Gabriela Zapolska

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Gabriela Zapolska

Born March 30, 1857(1857-03-30)
Podhajce
Died December 21, 1921 (aged 64)
Lwów
Pen name Gabriela Zapolska, Józef Maskoff, Walery Tomicki, Maryja, Marya, Omega, Szczerba
Occupation novelist, publicist, playwright, prosaist
Nationality Polish
Literary movement Naturalism
Spouse(s) Konstanty Śnieżko-Błocki (divorced); Stanisław Janowski (divorced)
Influences
Influenced

Gabriela Zapolska (1857–1921) was a Polish novelist, playwright, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic and stage actress.

Zapolska wrote some 41 plays, 23 novels, 177 short stories, 252 journalistic works, one film script and over 1,500 letters.[2] She gained popularity with her socio-satirical naturalist comedies, which Moralność pani Dulskiej (The Morality of Mrs. Dulska), a 'petty-bourgeois tragic-farce', is considered by her most-known work and regarded as a landmark of early modernist Polish drama.[3] Her other dramas were translated into other languages, played at the Polish and European stages, and adapted into radio and film. Zapolska also acted in over 200 plays on stage in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Lwów, Saint Petersburg and Paris.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Maria Gabriela Stefania Korwin-Piotrowska was born on March 30, 1857 in Podhajce, Galicia, Austria (now Pidhaitsi, Ukraine) to a gentry family during the Third Partition of Poland. Her father was a marshal of Volhynian szlachta. She studied at the Sacré Coeur Institute and in the Institute of Education and Science in Lwów.

In 1876 she was forced by her family to marry a lieutenant in the tsar's guards, Konstanty Śnieżko-Błocki, but soon left him and divorced in 1888. During the years of 1879–1880 she lived in Warsaw, where she acted in an amateur theatre ran by the Philanthropy Society. In 1881 Zapolska became pregnant by an out-of-wedlock relationship and left her family.[4] The same year she made her own short story debut by Jeden dzień z życia róży (One Day in the Life of a Rose). The following year, in 1882, she became a professional actress in the Kraków theatre, and assumed the pseudonym of Gabriela Zapolska. She also acted in Poznań, and in travelling troupes throughout the Congress Kingdom of Poland. In October 1888 she reportedly made a suicide attempt.[5]

In 1889 Zapolska moved to Paris in hope to make an artistic career. There, she played minor roles in boulevard theatres, Théâtre Libre and Théâtre de l'Œuvre. She played in a stage adaptation of Intérieur (Interior) by Maurice Maeterlinck in Théâtre Libre. In Paris, Zapolska established contacts within the artistic milieu as well as with Polish socialist emigrants, which influenced her social views.[4]

After coming back to the country, she settled in Kraków and acted in garden theatres, travelling troupes and then in Kraków theatre directed by Tadeusz Pawlikowski. Her defiant, suffragist nature led to conflicts with theatre principals and in 1900 she abandoned the stage. After that, Zapolska set up her own stage which was active time by time. In 1902 Zapolska ran a drama school in Kraków and the Gabriela Zapolska Independent Theatre was founded later. Her experiences in Paris let her to produce two Maeterlinck stage adaptations—Princess Maleine and L'Intruse (The Intruder), both produced in 1902.

In 1904 she moved to Lwów and married a painter, Stanisław Janowski. She became a patron of the travelling theatre named after her (Gabriela Zapolska Theatre) which during the years of 1907–1908 toured Galicia. She divorced her second husband in 1910.[5] In the years of 1912–1913 Zapolska was a literary director of Teatr Premier. As a feuilletonist and theatre critic she collaborated with Gazeta Krakowska, Słowo Polskie, Nowa Reforma, Ilustracja Polska and Wiek Nowy. In 1915, after Lwów was captured by the Russian Army, she ran a small confectionery.

Portait of Gabriela Zapolska by Julian Fałat, 1898.

Zapolska, 1899.

Portait of Gabriela Zapolska by Stanisław Janowski, ca. 1904.

"Skiz" villa, where Zapolska lived in her later life.


Zapolska died on December 21, 1921 in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) and buried at the Lychakivskiy Cemetery there.

Zapolska's tomb designed by Józef Gałęzowski at the Lychakivskiy Cemetery.

