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Kazimierz Braun became a laureate of the London Prize for Literature

Prof. Kazimierz Braun, playwright, director and writer formerly connected with the University of Wrocław, was honoured with the London Prize for Literature in October 2023, awarded for the 72nd time by the Union of Polish Writers Abroad. He received the Literary Award for his life’s work, with particular recognition of his writing, theatrical and academic activities after settling in the United States in 1985.

– “My first reaction was huge surprise and embarrassment, as this prestigious award had been awarded in the past to Czesław Miłosz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński or Włodzimierz Odojewski” – admits prof. Kazimierz Braun. – “I felt unworthy of such a great award. However, I felt joy that this was some kind of summary of my work over the years and my numerous texts – scientific, literary, theatrical and pedagogical.”

For more than ten years (1974-1985), he was a lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Wrocław. He received his habilitation at the University of Wrocław in 1984.

The information about receiving the prestigious award gave us an excuse to ask professor Braun to describe his connection with our university. 

See for yourself what he had to say!

Prof. dr hab. Kazimierz Braun about his connection with the University of Wrocław

In the spring of 1974, Professor Stanisław Pietraszko offered me a position at Wrocław’s Department of Cultural Studies to teach the theatre programme and, more importantly, to open a master’s seminar in theatre. Cultural Studies was a new field of study then, and after two years of functioning it was time to offer master’s seminars to students.

At that time, I was the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Teatr im. J. Osterwy in Lublin (J. Osterwa Theater in Lublin). But it was in the spring of 1974 that I was offered the position of Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Wrocław Contemporary Theatre. I decided to accept it.

Professor Pietraszko, who created Cultural Studies, found out that I was to come to Wrocław, which created the possibility for my employment at the University of Wrocław as an assistant professor, part-time, based on my doctorate, earned at the University of Poznań in 1971, published as a book titled Cypriana Norwida teatr bez teatru (PIW, Warsaw 1971). Professor Pietraszko also offered to start, under his supervision, a process leading to my habilitation. I already had some academic experience, as I had lectured on the History of Polish Theatre at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin since 1973. I accepted Professor Pietraszko’s proposal with my deepest gratitude.

From the beginning of the 1974/1975 academic year, I was employed at the University of Wrocław. Initially, I commuted to classes from Lublin every two weeks, but after I took over as the director of the Wrocław Contemporary Theatre on 1 January 1975 and moved to Wrocław, I began to teach regularly. Apart from the MA seminar, I gave a regular lecture on the history of theatre and drama in the world.

A group of several intelligent, talented and hard-working people interested in theatre enrolled in my MA seminar. Many of them, after graduating, found jobs in various institutions of broadly understood culture. Among others, Mirosława Łątkowska is now the director of the well-known Wydawnictwo Volumen in Warsaw (Volumen Publishing House in Warsaw).

The team of academic staff in Cultural Studies welcomed me extremely warmly, which I always remember with great gratitude. Professor Paweł Banaś was particularly kind to me. Every year, my MA seminar was attended by several students who generally wrote very good theses. Ewa Molenda, for example, received her final honours degree in 1976. A total of 68 people has successfully finished my seminar. 

Professor Pietraszko took great care of me, at the same time being a demanding supervisor.  Working under his guidance was a formative period for me as a university teacher for many years.

At the same time, I was running the Contemporary Theatre, which had an excellent team of actors. It was supported by a large group of loyal audience. It occupied a significant place on the theatrical map of Poland with productions of plays by Tadeusz Różewicz such as: Białe małżeństwo (1975), Odejście głodomora (1977), Przyrost naturalny (1979), Pułapka (1984), as well as Anna Livia according to Joyce (1976), Operetka by Gombowicz (1977), Dziady by Mickiewicz (1978, 1982), Dżuma by Camus (1983) and many others. Contemporary Theatre also began to be well known in Europe, performing successfully in Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, West Germany, West Berlin; and further invitations came from England, Yugoslavia and the United States, and other countries as well.

At the same time, according to his commitment, Professor Pietraszko led me to my habilitation. Its basis was my book on the history and theory of contemporary theatre, Teatr Wspólnoty (Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1972). In addition to Professor Pietraszko, the reviewer was the renowned scholar, Professor Stefania Skwarczyńska. By then I was already the author of several books on theatre history, including Nowy teatr na świecie, 1960-1970 (WAiF, Warsaw 1975), Druga Reforma Teatru (Ossolineum, Wrocław 1979), Przestrzeń teatralna (PWN, Warsaw 1982). My fundamental work was also published and taken into consideration at that time. It was titled Wielka Reforma Teatru. Ludzie – Idee – Zdarzenia (Ossolineum, Wrocław 1984).

I attended a habilitation colloquium. The Council of the Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences decided to award me the habilitation degree in June 1984. In September of that year, the Senate of the University of Wrocław adopted a resolution to appoint me to the position of Associate Professor.

Unfortunately, at the same time, the communist authorities interrupted my work at the Contemporary Theatre. On July 5, 1984, I was dismissed from the position of the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Contemporary Theatre as a matter of urgency.

