Censorship of Literature in Post-War Poland in the Light of Confidential Bulletins for Censors from 1945 to 1956, reconstructs and presents ways to censor literature (and, contextually, other fields of art) submitted for evaluation to the main censorship office in Poland during the first 11 years after WWII. The source material consists of confidential Bulletins - periodicals addressed to the officials of the censorship office.
The book is divided into three main parts, each preceded by an introduction and concluded with an extensive bibliography.
Part One: In Search of a Definition: What Were the Confidential Bulletins for Censors? Characteristics of the Source Material presents basic information about the Bulletins - their goals, structure, and material presented in them. The analysis concludes with the definition of confidential Bulletins of the censorship office.
Part Two: Literature and Current Literary Phenomena Preconstructs the image of literary life presented in the Bulletins from 1945 to 1956. On numerous occasions, the Bulletins provided helpful guidelines in censorship practice. They discussed the job of dealing with literary texts and often gave examples of works published just a few months earlier or those that had not passed the scrutiny.
The Bulletins published materials discussing literary phenomena and other issues. The ones previously unaccounted for (including film, radio and theatre), as well as the institutional background of control, I discuss briefly in the last part -
Camera Censorica. What Else was Discussed in the Bulletins?.
The materials presented in these confidential periodicals came from the Bulletins headquarters, field offices, and the work of censors. At the end of my study, Author let the censors speak. In the chapter
Before the Proper Summary, or... the Censor as an Artist: The Literary Work of the Functionaries of Mysia Street and Its Environs, Author cite evidence of the literary ambitions of
political functionaries - as censors had been called in the 1950s.
Anna Wiśniewska-Grabarczyk is an assistant professor at the University of Lodz, Poland. Her research focuses on censorship in the times of the Polish People's Republic, however being a writer and literary critic, she has penned several dozen of books, articles (including non-academic ones), and opinion pieces.
She is a laureate of the
Polityka award and the University of Lodz Foundation Award for the best master's thesis. She was also acknowledged by the committee of the Wladyslaw Pobóg-Malinowski Competition for the Best History Début of the Year for her book
Czytelnik ocenzurowany. Literatura w kryptotekstach - recenzjach cenzorskich okresu stalinizmu (na materiale GUKPPiW z 1950 roku) [
Czytelnik Publishing Cooperative Censored. Literature in Cryptotexts - Censor Reviews from the Stalinist Era (based on the Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications, and Public Performances Materials from 1959)]. In 2022, she was nominated for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education Award for her achievements in the academic field.
She is the main researcher in several national and international grants and a recipient of a scholarship from the Maurycy Mochnacki Foundation. She is a member of the Editorial Committee of the journal
Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica, the Genetic and Documentary Research in Literature, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a former member of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA).
For her novel
Porzeczkowy Józef [
Currant Josef ] she was nominated for the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Prize. She is the author of the children's radio drama
Spożywczy bigiel. Mrożące sok w listkach przygody Szpinaka Alberta [
The Food Melting Pot. Juice-Freezing Adventures of Albert the Spinach] and children's book about censorship, entitled
Marcelina Kolano ratuje książki, czyli o znikających stronach i książkobójcach z ulicy Mysiej [
Marcelina Kolanko rescues books. On vanishing pages and book killers from Mysia Street ].