[edit] Works

[edit] Prose works

Gabriela Zapolska made her own short story debut in 1881 by Jeden dzień z życia róży. Many of her early works was published in parts in Lwów and then, in Warsaw press, mainly in Przegląd Tygodniowy. She collected her early short stories in the volume of Z dziejów boleści (1890). Her novels and short stories was translated into many languages, including English, Russian, German, Swedish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian.

Notable Zapolska prose works include:

  • Jeden dzień z życia róży (One Day in the Life of a Rose, 1881)
  • Małaszka (1883)
  • Kaśka Kariatyda (Cathy the Caryatid, 1885–1886)
  • Przedpiekle (1889)
  • Menażeria ludzka (1893)
  • Janka (1895)
  • Fin-de-sièclistka (Fin-de-siècle-ist, 1897)
  • Zaszumi las (1899)
  • Sezonowa miłość (1904)
  • Córka Tuśki (1907)
  • Pani Dulska przed sądem (1908)
  • O czym się nie mówi (1909)
  • Śmierć Felicjana Dulskiego (Death of Felicjan Dulski, 1911)
  • Kobieta bez skazy (1913)
  • O czym się nawet myśleć nie chce (1914)

[edit] Dramas

Zapolska is best-known for her dramas, socio-satirical comedies and tragicomedy works.[4] Moralność pani Dulskiej, a 'petty-bourgeois tragic-farce', is considered by her most-known work and regarded as a landmark of early modernist Polish drama.[3] The story of Moralność pani Dulskiej was continued in two short stories—Pani Dulska przed sądem and Śmierć Felicjana Dulskiego. Her dramas were translated into other languages, played at the Polish and European stages, and adapted into radio and film.

Notable Zapolska dramas include:

  • Żabusia (Froggie, 1897)
  • Małka Szwarcenkopf (1897)
  • Jojne Firułkes (1898)
  • Moralność pani Dulskiej (The Morality of Mrs. Dulska, 1906)
  • Ich czworo. Tragedia ludzi głupich (1907)
  • Skiz (1908)
  • Panna Maliczewska (Miss Maliczewska, 1910)

[edit] Style and themes

Gabriela Zapolska's works was dominated by naturalism. She was mainly influenced by Émile Zola, a French naturalist writer. Her naturalism has a journalistic and didactic tone. She portrayed the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people, such as servants, prostitutes, Jews, proletarians, etc.

Characters in Zapolska works are mostly typical and she tends to skip psychological analysis as it was specific for the Young Poland writers.[4] She also brought up controversial subjects, such as prostitution and venereal disease (O czym się mówi, O czym się nawet myśleć nie chce).

Zapolska created acrimonious and embiterred literary characters, such as those in her best-known works, Moralność pani Dulskiej, Żabusia, Ich czworo. Tragedia ludzi głupich, Sezonowa miłość, and Panna Maliczewska.[4]

[edit] Adaptations

Movies based on Zapolska novels or dramas include:

  • Carewicz (1918) – directed by Marian Fuchs
  • Tamten (1921) – by Władysław Lenczewski
  • O czym się nie mówi (1924) – by Edward Puchalski
  • Policmajster Tagiejew (1929) – by Juliusz Gardan
  • Moralność pani Dulskiej (1930) – by Boleslaw Newolin; the first Polish movie with sound recorded on a gramophone record
  • O czym się nie mówi (1939) – by Mieczysław Krawicz
  • Morálka paní Dulské (adaption of Moralność pani Dulskiej, 1958) – by Jiří Krejčík; a Czechoslovakian movie

[edit] Criticisms

Zapolska was criticized by conservatives for the more unpleasant naturalist aspects of her works, such as perceived immorality, squalor, taboo subjects, etc.[4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Jan August Kisielewski Influencias ejercidas. LIC – Literatura en su contexto. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  2. ^ a b Grossman, Elwira M. (2007-03-30). Świat lustrzanych odbić. W 150. rocznicę urodzin Gabrieli Zapolskiej (1857-1921) (Polish). Przegląd Polski on-line. Bicentennial Publishing Co., Inc. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
  3. ^ a b Zapolska, Gabriela: The Morality of Mrs. Dulska. The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Floryńska-Lalewicz, Halina (February 2004). Gabriela Zapolska (Polish). Polish culture. Instytut Adama Mickiewicza. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  5. ^ a b Adamiec, Marek. Gabriela ZAPOLSKA. Virtual Library of Polish Literature. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