Hearing this, Professor Pietraszko, who was always extremely friendly to me, in consultation with the University authorities, immediately offered me a move from part-time to full-time position at the University, which I accepted with great gratitude.

However, the mechanisms of the totalitarian system had already been set in motion – following my dismissal from the theatre, my professor’s nomination was blocked (in communist Poland, the opinion of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (KW PZPR) was decisive in such a matter), and the Minister of Higher Education notified the Rector, Professor Jan Mozrzymas, that he did not agree to employ me at the University as a full-time professor. I was only allowed to remain on a part-time contract for the next academic year. At the same time, I was notified by the authorities of PWST Kraków/Wrocław, where I also taught, that my employment would not be extended beyond the 1984/1985 academic year. In addition, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesia Publishing House), which had already accepted my book on Różewicz’s dramaturgy for publication, notified me that the book would not be published.

In this way, the communist authorities closed off for me the possibility of working in the theatre, at university and at drama school, also closing off the possibility of publishing books.

In this situation, I decided to accept the invitations sent to me to do academic work in America, where I had already occasionally lectured and directed. I went to the United States and from the beginning of the 1985/1986 academic year, I began teaching at New York University and at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania as a “Visiting Professor.” From the following academic year I found employment at the State University of New York at Buffalo as an “Associate Professor.” An evaluation of my achievements (analogous to the Polish procedure) was started there, aiming at granting me the title of Full Professor. In 1989, I was awarded the title of “Full Professor” and received tenure. Since the beginning of my work in America, I’ve also directed a lot and written a lot, publishing books in Polish and English.

After the changes in 1989 in Poland, the Minister of Higher Education, Professor Andrzej Stelmachowski, notified me that he got acquainted with the issue of my professorship that had been blocked by the communist authorities. He initiated a process aimed at awarding me this title, in which, as I found out later, an extremely active and supportive role was played by my former supervisor and superior, Professor Pietraszko, and the former Rector of the University of Wrocław, Professor Wojciech Wrzesiński. As a result, in 1992, the President of the Republic of Poland awarded me the title of Full Professor (I am therefore a Full Professor both in Poland and in the United States).

Throughout all the years of my work in America (my several failed efforts to return to work in Poland should not be reported here) – I maintained regular correspondence with Professor Pietraszko.

In 2001, I was awarded a Fulbright Foundation scholarship, sponsored on the Polish side by A. Mickiewicz University Poznań. I notified Professor Pietraszko about this. In response, he suggested that, in addition to the classes taught in Poznań, I should also teach at Wrocław’s Department of Cultural Studies. I accepted this proposal with my deepest gratitude. Professor Pietraszko arranged all the necessary paperwork and, as a result, in the spring semester of 2002 I was teaching again at the University of Wrocław. I had a lecture on the history of contemporary theatre and a seminar on the theatricalisation of life – this was a field I had been researching for years, which resulted in the book titled Teatralizacja życia. Praktyki i strategie (Wyd. A. Marszałek, Toruń 2020).

Professor Pietraszko and I would meet sometimes, and over time he became my close friend. I would visit him in Wrocław and he visited me in 2004 in America.

I continued my work in America as a lecturer and director and I also wrote more and more. Publications included Teatr polski 1939-1989 (Wyd. Naukowe Semper, Warsaw 1994), A History of Polish Theatre, 1939-1989 (Greenwood Press, New York 1996), and A Concise History of Polish Theatre from the Eleventh to the Twentieth Centuries (Mellen Press, Lewiston, New York 2003). I have also published textbooks, novels and poetry collections. So far, 77 of my books have been published – most in Polish, but also in English; there have also been translations in Czech, Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian.

With the greatest sadness I learned of the passing of Professor Stanislaw Pietraszko in 2010.

When in the autumn of 2023 I received the news that I had been awarded the prize of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad for lifetime achievement in the arts and sciences, my first reaction was huge surprise and embarrassment, as this prestigious award had been awarded in the past to Czesław Miłosz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński or Włodzimierz Odojewski. I felt unworthy of such a great award. However, I felt joy that this was some kind of summary of my work over the years and my numerous texts – scientific, literary, theatrical and pedagogical.

At the same time, I realised that I owe this award to all those who have taken care of my work and created the conditions for it – first of all my wife, Zofia Reklewska-Braun, and my children, Monika, Grzegorz, Justyna, and grandchildren, but also my spiritual guides, teachers, superiors in theatres and universities, publishers, colleagues, employees of my theatres and students. I am deeply grateful to all of them.

A special place among them is given to Professor Stanisław Pietraszko, for whom I always keep feelings of great gratitude, and my work at the University of Wrocław remains for me the most important part of my already long path as an academic teacher – from 1973 to 2023 – that is, exactly half a century.

Kazimierz Braun

We encourage you to watch the recording: Kazimierz Braun on ideas for improving the situation of Polish theatre abroad

Translated by Dominika Augustyniak (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.