Dalibor Blažina

Dalibor Blažina was born in Zagreb in 1955. He studied comparative literature and Polish language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. From 1981 to 2020, he taught courses on the history of Polish literature, culture, theatre studies, and translation studies at the Department of Polish Studies of the same faculty, and also lectured at postgraduate and doctoral programs. He earned his master’s degree with a thesis on the dramatic work of S. I. Witkiewicz and his doctorate with a dissertation on the drama and theatre criticism of J. Kott. He has published the books Katastrofizam i dramska struktura. O Stanisławu Ignacyju Witkiewiczu (Catastrophism and Dramatic Structure: On Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, 1993), U auri Dušnog dana. Ogledi i rasprave o poljskoj književnosti i njezinoj hrvatskoj recepciji (In the Aura of All Souls' Day: Essays and Discussions on Polish Literature and Its Croatian Reception, 2005), and Paradoks o kritičaru. Jan Kott u tekstosferi kulture (The Paradox of the Critic: Jan Kott in the Textosphere of Culture, 2011), along with numerous scholarly and professional articles. From 1998 to 2023, he was the editor-in-chief of Književna smotra (Literary Review), a journal for world literature. He has translated works from Polish into Croatian by authors including S. I. Witkiewicz, B. Schulz, C. Miłosz, Z. Uniłowski, J. Iwaszkiewicz, Z. Herbert, J. Kott, A. Szczypiorski, J. Ficowski, P. Szewc, P. Paziński, and A. Libera. Among his awards are the Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Prize (2003), awarded by the Polish Center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI-UNESCO) for contributions to promoting Polish theatre culture worldwide; the annual Josip Tabak Award of the Croatian Society of Literary Translators for his translation of the novel Nienasycenie (Insatiability) by S. I. Witkiewicz (2020); the DHKP Lifetime Achievement Award (2023); and the Gold Cross of Merit for contributions to the development of Polish-Croatian scientific cooperation and promotion of Polish culture, awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland (2022).