  • Aleksandrowicz-Ulrich, Alina (1953). Demaskatorska funkcja komizmu i satyry w dramatach Gabrieli Zapolskiej (w kręgu „Moralności pani Dulskiej”) (in Polish). Lublin: Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. OCLC 69271899. 
  • Bieniasz, Józef (1960). Gabriela Zapolska: Opowieść biograficzna (in Polish). Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. OCLC 43300549. 
  • Chałupnik, Agata (2004). Sztandar ze spódnicy: Zapolska i Nałkowska o kobiecym doświadczeniu ciała (in Polish). Warsaw: Oficyna Wydawnicza Errata. ISBN 8392061705. OCLC 57759495. 
  • Czachowska, Jadwiga (1957). Gabrieli Zapolskiej „Listy” o sztuce (in Polish). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Sztuki. OCLC 169846141. 
  • Czachowska, Jadwiga (1966). Gabriela Zapolska. Monografia bio-bibliograficzna, 1st edition (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. OCLC 8819234. 
  • Gubernat, Irena (1998). Przedsionek piekła: O powieściopisarstwie Gabrieli Zapolskiej (in Polish). Słupsk: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane WSP. ISBN 8387006475. OCLC 69323504. 
  • Jakubowski, Jan Zygmunt; Renikowa, Wanda (1965). Teatr Zapolskiej (in Polish). Warsaw: Centralna Poradnia Amatorskiego Ruchu Artystycznego. OCLC 69285122. 
  • Jakubowski, Jan Zygmunt; Renikowa, Wanda (1965). Teatr Zapolskiej. Wybór tekstów cz. II i III (in Polish). Warsaw: Centralna Poradnia Amatorskiego Ruchu Artystycznego. OCLC 68174201. 
  • Kallas, Aniela (1931). Zapolska. Powieść biograficzna (in Polish). Warsaw: Renaissance. OCLC 19983596. 
  • Karren, Tamara (1977). Pani Gabriela (in Polish). London: Polonia Book Fund Ltd. OCLC 5452819. 
  • Kłosińska, Krystyna (1999). Ciało, pożądanie, ubranie. O wczesnych powieściach Gabrieli Zapolskiej (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo FK. ISBN 8391036227. OCLC 45058526. 
  • Kłosińska, Krystyna (2004). Fantazmaty. Grabiński – Prus – Zapolska (in Polish). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. ISBN 8322614101. OCLC 63051901. 
  • Peiper, Tadeusz; Fazan, Jarosław (2004). Gabriela Zapolska jako aktorka (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ISBN 8308037003. OCLC 69317801. 
  • Podeschwik, Manfred (1969). Studien zum novellistischen Schaffen von Gabriela Zapolska (in German). Witterschlick: Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin. OCLC 63508692. 
  • Raszewski, Zbigniew (1951). Działalność teatralna Gabrieli Zapolskiej (in Polish). Wrocław: Wrocławska Drukarnia Naukowa. 
  • Raszewski, Zbigniew (1956). Paryskimi śladami Zapolskiej (in Polish). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Sztuki. OCLC 69572857. 
  • Rurawski, Józef (1981). Gabriela Zapolska (in Polish). Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna. ISBN 8321402127. OCLC 8669249. 
  • Taborski, Roman (1975). „Moralność pani Dulskiej” Gabrieli Zapolskiej, 1st edition (in Polish), Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. OCLC 3322952. 
  • Weiss, Tomasz (1968). Gabriela Zapolska: Życie i twórczość, 1st edition (in Polish), Kraków: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. OCLC 3155855. 
  • Zapolska, Gabriela; Virol, Lisbeth; Nevill, Arturo (2004). Madame Zapolska et la scène parisienne (in French). Montreuil-sous-Bois: Femme pressée. ISBN 2910584054. OCLC 61453577. 

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Zapolska, Gabriela
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Śnieżko-Janowska, Maria Gabriela Stefania (born name); Maskoff, Józef (pseudonym); Tomicki, Walery (pseudonym); Maryja (pseudonym); Marya (pseudonym); Omega (pseudonym); Szczerba (pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION novelist, playwright, prose writer, publicist, feuilletonist, theatre critic, stage actress
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Podhajce, Galicia, Austria (now Pidhaitsi, Ukraine)
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1921
PLACE OF DEATH Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine)
Languages