“Living Voices, Living Fortunes.” Democratization of History in the Journalistic Essays of Svetlana Alexievich and Małgorzata Rejmer Cover Image

„Żywe głosy, żywe losy”1 . Demokratyzacja historii w reportażach Swietłany Aleksijewicz i Małgorzaty Rejmer
“Living Voices, Living Fortunes.” Democratization of History in the Journalistic Essays of Svetlana Alexievich and Małgorzata Rejmer

Author(s): Anna Karonta
Subject(s): History of Communism, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Svetlana Alexievich; Małgorzata Rejmer; polyphonic journalistic essay; testimony; historical trauma; reckoning with the past;

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the causative, emancipatory potential of the journalistic essay of testimony, which goes beyond its reporting function to become a new form of liberating the voices of the victims of communist regimes and “remémoration” of the past. Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets and Małgorzata Rejmer’s Mud Sweeter than Honey. Voices from Communist Albania generate a space for reckoning with the undemocratic past which makes it possible: to (re)interpret history and regain the experience of its participants, to face up to historical trauma, as well as to restore the identity of the subdued. The discussed essays question the objectivity of history, a homogeneous vision of the past, and thus open historical events up to constant reinterpretation.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 49
  • Page Range: 83-96
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish