Aleksandra K Wiktorowska | Dolnośląska Szkoła Wyższa/University of Lower Silesia (original) (raw)

Papers by Aleksandra K Wiktorowska

The Literary Journalist as a Naturalist , 2024

This chapter aims to show how Artur Domosławski—a Polish reporter known to English and Spanish sp... more This chapter aims to show how Artur Domosławski—a Polish reporter known to English and Spanish speaking readers only as a biographer of Ryszard Kapuściński—deals in his work with the question of responsibility for the environmental crisis. Domosławski is the author of Death in the Amazon (2013) an over 300-page-long book on severe environmental damage to the Amazon, namely deforestation and the assassination of ecologists in Brazil, water pollution caused by gold mining in Peru, and environmental poisoning caused by oil extraction in Ecuador.

In the analysis, Domosławski’s book-length reportage is compared to two other accounts of investigative journalism, showing how his literary journalistic account of events differs considerably from the others and what makes it so special when writing on ecology and responsibility for environmental crisis.

La consulta d'aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l'acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La ... more La consulta d'aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l'acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La difusió d'aquesta tesi per mitjà del servei TDX (www.tdx.cat) i a través del Dipòsit Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha estat autoritzada pels titulars dels drets de propietat intel•lectual únicament per a usos privats emmarcats en activitats d'investigació i docència. No s'autoritza la seva reproducció amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva difusió i posada a disposició des d'un lloc aliè al servei TDX ni al Dipòsit Digital de la UB. No s'autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX o al Dipòsit Digital de la UB (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant al resum de presentació de la tesi com als seus continguts. En la utilització o cita de parts de la tesi és obligat indicar el nom de la persona autora. ADVERTENCIA. La consulta de esta tesis queda condicionada a la aceptación de las siguientes condiciones de uso: La difusión de esta tesis por medio del servicio TDR (www.tdx.cat) y a través del Repositorio Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha sido autorizada por los titulares de los derechos de propiedad intelectual únicamente para usos privados enmarcados en actividades de investigación y docencia. No se autoriza su reproducción con finalidades de lucro ni su difusión y puesta a disposición desde un sitio ajeno al servicio TDR o al Repositorio Digital de la UB. No se autoriza la presentación de su contenido en una ventana o marco ajeno a TDR o al Repositorio Digital de la UB (framing). Esta reserva de derechos afecta tanto al resumen de presentación de la tesis como a sus contenidos. En la utilización o cita de partes de la tesis es obligado indicar el nombre de la persona autora. WARNING. On having consulted this thesis you're accepting the following use conditions: Spreading this thesis by the TDX (www.tdx.cat) service and by the UB Digital Repository (diposit.ub.edu) has been authorized by the titular of the intellectual property rights only for private uses placed in investigation and teaching activities. Reproduction with lucrative aims is not authorized nor its spreading and availability from a site foreign to the TDX service or to the UB Digital Repository. Introducing its content in a window or frame foreign to the TDX service or to the UB Digital Repository is not authorized (framing). Those rights affect to the presentation summary of the thesis as well as to its contents. In the using or citation of parts of the thesis it's obliged to indicate the name of the author.

Routledge eBooks, Nov 7, 2022

Recherches & travaux, 2021

Les pratiques d’ecriture situees a la jonction de la litterature et du journalisme, habitees par ... more Les pratiques d’ecriture situees a la jonction de la litterature et du journalisme, habitees par le desir de saisir — et d’intervenir dans — le reel, representent un courant majeur dans les litteratures hyper-contemporaines et jouissent des faveurs croissantes du public. L’etude conjointe des reportages francais et polonais — dont les histoires sont a la fois tres differentes et tres riches en zones de contact — permet de mieux comprendre les phenomenes de fertilisation et d’appropriation qui ont preside a la constitution du genre, de reconsiderer l’histoire du reportage en rapport avec sa place dans un systeme des genres et un contexte historique specifiques mais aussi d’eclairer notre present, habite par la quete d’une ecriture transitive et performative, dont les premisses remontent a l’oree du xxe siecle.

