ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 22, No. 3 (PL)

Oct 2019

Poland social briefing: Writer Olga Tokarczuk winner of the Nobel Prize in literature for 2018 Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska

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Writer Olga Tokarczuk winner of the Nobel Prize in literature for 2018

The writer Olga Tokarczuk became the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 on 10 October 2019. It is a great success for Polish culture and excellent award for the talent and diligence of a well-known writer. It is also the supreme accomplishment of Polish literature for 23 years, when the same prize was awarded to the poet Wisława Szymborska. After becoming the Man Booker Award last year - the most prestigious literary prize in Great Britain, awarded for the best English-language novel “Flights” - the Nobel Prize for Literature is another very important honour for Olga Tokarczuk.

The writer is the fifth winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature from Poland. Earlier, this most important award for writers and poets was given to: Henryk Sienkiewicz in 1905, Władysław Stanisław Reymont in 1924, Czesław Miłosz in 1980 as well as Wisława Szymborska in 1996. Tokarczuk is the second Polish woman, after Szymborska, with this world’s prestigious literature award.

In the justification of the Nobel Committee it was written that Tokarczuk receives the award “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”. Members of the Committee also emphasized the timeless meaning and message of “The Books of Jacob”, a monumental work of Olga Tokarczuk, which has been translated into many foreign languages, including in Scandinavia, and in 2020 will be released in the United States. The Swedish Academy has recognized that “The Books of Jacob” are Tokarczuk’s opus magnum.

The writer was born in 1962 in Sulechów (Lubusz Voivodeship), formerly a German city called Züllichau, since till 1945 these lands belonged to Germany. So, from the beginning of her life, Tokarczuk grew up in a multicultural environment. Many times later, she changed her place of residence, eventually settling in Wrocław and Krajanów in Lower Silesia.

In the student days in Warsaw, where she studied psychology, she worked as a volunteer taking care of people with disorders, and after graduation she worked as a psychotherapist. Her studies, apprenticeships and work gave her extensive knowledge of the vast experience of

1 working with people, their needs and emotions. This certainly had an impact on her enormous literary sensitivity, but also interest in matters of people, animals and nature, which strongly resonates in her work.

Tokarczuk debuted in 1993 by publishing the book “Journey of the People of the Book” (“Podróż ludzi Księgi”), which received the prize of the Polish Society of Book Publishers. Two years later her second novel, “E.E.” which talks about the maturing of a girl who suddenly acquires psychic abilities and loses them just as unexpectedly, was in print. Her first very successful novel entitled “Primeval and other times” (“Prawiek i inne czasy”) was published in 1996. Afterwards she issued subsequent books - a collection of short stories entitled “The Wardrobe” (“Szafa”), the novel “House of Day, House of Night” (“Dom dzienny, dom nocny”) and ”Final stories” (“Ostatnie historie”).

In 2007 her novel “Flights” (“Bieguni”) was published, which brought her international recognition. The author worked on it for three years while being on a constant journey. As she said, however, “this is not a travel book. There are no descriptions of monuments and places. This is not a travel journal or reportage. Rather, I wanted to look at what it means to travel, to move, to be in motion. What’s the point? What does this give us? What does it mean?”.

Her other important book “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” (“Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych””) from 2009 which is about a series of mysterious murders committed on members of the local community, brought her many new fans. The book was nominated for the prestigious British Man Booker Prize for Fiction. In 2017, the volume was adopted as a film script for Agnieszka Holland’s movie “Spoor” (“Pokot”), for which the director received the Silver Bear at the Berlinale Film Festival.

Yet, the groundbreaking novel turned out to be the aforementioned “The Books of Jacob” (“Księgi Jakubowe”). Tokarczuk has been preparing it for seven years. This monumental work (over 900 pages) describes the colourful world of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The heroes of the novel are historical figures, including first of all a Jewish mystic Jakub Lejbowicz Frank, who proclaimed himself the Messiah and led to the creation of the heretical sect of Frankists out of Judaism. The book has gained immense popularity in Poland, because - despite the fact that the book action is taking place in the 18th century Podolia (historical and geographical land in the territory of present Ukraine and Moldova, formerly belonging to the Polish state) - it also touches on current and important topics in the 21st century. The Nobel

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Committee recognized her “ant work” as a chronicler of the history of the Polish borderland and awarded her, inter alia, for this tome in the field of literature.

In her professional life Tokarczuk is very socially active and works strongly in the literary environment. She was, among others co-organizer of the Festival of Stories, during which authors of short literary forms from Poland and abroad present their works. In addition, she conducted prose workshops at the Literary and Artistic School of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków; she also taught creative writing at the University of Opole. Since 2015 she has been organizing in Nowa Ruda the “Festival Mountains of Literature”, within which educational activities, debates, concerts, panels, shows, meetings and exhibitions take place.

Tokarczuk openly says that she is a feminist and supports activities for environmental protection, animal rights and equality. She collaborated with the Green Party and was a member of the editorial staff of the leftist magazine “Krytyka Polityczna”. However, Tokarczuk’s left- wing attitude has for many years brought her a large group of critics who accused her of dealing with trivial and dull matters or striking the image of a writer. After awarding her with Nobel Prize a lot of racist comments pointing to her supposedly Ukrainian roots, vegetarianism and the fight for women’s rights - which were aimed to ridicule her - appeared in the right-wing media.

Though Tokarczuk herself is quite resistant to criticism. She speaks about both her fans and critics with a lot of personal culture and sympathy. In fact, she has many more lovers of her literature than critics. Her commitment and gentleness are valued. Her fans emphasize that she is very attentive, available and unpretentious. A meeting with Tokarczuk organised in Wrocław ten days after the announcement of the verdict by the Nobel Committee was actually short of places and the city authorities established a large screen on the square in front of the building so that everyone had the opportunity to listen to the writer live. Her performance and conversation held as part of the Bruno Schulz Festival was also broadcast on television.

It should also be admitted that over the years, the writer has been repeatedly honoured for her work, including through the towns with which she was associated during the previous years - like Wrocław and Kłodzko where she lives at the moment, Krakow where her publishing house is located, or small towns where she lived with her parents when she was young. Today, these places are racing to tribute her - they introduced free public transport for people who have

3 her books (Wrocław) or promised to plant thousands of trees (Kraków, Nowa Huta). A real “Tokarczuk-mania” is now under way in Poland.

Conclusions Olga Tokarczuk is an unquestioned discovery in Polish literature of recent years, the writer appreciated by critics and as well as the audience. Literary experts point out that her prose shows that strategies for the social involvement of literature can be different. Already in the 1990s, Tokarczuk took a strong voice in public debate in the writing of mythizing and creative novels, whether in matters of gender equality, care for animals or ecology. She proved, that this could be done in a narrative of a fanciful imagination. Currently, when Poland is in the midst of a heated debate on gender equality or climate protection, it can be clearly seen that Tokarczuk addressed these topics earlier in her literature – by writing about the journey between epochs, metaphysics, mystic books and spirituality of nature. This issues, contained in her several stories and novels, have also gained favour and understanding around the world - her books have been translated into 35 languages.

As she says, “writing a novel is for me a mature story telling of fairy tales to myself. Just like children do before they fall asleep. They use language from the borderline between sleep and waking, they just describe and make up”. Therefore, Tokarczuk is currently the most famous fairy tale writer in Poland and to some extent also in the world.

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