Prof. dr hab. Ewa A. Lukaszyk
Vertical Divider
​(Trans)cultural theorist and critic, comparativist specialised in Mediterranean and Lusophone literatures. Prolific author of over 200 scholarly contributions of various nature, including 6 or 7 books. Polyglot, traveller, photographer. 
Currently working on the project Poetics of the Void. Mystical insight and transcultural transgression in the Mediterranean - in collaboration with LUCIS Centre for the Study of Islam and Society, Leiden University.
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Core biobibliography
Vertical Divider
​1972. Born in Lublin, eastern Poland.
1992-1997. Studies in Romance languages and literature at the University Marie Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin and the University of Lisbon.
1997-2006. Teaching duties at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
1998-1999. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's stipend; postgraduate studies in comparative literature at the University of Lisbon.
1999. Doctoral degree at the Jagiellonian University.
2000. Współczesna proza portugalska (1939-1999). Tematy, problemy, obsesje. Camões Institute research grant.
2000-2001. Oriental studies at the Jagiellonian University.
2002-2003. Starting grant of the Foundation for Polish Science.
2003. Terytorium a świat. Wyobrażeniowe konfiguracje przestrzeni w literaturze portugalskiej od schyłku średniowiecza do współczesności. Habilitation degree.
2005. Pokusa pustyni. Nomadyzm jako wyjście z kryzysu współczesności w pisarstwie José Saramago.
​2006-2018. Associate professor at the University of Warsaw.
2007. (ed.) Archipelagi wyobraźni. Z dziejów toposu wyspy w kręgu literatur romańskich.
2010. Historia literatur iberoamerykańskich (with Nina Pluta).
2015. Imperium i nostalgia. "Styl późny" w kulturze portugalskiej.
2016. (ed.) Nie tylko salon. Wspólnotowe formy życia literackiego.
2016-2017. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's fellow, Portugal.
2017-2018. Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow, France. Research project on Adamic language.
2018. (ed.) Niewłasne lektury. Od pisarstwa w języku wyuczonym do wielości kultur czytania.
2018. Humanistyka, która nadchodzi. W poszukiwaniu kondycji transkulturowej.
2018. Receives full professorship (academic title) in Poland. Moves to the Netherlands, where she is affiliated with Leiden University.
2019. (in press) Literatura portugalska od romantyzmu do współczesności. Wykłady i interludia.
2019. (in progress) Seductor's Old Age. José Saramago at the end of life and other essays.
2019-2025. (major research proposal in progress) Poetics of the Void. Mystical insight and transcultural transgression in the Mediterranean.
2019. (in progress) Eremos. Beyond the cultured condition.
2019. (in progress) Intrusive Spirit of the Desert. Islamic thinkers and Europe.
2020. (in progress) The Book of the World. Collected essays in comparative literature. 
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Fields of interest
Vertical Divider
THEORETICAL / EXPERIMENTAL 

Poetics of the Void: theorising the cycle implying firstly, the emergence of an unprecedented level of complexity through interference of overlapping cultural systems, secondly, the collapse under the overcharge of contradictory exigences multiplied by the interacting cultures, and finally, the creation in the void resulting from the collapse of cultural paradigms, involving nonetheless the new levels of complexity.
​Development of the theoretical language of symbolic space encompassing both cultures and non-cultural as well as post-cultural elements of human creativity, understood as a matrix of both culturally actualised and unexploited/potential elements conveying meaning.

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ANALYTICAL

Comparative literature focusing on transcultural writing and the creation of a non-hegemonically universal system of literary communication; world literature understood as the creation of writers appealing to non-local readership, dissolving the frontiers of literatures defined territorially rather than diagramatically (ex. as national or regional literatures), as well as the frontiers of languages (ex. through translingual strategies or incrustation of native tongues into the matrix of the dominating languages in the transindigenous writing). 
Comparative religious studies with special relevance given to mysticism and non-orthodox religious thought. The formation of a trans-religious postsecularism combining the spiritual inspirations liberated by the dissolution of confessional denominations. 
Absence, ellipsis, disruption, meaningful omission in literature and art.  


VISUAL
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Relations between the theoretical discourse in humanities and the visual arts. Topological inspirations for art and humanities; other borrowings from contemporary mathematics and complexity theory. 
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Aims of research
Vertical Divider
The main aim of my research is to build a theoretical structure for the field of transcultural universalism, i.e. the dimension in which individual thinkers and creators transgress the imitations inherent to their cultural inscription. My work consists thus in exploring potentialities of experiencing and communicating beyond any particular culture.
While the medieval and early-modern Iberian Peninsula is in the focus of my attention as the intersection of monotheistic traditions and the cradle of many heterodox and mystical insights, I'm searching for the precedents of the contemporary and future transcultural experiences. Such a universal heritage to be treasured in our times results from bringing together the mystical and heterodox texts and traditions around the Mediterranean and worldwide. The outcomes of such an approach should foster the creation of a transversal intellectual and spiritual space in which mystical modalities of religious thinking counterbalance theological and dogmatic distinctions, forming a universal post-secular sphere of communication. 
The concept of symbolic space beyond a culture is resumed in my idiomatic concept of Eremos. This metaphorical Desert brings about a promise of an a-temporal absolute beginning: thinking beyond an established philosophical tradition (of which Nietzsche dreamed among the Töchter der Wüste), speaking beyond a language (as Joyce did in Finnegans Wake), creating art beyond an iconography, encountering God beyond a theology, shortly, living an intellectual and creative life beyond the crooked timber of cultured distinctions. Such a program of breaking through cultural codes and established traditions in order to penetrate into an indiscreet sphere of universal symbols resumes much of the highest spiritual and intellectual striving across European, Mediterranean and global history: from Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Arabi to Ramon Llull and António Vieira in Brazil; from Nietzsche to Deleuze and Guattari in Japan; from Rudolf Otto and Titus Burckhardt in Morocco to contemporary Muslim intellectuals; from Pessoa to Miłosz in his window upon the Pacific. 
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CURRICULUM VITAE
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