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2020

Born from colonialist and postcolonialist affronts and affinities with European and North America... more Born from colonialist and postcolonialist affronts and affinities with European and North American traditions, as well as from specific nationalistic needs, cultural as well as political, Latin American literary journalism is arguably a direct product and process of a people's volatile past. Be it a specific reportaje, testimonio or crónica, these reportages stoke more often than calm the political and social unrest frequently associated with the development of South and Central America. Practised by a number of prominent writers discussed here – Gabriel García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Elena Poniatowska, Euclides da Cunha, Miguel Barnet, Antonio Callado, Leila Guerriero, Mário Neves, Judith Torrea, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Patrícia Campos Mello, Mario Vargas Llosa, as well as Ryszard Kapuscinski and Charles Bowden – Latin American literary journalism documents the continents’ many civil wars, revolutions, dictatorships, pogroms and cartel turf wars in the hope that readers today will learn from the past and avoid repeating it.

Polska szkoła reportażu w świecie

Artykuł składa się z trzech części. Dwie pierwsze mają charakter historycznoliteracki, mowa w nic... more Artykuł składa się z trzech części. Dwie pierwsze mają charakter historycznoliteracki, mowa w nich o tym, jak twórczość Kapuścińskiego dotarła do Hiszpanii i do Ameryki Łacińskiej, jak była tam odbierana, kiedy i za sprawą jakich czynników reporterowi udało się odnieść sukces, a jego książki zaczęły cieszyć się popularnością. Trzecia część jest natomiast próbą teoretycznego ujęcia zagadnienia. Na podstawie kwerend bibliotecznych i archiwalnych, przeprowadzonych wywiadów oraz korzystając z teorii recepcji Hansa Roberta Jaussa i konceptu „horyzontu oczekiwań”, autorka stara się wyjaśnić, dlaczego dzieła Kapuścińskiego zaistniały właśnie pod tymi szerokościami geograficznymi. Ryszard Kapuściński in Spain and in Latin America The article consists of three parts. First two parts have a historic-literary character as they discuss the following: how the writings of Kapuściński reached Spain and Latin America; how they were received there; when and due to which factors the reporter achieved...

Brazilian Journalism Research

This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account ... more This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account a specific national literary history, it shows the historical roots of literary journalism (known in Poland also as literary reportage), its development and evolution. Aiming to fill in a significant gap in existing research on literary journalism, the article explores the popularity of the genre in Poland. The text focuses on the meaning of the so-called Polish School of Reportage, shows its founding members, predecessors and successors, and discusses four famous theoretical debates concerning the use of facts and the abuse of fiction in Poland’s literary journalism. Along with investigating the split of literary journalism studies into journalism studies and literature studies, the article also touches upon the different educational paths of practicing reporters and theorists of the genre. The article concludes by postulating that literary journalism studies be united and established a...

