PROFIL PRACOWNIKA: Agnieszka Przybyszewska

I graduated with distinction in Polish Philology (specialising in teaching and journalism) and Cultural Studies (specialising in film studies and media studies), and in 2012, I obtained a Ph.D. in literary studies (based on a dissertation on the liberariness of literary works). Since 2011, I have been working at the Department of Literary Theory at the Institute of Contemporary Culture, University of Lodz (since 2011 as an assistant, since 2012 as an assistant professor). I am the author of the monograph “Liberackość dzieła literackiego” [“On Liberariness of Literary Works”] (2015) and over fifty articles in Polish, English and Spanish, published in journals and collective volumes. I also co-edited the book „Literatura prze-pisana II. Od zapomnianych teorii do kryminału” [„ Re-written literature II. From forgotten theories to crime fiction”] (2016).

I was the co-author of an innovative program for creative writing studies, and I also gained experience in teaching such studies in foreign centres (internship at Bath Spa University (UK)).

For years, I have been actively promoting electronic literature in Poland (which includes conducting workshops for teachers and classes for young people, and publishing popular texts on the latest literary forms). I also translate digital literature (I have translated, among others, the award-winning “Loss of Grasp” [“(Nie)panowanie”] by S. Bouchardon and V. Volckaert). I am a coordinator and/or supervisor of artistic literary projects, including those using the latest technologies (under my supervision, for example, were created: the printed gamebook “Kamienica”, a playable story by M. Rojewska and K. Mazerant (2014), or the locative narrative for smartphones “Dzieje jednego pocisku” by M. Dziedziela and Sz. Szul (2021)).

theory and history of literature, electronic literature, literature and new media, new media art, correspondance des arts, transmedia genology

My research interests include varieties of so-called textual materialism (including liberature) and electronic literature. I focus on contemporary changes in the perspective on categories such as the book, the act of reading, or literariness. I analyze the latest literary forms in the context of subsequent stages of development of the art of words. I also consider it crucial for my research to look at literature in a broader perspective and consider new literary phenomena against the background of evolutions observed in other arts.

Recently, I have been paying most attention to new forms of electronic literature (VR/AR/XR literature, location-based narratives, playable literature, smartphone book applications) and the use of new platforms for literature (e.g. Instagram, Google Maps, or WhatsApp). I am also interested in including the reader's body in the reading process and related revisions of the poetics of a literary work (e.g. the poetics of haptic texts).

My spectrum of interests also includes translating and archiving electronic literature and including it in curricula at various education levels.

• Principal Investigator of research project Badanie odbioru (audience research) jako element metodologii badań literatury XR – pilotażowe badanie odbiorców poezji VR”  (2023-2024 NCN: MINIATURA 7)
• Principal Investigator of research project Poszerzone przestrzenie opowieści i ucieleśniony akt lektury (2023-2024, NAWA: Komponent Krajowy w Programie Bekkera)
• Principal Investigator of research project (2021 year edition): projekt Między (re)konstrukcją a emulacją. Archiwizacja i popularyzacja literatury elektronicznej – archiwum twórczości Kate Pullinger (2022-2025)
• Foreign partner (as a representative of the University of Lodz) in the project AR for Writers (2022-2023, AHRC/UKRI: Impact Accelerator Awards KE Dialogues Scheme) conducted by Dr Amy Spencer  
• Research fellow in research project Amplified Publishing (UK, 2021-2022) – project VR as a literary platform
• Scholarship in NAWA Bekker Programme (2020-2022) – internship in Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries at Bath Spa University (UK) related to the realisation of the research project Kate Pullinger and innovation in digital writing: from multimodal interactive narrative to haptic, corporeal reading
• Principal investigator in research project Poetyka gestu i cielesnego zanurzenia w literaturze XXI wieku – konteksty współczesnych strategii pogłębiania czytelniczej immersji (Fundusz Rozwoju Naukowego Wydziału Filologicznego UŁ, 2020-2021)
• Researcher in the research project W stronę genologii transmedialnej. Gatunki literackie XXI wieku (Fundusz Rozwoju Naukowego Wydziału Filologicznego UŁ, 2020-2021)
• Winner of the Rector of the University of Lodz Award for a series of publications on electronic literature (2017)
• Principal investigator of research project E-literatura w Polsce i na świecie (research projects for young researchers, UŁ, 2017)
• Principal investigator of research project E-literatura i jej konteksty (research projects for young researchers, UŁ, 2016)
• Principal investigator of research project Od liberatury do e-literatury (research projects for young researchers, UŁ, 2015)
• Principal investigator of research project Liberatura i liberackość (research projects for young researchers, UŁ, 2014)
• Winner of the first place in the Cz. Zgorzelski competition for the best master's thesis in Poland (2006)
• Four-time MEN/MENiS scholarship holder