Grzegorz Sinko (1923–2000)

Professor Grzegorz Sinko was born on 13 June 1923 in Kraków and spent his childhood there. A careful visitor to Wawel Royal Castle can still find a mention of “Krzysia and Grześ Sinko” (nr 5345, Krystyna Sinko was the sister of Grzegorz) on one of the many plaques on the castle walls, commemorating the donors who contributed money to the reconstruction of the castle. Probably, the unconventional phrasing, standing out among rows of monotonous lists of names and titles, came from his father, Tadeusz Sinko, professor of Classical Philology at the Jagiellonian University. He was remembered as an eccentric erudite, well known in the intellectual circles of Kraków, and his early influence on Grzegorz was considerable. Professor Małgorzata Grzegorzewska recalls a “juicy anecdote about his father’s skirmish with Witkacy after some malicious comments on the poetics of Pure Form,” which she heard from Professor Sinko over coffee in Warsaw many decades later (Grzegorzewska, 9).

Grzegorz Sinko studied English at the Jagiellonian University; after graduation he started work at the University of Wrocław, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1950 under the academic supervision of Professor Stanisław Helsztyński. The topic was Samuel Foote, an 18th century British dramatist, actor, and theatre manager. The ardent interest in theatre was to remain a constant feature in Professor Sinko’s life. In 1953, the communist regime closed down most of the academic centres devoted to the study of English in Poland, the only one remaining was at the University of Warsaw. Grzegorz Sinko went there; he and his wife – Zofia Sinko (1919–2006, professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences, translator and editor of English literature) – moved into a flat in Żoliborz, a quiet residential part of Warsaw. In 1965, he became Head of the Chair (later Institute) of English Studies, and in 1965 he received the title of Full Professor.

Professor Sinko’s former students, Professors Andrzej Weseliński and Jacek Wiśniewski, remember him in an article in Polityka (Winnicka) as a man with a dry sense of humour and sometimes unusual ways. “He would take on different responsibilities, such as combine the role of the Head of the Institute with a (more humble) role of students’ counsellor – if a student complained to the Counsellor, ‘mgr Sinko,’ he would send them on to ‘Professor Sinko’ during his office hours,” says Professor Weseliński. Professor Wiśniewski, who began his studies in 1968, was impressed by Professor Sinko’s lecturing style. “His lectures on the history of English literature were one-man theatricals. The largest hall at the University was packed full of students,” he recollects. Professor Sinko was an excellent performer with a particular talent for “carefully structured, endlessly rehearsed anecdotes and digressions” (Grzegorzewska, 10). He was fluent in English, German, French, Latin, and Russian. He translated from English and German.

Professor Sinko was, however, something of an outsider, distancing himself from political disputes of the day. When the civil unrest started in Warsaw in March 1968, he forbade his students to participate in the riots; he did not want them to become pawns in political games. He never joined the communist Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). He left the Institute in 1971 and found employment at the Institute of Arts of the Polish Academy of Sciences; he also lectured for the Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. He published extensively, co-editing the journal Teatr, translating and editing many works of literature (including those by Shakespeare, Dickens, and Defoe). The later part of his academic career was devoted mostly to theatre studies. As Danuta Kuźnicka notes, “Sinko was a staunch rationalist. He believed in the power of the intellect, which he considered to be the ultimate law. He was mistrustful towards emotionality; he mocked ‘the Muse,’ doubted feelings, rejected ideologies. He believed in the freedom of the mind and the right to one’s own rational judgement” (213–214). Professor Sinko wrote three important monographic books: Kryzys języka w dramacie współczesnym – rzeczy wistość czy złudzenie? (A Crisis of Language in Modern Drama: Reality or Illusion? Wrocław, 1977), Opis przedstawienia teatralnego – problem semiotyczny (A Description of Theatrical Performance as a Semiological Problem, Wrocław, 1982), and Postać teatralna i jej przemiany w teatrze XX wieku (The Theatrical Character and Its Evolution in Twentieth century Theatre, Wrocław, 1988) and more than 450 articles, essays, and theatrical reviews.

Professor Sinko supervised the doctorates of numerous scholars: Stanisława Skrodzka-Kumor, Wanda Krajewska, Krystyna Przybylska, Jerzy Szkup, Alicja Kędzielska, Zbigniew Lewicki, and Wanda Rulewicz 

He met a tragic death on 30 March 2000. He died after having been assaulted at the entrance to the building where he lived. It was reported that the attackers were thieves who must have seen him collecting a small sum of money from the bank and followed him on his way home (Winnicka).

Dorota Babilas, Honouring the Past and Celebrating the Present. One Hundred Years of English Studies at the University of Warsaw 1923–2023, p. 133-135

Sources:
Grzegorzewska, Małgorzata. “In Memory of Professor Grzegorz Sinko. Written in 2010,” Acta Philologica, 2010, no. 37, 9–10.

Winnicka, Ewa. “Śmierć profesora,” Polityka, 2000, no. 17. [online:] https://www.polityka.pl/archiwumpolityki/1870092,1,smierc-profesora.read