Gojawiczynska, Pola

(Apolonia). Born Apr. 1. 1896. in Warsaw; died there Mar. 29. 1963. Polish writer.

Gojawiczynska was born into an artisan’s family. In 1931–32 she lived in Silesia. The collection of stories Weekday (1933) and the novel Elizabeth’s Land (1934) are devoted to the life of Silesian miners in the years of crisis and unemployment. In the novels The Girls From Nowolipki (1935) and The Apple Tree of Paradise (1937), Gojawiczynska realistically portrays the lot of Warsaw women from impoverished petit bourgeois families and condemns the hypocrisy of the ruling classes. Characteristic of Gojawi-czynska’s novels, however, are elements of naturalism and the exaggeration of the role of the biological principle in human life. The collection Conversations With Silence (1936) contains lyrical miniatures in the impressionist style. During World War II. Gojawiczynska was imprisoned by the Hitlerites for her participation in the resistance; the novella Bars (1945) is based on this experience. The novella The Capital City (1946) describes the first days of the rebuilding of Warsaw. A collection of Gojawiczynska’s stories was published in 1956.