Zechenter, Katarzyna (Katarzyna Anna Zechenter)

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Zechenter, Katarzyna (Katarzyna Anna Zechenter)

PERSONAL

Education: Jagiellonian University, M.Phil., 1986; University of Michigan, M.A., 1992, Ph.D., 1996.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 16 Taviton St., London WC1H 0BW, England; fax: 020-7679-8722. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Academic. University of Kansas, Lawrence, Polish lecturer; University College London, London, England, lecturer in Polish literature.

WRITINGS:

The Fiction of Tadeusz Konwicki: Coming to Terms with Post-War Polish History and Politics, preface by John Bates, foreword by Magorzata Czerminska, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 2007.

Contributor of poetry and academic articles to various journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Katarzyna Zechenter is an academic. She earned a master of philosophy degree from Jagiellonian University in Poland in 1986. Zechenter then moved to the United States, where she completed a master of arts degree in 1992 and a doctorate in Slavic studies in 1996 at Ann Arbor's University of Michigan. Following submission of her doctoral dissertation, she began lecturing at the University of Kansas. Zechenter later accepted a position as lecturer in Polish at the University College London. Zechenter's research interests include contemporary Polish prose, Polish-Jewish writers, and the mythologisation of space, particularly that of the former Polish capital of Kraków. She contributes scholarly articles on Polish literature to academic journals. In addition to her literary and historical interests, she also writes poetry.

Zechenter published her first book, The Fiction of Tadeusz Konwicki: Coming to Terms with Post-War Polish History and Politics, in 2007. Written with a preface by John Bates and a foreword by Magorzata Czerminska, the book is the first scholarly English-language study of the works and life of Polish film director and writer Tadeusz Konwicki. The account closely follows the history of Poland after World War II as the events are closely connected to the work of Konwicki, both historically and politically. The book analyzes the man from a chronological approach, starting with some of his early works of fiction and autobiographical essays. Zechenter then moves on to his films, focusing a large portion of the book on the conflict in coping with the major political and historical events of Polish modern history.