Jan Kott
Jan Kott | |
---|---|
Born | Warsaw | October 27, 1914
Died | December 22, 2001 Santa Monica, California | (aged 87)
Notable works | Shakespeare, Our Contemporary |
Notable awards | Herder Prize (1964) |
Jan Kott (October 27, 1914 – December 22, 2001) was a Polish political activist, critic and theoretician of the
Life
Born in Warsaw in 1914 to a Jewish family, Kott was baptized into the Catholic Church at the age of five. He became a communist in the 1930s, and took part in the defense of Warsaw. In June 1939 he married Lidia Steinhaus, the daughter of the mathematician and educator Hugo Steinhaus.
In September 1939, Kott fought in the Polish army in its futile campaign against the German invasion and then, after a period in Lvov, returned to Nazi-occupied Warsaw.[5] After World War II he became known initially as the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Kuźnica and as Poland's leading theorist of Socialist realism.[3] In 1949, as the communist authorities tightened their control over all aspects of life, Kott obtained a position as a professor in Wrocław and moved away from political life. He praised Joseph Stalin, but mostly concentrated on theater. In 1951, during the darkest period of Soviet terror, Kott published an ideological manifesto about the role of theater, entitled "O teatr godny naszej epoki" (For theater worthy of our times), in which he demanded a "new" theater subservient to the Party and its ideology. Historian Teresa Wilniewczyc noted, that his zeal for totalitarian control over the world of Polish culture was "far more than was required". Only after the Stalin era came to an end, did he become its ardent critic (March 1956). He renounced his membership of the communist party in 1957.[3] In 1964 he was one of the signatories of the so-called Letter of 34 to Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz regarding freedom of culture.
Later career
Kott traveled to the United States in 1965 on a scholarship from the Ford Foundation.[3] He lectured at Yale and Berkeley, but spent the years 1969 to 1983 teaching at Stony Brook University until he retired.[6] The Polish authorities refused to extend his passport after three years, at which point he decided to defect. As a result, he was stripped of his professorship at Warsaw University. A poet, translator, and literary critic, he became one of the more prolific essayists of the Polish school in America. He died in Santa Monica, California after a heart attack in 2001.[7]
As a theatrical reviewer, Kott received praise for his readings of the classics, and above all of
Kott wrote many books and articles published in American journals such as The New Republic, Partisan Review and The New York Review of Books. Aside from Shakespeare and Greek tragedy, he also wrote about theatre of Japan, Tadeusz Kantor and Jerzy Grotowski. He translated works by Jean-Paul Sartre, Denis Diderot, Eugène Ionesco and Molière into Polish and English.[10]
References
- Eric Pace (4 January 2002). "Jan Kott, 87, Critic and Shakespeare Scholar". The New York Times. p. C 10. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
- ^ Małgorzata Ptasińska, OBEP IPN Kraków (October 2002). "Co z tą Akademią? (What's with that Academy?)" (PDF 1.23 MB). Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance) Bulletin No 10/21. pp. 42–44. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
- ^ a b c d Zofia Sawicka (November 2009). "Jan Kott - droga do Szekspira". Culture.pl Instytut Adama Mickiewicza. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- ^ Jan Kott Dies; Helped Recast Shakespeare | Article from The Washington Post | HighBeam Research
- ^ Kustow, Michael (10 Jan 2002). "Jan Kott". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
- ^ Eric Pace (January 4, 2002). "Jan Kott, 87, Critic and Shakespeare Scholar". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
- ^ Jan Kott Dies; Helped Recast Shakespeare | Article from The Washington Post | HighBeam Research
- ISBN 0-8101-1038-5.
- ISBN 0-8101-1019-9.
- ^ Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza (2011). "Jan Kott" (in Polish). Culture.pl. Archived from the original on 6 October 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2011.