Recherches & travaux

Her knowledge of French, in fact, helped her to capture the zeitgeist of postwar France, putting ... more Her knowledge of French, in fact, helped her to capture the zeitgeist of postwar France, putting her journalistic skills to use in collecting oral histories and interviewing the nation's luminaries in her Jardín de Francia (2008), a collection of 109 crónicas written between 1953 and the 1980s. Several of these interviews were recorded during the 1950s with dozens of French authors, artists and political dignitaries, including Jean Cocteau, Jean Vilar, Abbé Pierre, Françoise Sagan, and Jean-Paul Sartre. They provide a rare glimpse into the French mindset from a young exile. Isabelle Tauzin-Castellanos calls the book her a "[b]ouquet of chronicles and interviews of figures of French culture in Mexico City or in Paris". 2 But these interviews, not unlike those of Studs Terkle in Working (1974) or Truman Capote in Music for Chameleons (1980), also say a lot about the author asking the questions. In her infamous interview with recent Nobel laureate François Mauriac, for instance, she arrived without having even bothered to read any of his books, and ended up asking him if his "throat hurt". Although he insisted that "no conversation was possible" 3 between them, she somehow still managed to get him to talk about his political ideologies. Her tiny frame, ingénue appearance and feigned insouciance often disarmed her more reserved, august subjects, and they consequently let down their guard and opened up to her. 4 Poniatowska could easily mingle with Europe's intelligentsia, but she preferred walking among Mexico's poor and working class. Trained as a journalist at a time when few women in Mexico held that position, the young blue-blood was, as Beth E. Jörgensen describes Poniatowska, a champion of the oppressed and an "advocate of women's voices and histories" 4. We see this clearly in her early work, Palabras cruzadas. Crónicas (1961), where a collection of interview-articles with celebrated artists and painters in Mexico broaches more sensitive topics about the nation's poverty stricken than it does the artists' works. Her later chronicles would only further her sociopolitical commitment. La noche de Tlatelolco. Testimonios de la historia oral (published in Mexico in 1971 and translated into English in 1975 as Massacre in Mexico and into French in 2014 as La Nuit de Tlatelolco) reconstructs, in a hybrid text of personal interviews, political statements, graffiti, government documents and newspaper clippings, the massacre that ended a nine-week student demonstration in 1968, just ten days before Mexico City was to host the Olympics Games. Fuerte es el silencio (1980), which many feel, including Poniatowska herself, is the follow-up to La noche de Tlatelolco, is a crónica that stitches together five stories that capture the heart and soul of Mexican history, revisiting the student strikes of 1968 but also calling out the growing list of Mexico's despaparecidos, those kidnapped by the nation's police, military, and drug cartels. Nada, nadie. Las voces del temblor, published in Mexico in 1986 and translated into English in 1995 as Nothing, Nobody: The Voices of the Mexico City Earthquake, narrates the events that took place on 19 September 1985 when a powerful earthquake hit Mexico City in the early morning hours. The post-disaster testimonies speak of the death of family members and of entire neighborhoods, of the destruction of homes and hospitals-the collective loss of a city that left blood on the hands of a corrupt government which was slow in responding to the emergency relief efforts and which had grafted out contracts to companies whose shoddy buildings could not resist the shockwaves. And there is also Amanecer en el Zócalo. Los 50 días que confrontaron a México (2007), a crónica about the controversial events of the 2006 Mexican Presidential election, in which the former

Caracters Es Una Revista De Llibres, 2014

Recherches & Travaux, 2021

In France and Poland where journalisme littéraire and reportaż have enjoyed long and rich traditi... more In France and Poland where journalisme littéraire and reportaż have enjoyed long and rich traditions, it is curious that Elena Poniatowska’s literary journalism has attracted little attention. The reasons differ in degree, but translations efforts in both countries suggest that the French and the Poles see Poniatowska strictly as a Latin American Boom writer and, as such, favor her fiction over her socially-engaged literary journalism. By examining the international literary journalistic and reportage traditions inscribed within Poniatowska’s most celebrated crónica, La noche de Tlatelolco, this article attempts to counter these current trends in France and in Poland. A daughter of France with royal Polish blood, Poniatowska might have focused her attention this past half century on the troubled history of her adopted nation, Mexico, and on its victimized and marginalized peoples, but her journalistic themes, oral histories, interviewing techniques and literary talents are as universal as those from any French or Polish grand reporter.

Brazilian Journalism Research, 2018

This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account ... more This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account a specific national literary history, it shows the historical roots of literary journalism (known in Poland also as literary reportage), its development and evolution. Aiming to fill in a significant gap in existing research on literary journalism, the article explores the popularity of the genre in Poland. The article focuses on the meaning of the so-called Polish School of Reportage, shows its founding members, predecessors and successors, and discusses four famous theoretical debates concerning the use of facts and the abuse of fiction in Poland's literary journalism. Along with investigating the split of literary journalism studies into journalism studies and literature studies, the article also touches upon the different educational paths of practicing reporters and theorists of the genre. The article concludes by postulating that literary journalism studies be united and established as a separate academic discipline.

Books by Aleksandra K Wiktorowska

Literary Journalism and Latin American Wars: Revolutions, Retributions, Resignations. Eds. Mateus Yuri Passos, Margarita Navarro Pérez, and Aleksandra Wiktorowska. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy – Éditions Universitaires de Lorraine, 2020

Literary Journalism and Latin American Wars: Revolutions, Retributions, Resignations. Eds. Mateus Yuri Passos, Margarita Navarro Pérez, and Aleksandra Wiktorowska. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy – Éditions Universitaires de Lorraine, 2020

