Biografia jako popularyzowanie i przypominanie. Kilka refleksji wokół (auto)biografii Stanisława Grzesiuka
Stanisław Grzesiuk’s (Auto)Biographies: Popularisation and Memory through Life Writing

Summary/Abstract: Bartosz Janiszewski’s Grzesiuk: Król życia [Grzesiuk: King of Life, 2017] is the first book-length biography of Stanisław Grzesiuk (1918-1963), a Polish writer and singer who became famous for reviving the singing style and dialect of prewar Warsaw. An uncensored edition of Grzesiuk’s three autobiographical novels was published in 2018. Darska explores in what ways Janiszewski draws on Grzesiuk’s own writing. She focuses on the counter-intuitive hierarchy of genres and discusses the significance of reading Grzesiuk’s story today, when he is much less widely known than one or two generations back. The recent publication of his trilogy and the biography might reinstall the life and work of “the bard of the Polish capital” in collective memory and, besides the popularising aspect, return Grzesiuk to his rightful place in the literary canon.

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