Prof. Tadeusz Bujnicki, the founder of the Chair in Literary Culture of Eastern Borderlands at the JU Faculty of Polish Studies was awarded with the 2018 Algis Kalėda Prize by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in Vilnius. The retired Jagiellonian University Professor was recognised for his recent publication Apie literatūrinę 'Žagarų' fgrupę ir ne tik (On Żagary literary group and beyond) and other academic achievements.
The citation for the award reads: ‘In his book Professor Bujnicki wrote “I was very fortunate to be born in Vilnius, a very beautiful city to which I constantly return, and with witch I feel an inextricable bond.” In this context, he also quotes Czesław Miłosz’s words: “I could never leave you, my city”.Tadeusz Bujnicki’s studies are not limited to the works of Miłosz, who was a friend of his father Teodor Bujnicki, but also another Nobel Prize laureate – Henryk Sienkiewicz ... The prize named after one of the most distinguished specialists in Polish Studies, Professor Algis Kalėda, is awarded annually for important publications from the past two years pertaining to the Lithuanian literary heritage as well as Polish-Lithuanian literary and cultural relations. The first such award went to Dr Beata Kalęba from the same Jagiellonian University unit.’
The award will be presented to Prof. Bujnicki during the launch of his book in Vilnius early next year.
Prof. Tadeusz Bujnicki graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Polish Studies in 1955. He obtained a PhD degree in 1964 under the supervision of Prof. Henryk Markiewicz. He is a historian of Polish literature, Professor Emeritus of the Jagiellonian University. In 1997 Prof. Bujnicki established a research group to study life and literature of the former eastern borderlands of Poland, which was later transformed into the Department of Literature and Literary Life of the Former Eastern Borderlands of Poland and then into the Chair in Literary Culture of Eastern Borderlands. He has also worked at the University of Silesia and the School of Education in Rzeszów. He was one of the founders of Polish Studies at the University of Vilnius.
Prof. Bujnicki’s research interests include the work of Henryk Sienkiewicz, the 19th-century prose, with special focus on the Polish historical novel, Polish revolutionary literature, literature and culture of North-Eastern borderlands of Poland (especially Lithuania), and history of Polish-Lithuanian relations. He has authored over a dozen books, as well as about 250 research papers and dissertations. He has supervised a number of doctoral thesis, including those of such eminent literary scholars as Stefan Szymutko, Krystyna Kłosińska, and Krzysztof Kłosiński.