The aim of this chapter is to discuss Kapuściński’s relation with Latin America. He was sent ther... more The aim of this chapter is to discuss Kapuściński’s relation with Latin America. He was sent there in 1967, as a correspondent for Polish Press Agency (PAP), and he spent there following five years, first based in Santiago de Chile, then in Rio de Janeiro, and afterwards in Mexico City. He dedicated three book-length reportages to this continent, i.e. Dlaczego zginął Karl von Spreti (Why Karl von Spreti Died) published in Poland in 1970 and never translated into English – a book about the assassination of German ambassador in Guatemala, Chrystus z karabinem na ramieniu (Christ With a Rifle on His Shoulder) from 1975, as well never translated into English – which focuses on the partisan movements in Africa, Latin America and Middle East, and The Soccer War that appeared in Poland in 1978 and was translated into English by William Brand and published by Granta Books in 1990 . Kapuściński is as well the translator of Ernesto Che Guevara’s diary, El Diario de Che en Bolivia from Spanish to Polish.

Apart of analyzing his Latin American output and showing particular characteristics (journalistic and as well literary) of each book, I examine how this Latin America’s experience was essential in life of Kapuściński and in his style of writing. Aditionally, I address the issue of ideologically engaged literary journalism, committed journalism, and inscribe Kapuściński into the generation of writers-journalists (New Journalism) such as Norman Mailer or Truman Capote and journalists-writers (Latin American Journalism) such as Gabriel García Márquez or Mario Vargas Llosa. Finally, I consider that reportage (very frequently politically engaged reportage) and literature are Siamese twins that cannot be cut so cleanly apart in Latin American writing in general, and Kapuściński’s Latin American writing in particular.

Literary Journalism and Africa’s Wars: Colonial, Decolonial and Postcolonial Perspectives, 2019

The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to and to analyse Kapuściński's five books about Afr... more The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to and to analyse Kapuściński's five books about Africa: Black Stars (published in Poland in 1963), If All Africa... (1969), Another Day of Life (1976), The Soccer War (1978) and The Shadow of the Sun (1998). Of these five titles, only the last three were translated into English. This chapter examines, then, Kapuściński's evolution as a writer and his very particular method of writing. The close analysis of his five books about Africa allows us to observe how his interests and his particular way of writing change over the years. I believe it also allows us to categorise anew his work.

The Literary Journalist as a Naturalist , 2024

This chapter aims to show how Artur Domosławski—a Polish reporter known to English and Spanish sp... more This chapter aims to show how Artur Domosławski—a Polish reporter known to English and Spanish speaking readers only as a biographer of Ryszard Kapuściński—deals in his work with the question of responsibility for the environmental crisis. Domosławski is the author of Death in the Amazon (2013) an over 300-page-long book on severe environmental damage to the Amazon, namely deforestation and the assassination of ecologists in Brazil, water pollution caused by gold mining in Peru, and environmental poisoning caused by oil extraction in Ecuador.

In the analysis, Domosławski’s book-length reportage is compared to two other accounts of investigative journalism, showing how his literary journalistic account of events differs considerably from the others and what makes it so special when writing on ecology and responsibility for environmental crisis.

La consulta d'aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l'acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La ... more La consulta d'aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l'acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La difusió d'aquesta tesi per mitjà del servei TDX (www.tdx.cat) i a través del Dipòsit Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha estat autoritzada pels titulars dels drets de propietat intel•lectual únicament per a usos privats emmarcats en activitats d'investigació i docència. No s'autoritza la seva reproducció amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva difusió i posada a disposició des d'un lloc aliè al servei TDX ni al Dipòsit Digital de la UB. No s'autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX o al Dipòsit Digital de la UB (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant al resum de presentació de la tesi com als seus continguts. En la utilització o cita de parts de la tesi és obligat indicar el nom de la persona autora. ADVERTENCIA. La consulta de esta tesis queda condicionada a la aceptación de las siguientes condiciones de uso: La difusión de esta tesis por medio del servicio TDR (www.tdx.cat) y a través del Repositorio Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha sido autorizada por los titulares de los derechos de propiedad intelectual únicamente para usos privados enmarcados en actividades de investigación y docencia. No se autoriza su reproducción con finalidades de lucro ni su difusión y puesta a disposición desde un sitio ajeno al servicio TDR o al Repositorio Digital de la UB. No se autoriza la presentación de su contenido en una ventana o marco ajeno a TDR o al Repositorio Digital de la UB (framing). Esta reserva de derechos afecta tanto al resumen de presentación de la tesis como a sus contenidos. En la utilización o cita de partes de la tesis es obligado indicar el nombre de la persona autora. WARNING. On having consulted this thesis you're accepting the following use conditions: Spreading this thesis by the TDX (www.tdx.cat) service and by the UB Digital Repository (diposit.ub.edu) has been authorized by the titular of the intellectual property rights only for private uses placed in investigation and teaching activities. Reproduction with lucrative aims is not authorized nor its spreading and availability from a site foreign to the TDX service or to the UB Digital Repository. Introducing its content in a window or frame foreign to the TDX service or to the UB Digital Repository is not authorized (framing). Those rights affect to the presentation summary of the thesis as well as to its contents. In the using or citation of parts of the thesis it's obliged to indicate the name of the author.

