Autobiograficzne reportaże książkowe. Kategoria genologiczna i jej odmiany
Autobiographical Book Reportage. The Genre and its Variations

Summary/Abstract: The first part of the article discusses the issue of Polish reportage and its generic variants. Next, the author focuses on the autobiographical book reportage, of which the following varieties are specified: the press reportage (journalistic or literary version) and the book reportage (literary or popular version). The contemporary book reportage continues the tradition of the Polish school of reportage (from Wańkowicz through to Kapuściński, Szejnert and Krall to Smoleński, Tochman, Szczygieł or Jagielski, to name but a few), while the autobiographical reportage constitutes a very important and broad current of this type of non-fiction writing. The article analyses three recently published autobiographical reportage books: Dom z dwiema wieżami by Maciej Zaremba Bielawski (2018), Czystka by Małgorzata Surmiak Domańska (2021), and Kajś by Zbigniew Rokita (2020). It turns out that this genre variant is neither a classic autobiography nor a family saga, because its most important and dominant feature is that of reportage. This manifests itself in the authors’ attempt to understand and explain not just their own biography or family history, but the world and its complex processes. For this reason, each of the aforementioned writers undertakes a documentary investigation not only of their own and their family’s lives, but also of the entire historical and socio-political context, in order to leave the reader with a historiosophical reflection and a reflection on the present.

• Details
• Contents