier@fas.harvard.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Slavic linguistics, semiotics of medieval East Slavic culture.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Introduction to West Slavic Languages

Grabowicz, George Faculty, Slavic Languages and Literatures Department, Harvard University @

Ph.D. Harvard University, 1975
Phone: (617) 496-6776 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail:grabowic@fas.harvard.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Ukrainian literature, Russian-Ukrainian and Polish-Ukrainian literary relations, literary theory (especially reception theory), Romanticism, the Baroque.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Survey of Polish Literature: Kochanowski to Krasicki
• Survey of Polish Literature: 1795 - 1918
• Problems in the History of Early Ukrainian Literature

Szporluk, Roman Mykhailo Hrushevs'ky Professor of Ukrainian History, Harvard University @ @

Ph.D. . . .
Phone: (617) 496-3291 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: szporluk@fas.harvard.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Modern Ukraine (from the late 18th century to the present); Poland since 1795; the process of national identity building and rebuilding in post-Communist Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
PUBLICATIONS

• "Nationalism after Communism: Reflections on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland." Ernest Gellner Lecture of Nations and Nationalism. London School of Economics and Political Science, 27 March. Nations and Nationalism 4 (e): 301-20. 1998.

COURSES

• 20th-Century Ukraine
• Nation Formation in East Europe, 1795-1921: Poland, Russia, Ukraine.

Dabrowski, Patrice Lecturer & Assistant Head Tutor, History Department Faculty Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies,Harvard University @

Ph.D. Harvard, 1999

Phone: (617) 496-3425 / E-Mail: pmdabrow@fas.harvard.edu

MAJOR INTERESTS: East-Central Europe, especially the lands between Russia and Germany (historically, the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); commemorations and festivals; borderlands; the Carpathians; questions of identity (local, regional, national), civilization and backwardness; popular culture and religion; environmental history.

POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:

PUBLICATIONS

• "What Kind of Modernity Did Poles Need? A Look at Nineteenth-Century Nation-Making" (book review article), Nationalities Papers 29, no. 3 (September 2001): 509-523
• "Folk, Faith, and Fatherland: Defining the Polish Nation in 1883," Nationalities Papers 28, no. 3 (September 2000): 397-416
• A book-length manuscript entitled "Reinventing Poland: Commemorations and the Shaping of the Modern Nation, 1879-1914" and a book review article entitled "Russian-Polish Relations Revisited, or, An ABC's of Treason under Tsarist Rule" are presently being considered for publication.

CURRENT PROJECTS

• "Discovering" the Carpathians: a look at the encounter with the environment and peoples of the alpine borderlands (book-length project); articles on 19th century popular religion (apparitions), Cracow urban history, the relationship between the artist and the nation in partitioned Poland, and the competition between Poles and Russians for Slavic hegemony.

META-FACULTY - Faculty who have studied and/or taught at Polish institutions of higher education

Naskrecki, Piotr, Visiting Curatorial Associate in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University @@

M.S. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, 1992
Ph.D., University of Connecticut, Storrs, 2000
Phone: . . . / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: pnaskrecki@oeb.harvard.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Systematics, taxonomym and evolution of orthopteroid insects; the world fauna of katydids (Tettigonioidea); insect bioacoustics and communication; systematics and host plant affiliations of hummingbird flower mites; biological database design and digital distribution of taxonomic data

VISITING FACULTY - Faculty whose home base is in Poland

Markowski, Michal Pawel - Fall 2002 Visiting Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures Department

Stefanowska, Lidia - 2003-2004 Visiting Scholar, Ukraininan Institute

Poland-related Resources

• Harvard Project on Cold War Studies: Poland: photocopied documents obtained from a number of Polish Archives: the Modern Records Archive [former Communist Party Archive]; the Central Military Archive; the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Central Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; and the Archive of the Bureau for State Protection. The documents offer extensive coverage of 1956 Soviet-Polish crisis; very extensive on 1968 internal Polish problems and role in Czechoslovak crisis; very extensive on December 1970 unrest on Polish-Baltic coast; extremely extensive on 1980-81 crisis; some coverage of 1976 unrest in Poland; extensive on 1989 crises. @
  
  

• Special Collection : Poland and the Solidarity Movement: The collection of Solidarity materials in Houghton Library were gathered from workers' organizations all over Poland. Most of the items pertain to the 1980-81 crisis, but a substantial number stem from earlier bouts of mass unrest. Together they provide a unique view of the emergence of an independent labor movement in Poland. @
  
  

• Collection of Polish Newspapers The Whitner Library which is a part of Harvard College Libraries mainatains a collectection of Polish newspapers on microfilm. These are a part of Newspaper Microfilm reading room collections.@