Routledge eBooks, Nov 7, 2022

Recherches & travaux, 2021

Les pratiques d’ecriture situees a la jonction de la litterature et du journalisme, habitees par ... more Les pratiques d’ecriture situees a la jonction de la litterature et du journalisme, habitees par le desir de saisir — et d’intervenir dans — le reel, representent un courant majeur dans les litteratures hyper-contemporaines et jouissent des faveurs croissantes du public. L’etude conjointe des reportages francais et polonais — dont les histoires sont a la fois tres differentes et tres riches en zones de contact — permet de mieux comprendre les phenomenes de fertilisation et d’appropriation qui ont preside a la constitution du genre, de reconsiderer l’histoire du reportage en rapport avec sa place dans un systeme des genres et un contexte historique specifiques mais aussi d’eclairer notre present, habite par la quete d’une ecriture transitive et performative, dont les premisses remontent a l’oree du xxe siecle.

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2020

Born from colonialist and postcolonialist affronts and affinities with European and North America... more Born from colonialist and postcolonialist affronts and affinities with European and North American traditions, as well as from specific nationalistic needs, cultural as well as political, Latin American literary journalism is arguably a direct product and process of a people's volatile past. Be it a specific reportaje, testimonio or crónica, these reportages stoke more often than calm the political and social unrest frequently associated with the development of South and Central America. Practised by a number of prominent writers discussed here – Gabriel García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Elena Poniatowska, Euclides da Cunha, Miguel Barnet, Antonio Callado, Leila Guerriero, Mário Neves, Judith Torrea, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Patrícia Campos Mello, Mario Vargas Llosa, as well as Ryszard Kapuscinski and Charles Bowden – Latin American literary journalism documents the continents’ many civil wars, revolutions, dictatorships, pogroms and cartel turf wars in the hope that readers today will learn from the past and avoid repeating it.

Polska szkoła reportażu w świecie

Artykuł składa się z trzech części. Dwie pierwsze mają charakter historycznoliteracki, mowa w nic... more Artykuł składa się z trzech części. Dwie pierwsze mają charakter historycznoliteracki, mowa w nich o tym, jak twórczość Kapuścińskiego dotarła do Hiszpanii i do Ameryki Łacińskiej, jak była tam odbierana, kiedy i za sprawą jakich czynników reporterowi udało się odnieść sukces, a jego książki zaczęły cieszyć się popularnością. Trzecia część jest natomiast próbą teoretycznego ujęcia zagadnienia. Na podstawie kwerend bibliotecznych i archiwalnych, przeprowadzonych wywiadów oraz korzystając z teorii recepcji Hansa Roberta Jaussa i konceptu „horyzontu oczekiwań”, autorka stara się wyjaśnić, dlaczego dzieła Kapuścińskiego zaistniały właśnie pod tymi szerokościami geograficznymi. Ryszard Kapuściński in Spain and in Latin America The article consists of three parts. First two parts have a historic-literary character as they discuss the following: how the writings of Kapuściński reached Spain and Latin America; how they were received there; when and due to which factors the reporter achieved...

