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Maria Komornicka
Born	Maria Jakubina Komornicka (1876-07-25)25 July 1876 Grabów nad Pilicą, Vistula Land
Died	8 March 1949(1949-03-08) (aged 72) Izabelin, Poland
Occupation	Writer, poet, literary critic, translator
Language	Polish
Nationality	Polish
Period	Young Poland

Maria Jakubina Komornicka (also known by pseudonyms "Jan Nałęcz", "Włast", "P.W.O."; 25 July 1876 - 8 March 1949) was a modernistically-minded Polish writer, poet, literary critic and translator.

Life

Early years

Maria Komornicka was born on 25th July 1876 in Grabów nad Pilicą in a Polish landowning family of great renown. Well-educated by Piotr Chmielowski, one of the most significant intellectuals of Positivist period, Komornicka was considered the wonder child of Polish literature . Her debut in 1892, as well as subsequent works, received very favourable reviews. At the age of 16 she made acquaintance with Polish leftists Wacław Nałkowski and Cezary Jellenta. Together they published Forpoczty (Outposts). Their friendship received severe condemnation from Komornicka’s family.

In September 1894 Maria’s father sent her to the Newnham College in Cambridge in order to restrain a young girl from having contacts with Nałkowski and Jellenta. She gave up studies in February 1895 claiming that it was discrimination against women that forced her to make such a decision. In 1896 she published a cycle of ironic articles Raj młodzieży (The Paradise of Youth) about her stay in England.

Adulthood

In 1898 Komornicka married a poet Jan Lemański. Their abundant in scandals marriage ended up in 1900, when jealous Lemański attempted on life of Komornicka and her cousin, suspecting them of having an affair. After a collapse of the marriage Komornicka devoted herself to literary work. She was writing a lot, had many affairs and actively participated in Warsaw social life. She knew the most important Polish writers and artists of her time, such as Lenartowicz, Nałkowska or Leśmian.

In 1902 she had an affair with Gustaw Walewski. Unfortunately, after several months of their relationship, the lover died of pneumonia. His death initiated Komornicka’s mental illness. As many memories of that time claim, she started to wear and act oddly. Abnormal performances were not anything peculiar in the decadent era of Przesmycki and Przybyszewski. Although showing off one’s difference and obscurity was socially acceptable, being actually mentally ill was not. Komornicka even before her illness had acted in a bizarre way – but it was rather an artistic, dandyish creation, common in the time. After 1902 number of scandals she was incurring rapidly had grown. She nearly attacked a custodian of Polish Library in Paris because he called Władysław Mickiewicz, a son of Adam Mickiewicz, mister Mickiewicz and not the son of Adam as Komornicka had wished. It caused a great outrage and resulted in Komornicka's closure in the mental hospital.

Transformation into Piotr Proteus Włast

In 1907 Komornicka proclaimed herself the reincarnation of Piotr Włast – a famous Polish magnate of the mediaeval age, one of Komornicka’s ancestors. Her transvestism resulted in the social exclusion and the further development of her illness. As many scholars claim, her transgression had stemmed neither from homosexualism, nor from feeling insecure with feminity. She perceived it rather as a magic initiation and a vehicle for self-development. She was striving after perfection, under which she understood androgyny. Komornicka resided in various mental hospitals. After the outbreak of World War I she moved to Grabów nad Pilicą where she dwelled by her family. She died on 8th March 1949 in Izabelin.

Works

Komornicka’s first publication was a collection of stories printed in "Gazeta Warszawska" in 1892, when she was at the age of 16. It was a first-person narrated tale about thirty-year-old pessimist tired and unsatisfied with the necessity of living. The young author was well educated in new trends in literature, such as decadence. Only the last chapter of the story was signed, as the editors of the magazine didn't want publicity to know that it was a young girl that had written it. Her debut met very enthusiastic reviews. In 1894 she published her first book – Szkice (Sketches). Since then she started to write poems, novels and dramas. She was one of the most prolific writers of her time.

Scholars notice an evolution in her writing style. Common for the time of Young Poland visions of depression, decadence and boredom evolved into almost surrealistic prophecies. Maria Podraza-Kwiatkowska classified several topics that Komornicka was mostly concerned about in her works

• the unhampered strive after moral perfection that can be achieved by transgression into androgenic being above the society,
• the escape from Eros that is depicted as a danger to freedom,
• the isolation and exclusion from the world.

Besides writing fiction, Komornicka was also known as a literary critic. She published in famous art magazines such as "Chimera" of Miriam, "Przegląd pedagogiczny", "Głos", "Strumień", "Życie". Her reviews, as scholars notice, were surprisingly accurate.She infallibly appreciated every book that later became a classic of Polish literature (such as The Peasants of Władysław Reymont). Simultaneously, she was ruthless to epigones.

Komornicka ceased publishing completely in 1907, after her transformation. She did not stop writing however. During the stay in Grabów, she wrote her most important work - Xięga poezji idyllicznej: rzeczy francuskie (The idyllic poetry book: French matters). It was a collection of poems about visions from the upper world. Her last works are sign of both her illness and intellectual condition – besides poetry, she also wrote essays about such writers as Tadeusz Różewicz or Andrzej Bobkowski.

Published works

• Szkice (Sketches), Warsaw 1894
• Forpoczty (Outposts), together with Wacław Nałkowski, Lviv 1885
• Baśnie i psalmodie (Tales and psalmodies), Warsaw 1900
• Biesy (Demons), Warsaw 1903

Posthumous editions

• Utwory poetyckie wierszem i prozą (Poems and prose), edited by Maria Podraza-Kwiatkowska, Cracow 1996
• Xięga poezji idyllicznej: rzeczy francuskie (The idyllic poetry book: French matters), as Piotr Proteus Włast, edited by Barbara Stelingowska, Warsaw 2011
• Listy (Letters), edited by Edward Boniecki, Warsaw 2011
• Nieznany list Marii Komornickiej (The unknown letter of Maria Komornicka), edited by Mateusz Bourkane, Warsaw 2013

Reception

Komornicka was forgotten in the 20th century. She was rarely mentioned as an anecdote in compilations of Young Poland. The new reception of her works started in the 21st century, when Maria Janion initiated the new gender studies perspective in literary scholarship. Maria Komornicka, as a symbol of a great writer, forgotten and excluded from the canon due to her unstable sexuality, inspired many other artists. There are numerous dramas, films, novels and scholar works about her.

Bibliography

• I. Filipiak, Obszary odmienności. Rzecz o Marii Komornickiej, Gdańsk 2006
• M. Janion, Kobiety i duch inności, Warszawa 1996
• M. Podraza-Kwiatkowska, "Dałeś mi dziwną duszę i dziwne ciało...". In: M. Komornicka, Utwory poetyckie, Kraków 1996
• M. Podraza-Kwiatkowska, Maria Komornicka. In: Polski Słownik Biograficzny, t. XIII. Kraków 1967-1968, p.399-400.

References

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