Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa

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Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa (Belarusian: Уршуля Францішка Радзівіл or Uršula Franciška Radzivił), February 13, 1705 - May 23, 1753) was a Polish-Lithuanian and Belarusian noble dramatist and writer, first Polish and Belarusian woman playwright.

Born in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the szlachta family of Janusz Antoni Wiśniowiecki, the kasztalan of Kraków and married to the grand hetman Michał Kazimier "Rybańka" Radzivił, she got a brilliant domestic education and wrote numerous plays (at least 16) for her court theatre in Niaśviž. Many subjects and characters for her plays were taken from medieval dramas, Ancient mythology, Arab and Persian humoresques and Belarusian folklore.

Works of Uršula Franciška Radzivił are an example of 18th century Polish Baroque and Belarusian baroque culture in its specific transition form from medieval spectacles to the theatre of the new age.

[edit] Works

• "Sedzia, od rozumu odsadzony"
• "Milosc mistrzyni doskonala"

[edit] Further reading

• Celia Hawkesworth, A History of Central European Women's Writing, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, ISBN 033377809X
• Jadwiga Sokolowska and Krystyna Zukowska, Franciszka Urszula Radziwillowa, Poeci polskiego baroku. Warsaw 1965, vol.2;
• Judkowiak Barbara, Słowo inscenizowane. O Franciszce Urszuli Radziwiłłowej - poetce