Brazilian Journalism Research

This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account ... more This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account a specific national literary history, it shows the historical roots of literary journalism (known in Poland also as literary reportage), its development and evolution. Aiming to fill in a significant gap in existing research on literary journalism, the article explores the popularity of the genre in Poland. The text focuses on the meaning of the so-called Polish School of Reportage, shows its founding members, predecessors and successors, and discusses four famous theoretical debates concerning the use of facts and the abuse of fiction in Poland’s literary journalism. Along with investigating the split of literary journalism studies into journalism studies and literature studies, the article also touches upon the different educational paths of practicing reporters and theorists of the genre. The article concludes by postulating that literary journalism studies be united and established a...

Recherches & travaux

Her knowledge of French, in fact, helped her to capture the zeitgeist of postwar France, putting ... more Her knowledge of French, in fact, helped her to capture the zeitgeist of postwar France, putting her journalistic skills to use in collecting oral histories and interviewing the nation's luminaries in her Jardín de Francia (2008), a collection of 109 crónicas written between 1953 and the 1980s. Several of these interviews were recorded during the 1950s with dozens of French authors, artists and political dignitaries, including Jean Cocteau, Jean Vilar, Abbé Pierre, Françoise Sagan, and Jean-Paul Sartre. They provide a rare glimpse into the French mindset from a young exile. Isabelle Tauzin-Castellanos calls the book her a "[b]ouquet of chronicles and interviews of figures of French culture in Mexico City or in Paris". 2 But these interviews, not unlike those of Studs Terkle in Working (1974) or Truman Capote in Music for Chameleons (1980), also say a lot about the author asking the questions. In her infamous interview with recent Nobel laureate François Mauriac, for instance, she arrived without having even bothered to read any of his books, and ended up asking him if his "throat hurt". Although he insisted that "no conversation was possible" 3 between them, she somehow still managed to get him to talk about his political ideologies. Her tiny frame, ingénue appearance and feigned insouciance often disarmed her more reserved, august subjects, and they consequently let down their guard and opened up to her. 4 Poniatowska could easily mingle with Europe's intelligentsia, but she preferred walking among Mexico's poor and working class. Trained as a journalist at a time when few women in Mexico held that position, the young blue-blood was, as Beth E. Jörgensen describes Poniatowska, a champion of the oppressed and an "advocate of women's voices and histories" 4. We see this clearly in her early work, Palabras cruzadas. Crónicas (1961), where a collection of interview-articles with celebrated artists and painters in Mexico broaches more sensitive topics about the nation's poverty stricken than it does the artists' works. Her later chronicles would only further her sociopolitical commitment. La noche de Tlatelolco. Testimonios de la historia oral (published in Mexico in 1971 and translated into English in 1975 as Massacre in Mexico and into French in 2014 as La Nuit de Tlatelolco) reconstructs, in a hybrid text of personal interviews, political statements, graffiti, government documents and newspaper clippings, the massacre that ended a nine-week student demonstration in 1968, just ten days before Mexico City was to host the Olympics Games. Fuerte es el silencio (1980), which many feel, including Poniatowska herself, is the follow-up to La noche de Tlatelolco, is a crónica that stitches together five stories that capture the heart and soul of Mexican history, revisiting the student strikes of 1968 but also calling out the growing list of Mexico's despaparecidos, those kidnapped by the nation's police, military, and drug cartels. Nada, nadie. Las voces del temblor, published in Mexico in 1986 and translated into English in 1995 as Nothing, Nobody: The Voices of the Mexico City Earthquake, narrates the events that took place on 19 September 1985 when a powerful earthquake hit Mexico City in the early morning hours. The post-disaster testimonies speak of the death of family members and of entire neighborhoods, of the destruction of homes and hospitals-the collective loss of a city that left blood on the hands of a corrupt government which was slow in responding to the emergency relief efforts and which had grafted out contracts to companies whose shoddy buildings could not resist the shockwaves. And there is also Amanecer en el Zócalo. Los 50 días que confrontaron a México (2007), a crónica about the controversial events of the 2006 Mexican Presidential election, in which the former

