He is the author of more than 150 essays and 12 books on literature and philosophy, including The Inscription Effect: Jacques Derrida and Literature (1997); Nietzsche: The Philosophy of Interpretation (1997); Anatomy of Curiosity (1999); Desire for Presence: The Philosophies of Representation from Plato to Descartes (1999); Excess: Essays on Writing and Reading (2000); Desire and Idolatry: Metaphysical Essays (2004); and Black Waters: Gombrowicz, World, Literature (2004 - nominated for the Nike Award 2005) - all in Polish. He has also penned Chronik des polnischen Essays 1951-2000 (2000) and Identity and Interpretation (2003), a collection of lectures delivered in English in Stockholm, in 2002. Recently Prof. Markowski has co-authored, with Anna Burzyńska, Theories of Literature in the 20th Century (2006) and co-edited A Cultural Theory of Literature (2 vols. - 2006) with Ryszard Nycz. In January 2008, his newest work, Polish Modern Literature: Leśmian, Schulz, Witkacy, was released. Since 2003, he has been the host of a cultural TV show on public television (TVP Kultura) and since the beginning of 2006 he has been a regular columnist for the weekly Tygodnik Powszechny.

Professor Markowski is the translator and the editor of essays by Marcel Proust, of Roland Barthes' writings (4 vols. - 1999-2001) and of the texts of Derrida, Lévinas, Blanchot, Foucault, and Deleuze. He translated and edited Le cabinet d'amateur by Georges Perec. His books and essays have been, or are currently being, translated into, Bulgarian, Romanian, Swedish, English, Slovenian, Ukrainian, and French. He was a member of the group Poland2000 which was responsible for the presentation of Polish literature during the Frankfurt Book Fair 2000 and he co-edited the catalogues of Polish writers.

Winner of the Literatura na Swiecie Annual Award for Translation and Comparative Criticism (1998), the Kosęcielski Prize (2000), the Aleksander Brückner Award of the Polish Academy of Science for the Best Polish Scholar in the Humanities (2000), nominated to the Jan D?ugosz Award for the Best Book in Polish Humanities (2000), Professor Markowski has also been honoured by the Minister of Education (twice) and the Rector of the Jagiellonian University (5 times). He has recently (2006) been awarded the highly prestigious Professor's Grant and title of Master by the Foundation for Polish Science. In 2006 he was also named a member of the Editorial Board of Slavic Review.

Co-editor of a prestigious series The Horizons of Modernity (over 50 vols. thus far), and editor of a new series Curiosities, both at Universitas Publishing House in Kraków.

Professor Markowski was in 2002/2003 a Visiting Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and in 2004 taught two courses at Northwestern University. He has been a Guest Lecturer at many universities. For example, at the University of Chicago, Columbia (NYC), Toronto, Columbus (Ohio), Kansas, Alberta, Vienna, Stockholm, Goeteborg, Lund.