[Deathwatch] Jan Kott, Polish Shakespeare critic, 87

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

approved: 

Sunday December 23 2:11 PM ET 

Polish Shakespeare critic Jan Kott dead at 87

WARSAW, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Jan Kott, a leading Polish critic whose
interpretation revitalised Shakespearean drama in the 1960s, has died
at the age of 87 in the United States, his home for more than three
decades, Polish media reported on Sunday.

Kott was best known for ``Shakespeare our contemporary,'' published in
1965, which sought to interpret the Elizabethan playwright's tragedies
and histories in the light of Europe's bloody 20th century.

The book had a profound influence on a generation of Polish and foreign
theater directors, such as England's Peter Brook, who took it as their
cue to stage Shakespeare's plays in modern settings.

Kott, who had Jewish roots, was a devoted Marxist in the post-war years
but fell out with Poland's Soviet-backed regime in 1957 as repression
eased in the communist bloc in the years following the death of
dictator Josef Stalin.

He entered dissident circles and was granted asylum in the United
States in 1969 after Poland's ruling communist party launched an
anti-semitic and anti-intellectual purge.

``The first political choice of my generation,'' Kott said in an
interview, ``was between fascism and communism. Our drama, as it turns
out after many years, was that this dilemma was a false one.''

Kott's wide-ranging literary interests included Polish-born novelist
Joseph Conrad and French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, some of whose
works he translated into Polish.

He was among the emigre intellectuals attending a Congress of Polish
Culture in Warsaw when the communist regime imposed martial law in
December 1981. The guests were quickly hustled out of the country by
the authorities. REUTERS