Caracters Es Una Revista De Llibres, 2014

Recherches & Travaux, 2021

In France and Poland where journalisme littéraire and reportaż have enjoyed long and rich traditi... more In France and Poland where journalisme littéraire and reportaż have enjoyed long and rich traditions, it is curious that Elena Poniatowska’s literary journalism has attracted little attention. The reasons differ in degree, but translations efforts in both countries suggest that the French and the Poles see Poniatowska strictly as a Latin American Boom writer and, as such, favor her fiction over her socially-engaged literary journalism. By examining the international literary journalistic and reportage traditions inscribed within Poniatowska’s most celebrated crónica, La noche de Tlatelolco, this article attempts to counter these current trends in France and in Poland. A daughter of France with royal Polish blood, Poniatowska might have focused her attention this past half century on the troubled history of her adopted nation, Mexico, and on its victimized and marginalized peoples, but her journalistic themes, oral histories, interviewing techniques and literary talents are as universal as those from any French or Polish grand reporter.

Brazilian Journalism Research, 2018

This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account ... more This essay offers a summary of the history of literary journalism in Poland. Taking into account a specific national literary history, it shows the historical roots of literary journalism (known in Poland also as literary reportage), its development and evolution. Aiming to fill in a significant gap in existing research on literary journalism, the article explores the popularity of the genre in Poland. The article focuses on the meaning of the so-called Polish School of Reportage, shows its founding members, predecessors and successors, and discusses four famous theoretical debates concerning the use of facts and the abuse of fiction in Poland's literary journalism. Along with investigating the split of literary journalism studies into journalism studies and literature studies, the article also touches upon the different educational paths of practicing reporters and theorists of the genre. The article concludes by postulating that literary journalism studies be united and established as a separate academic discipline.

Literary Journalism and Latin American Wars: Revolutions, Retributions, Resignations. Eds. Mateus Yuri Passos, Margarita Navarro Pérez, and Aleksandra Wiktorowska. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy – Éditions Universitaires de Lorraine, 2020

Literary Journalism and Latin American Wars: Revolutions, Retributions, Resignations. Eds. Mateus Yuri Passos, Margarita Navarro Pérez, and Aleksandra Wiktorowska. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy – Éditions Universitaires de Lorraine, 2020

The aim of this chapter is to discuss Kapuściński’s relation with Latin America. He was sent ther... more The aim of this chapter is to discuss Kapuściński’s relation with Latin America. He was sent there in 1967, as a correspondent for Polish Press Agency (PAP), and he spent there following five years, first based in Santiago de Chile, then in Rio de Janeiro, and afterwards in Mexico City. He dedicated three book-length reportages to this continent, i.e. Dlaczego zginął Karl von Spreti (Why Karl von Spreti Died) published in Poland in 1970 and never translated into English – a book about the assassination of German ambassador in Guatemala, Chrystus z karabinem na ramieniu (Christ With a Rifle on His Shoulder) from 1975, as well never translated into English – which focuses on the partisan movements in Africa, Latin America and Middle East, and The Soccer War that appeared in Poland in 1978 and was translated into English by William Brand and published by Granta Books in 1990 . Kapuściński is as well the translator of Ernesto Che Guevara’s diary, El Diario de Che en Bolivia from Spanish to Polish.

Apart of analyzing his Latin American output and showing particular characteristics (journalistic and as well literary) of each book, I examine how this Latin America’s experience was essential in life of Kapuściński and in his style of writing. Aditionally, I address the issue of ideologically engaged literary journalism, committed journalism, and inscribe Kapuściński into the generation of writers-journalists (New Journalism) such as Norman Mailer or Truman Capote and journalists-writers (Latin American Journalism) such as Gabriel García Márquez or Mario Vargas Llosa. Finally, I consider that reportage (very frequently politically engaged reportage) and literature are Siamese twins that cannot be cut so cleanly apart in Latin American writing in general, and Kapuściński’s Latin American writing in particular.

Literary Journalism and Africa’s Wars: Colonial, Decolonial and Postcolonial Perspectives, 2019

The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to and to analyse Kapuściński's five books about Afr... more The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to and to analyse Kapuściński's five books about Africa: Black Stars (published in Poland in 1963), If All Africa... (1969), Another Day of Life (1976), The Soccer War (1978) and The Shadow of the Sun (1998). Of these five titles, only the last three were translated into English. This chapter examines, then, Kapuściński's evolution as a writer and his very particular method of writing. The close analysis of his five books about Africa allows us to observe how his interests and his particular way of writing change over the years. I believe it also allows us to categorise anew his work.