Laboratory of Reportage. Method, Praxis, Vision
Laboratory of Reportage. Method, Praxis, Vision
Contributor(s): Ivan Dimitrijević (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Cultural history
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Laboratory of Reportage; oral history; method; praxis; vision; Marek Miller
Summary/Abstract: The authors present the theoretical and conceptual foundation of the Laboratory of Reportage, established by the remarkable reportage writer Marek Miller. The Laboratory of Reportage operates at the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies of the University of Warsaw. Papers presented in the book give insight in the status of reportage as practice and a form of journalistic and journalistic-literary expression, they describe in detail the method of reportage writers (documentary novel writers), as well as of participants of creative and research workshops. They define the areas of the Laboratory’s search as: using oral history sources, collective writing, multimedia storytelling and penetrating the area in between journalism and creative writing, journalism and screenwriting, journalism and stage writing. They express a belief that journalism is a form of art and that the reporter’s work combines the qualities of original writing with belles lettres, film and theatre as well as research from the field of social sciences and humanities: sociology, anthropology, psychology and history. The founders of the Laboratory of Reportage are particularly interested in analysis and comparison of journalistic methods and sociological interview, psychological interview, anthropological interview and in-depth interview. They also appreciate the value of participant observation and experimental provocation of events in social sciences as well as using elements of acting in journalistic work. We present this interesting publication to the English-speaking readers in a slightly amended version - not a full translation, but an English edition - with one article removed and one replaced with a newer paper.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-3749-6
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-3741-0
- Page Count: 188
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: English
Laboratory of Reportage: An Outline of Research Issues
Laboratory of Reportage: An Outline of Research Issues
(Laboratory of Reportage: An Outline of Research Issues)
- Author(s):Marek Miller, Piotr Wojciechowski
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:18-40
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:reportage; documentary novel; polyphony; multimedia; oral history
- Summary/Abstract:The paper aims to present the outline of the research conducted by the "Laboratory of Reportage". The Laboratory represents a place of journalistic experimentations and explorations. The experimentations consist of collective work on texts, multimedia narration, penetrating the area between journalism and literature. The research is directed towards scientific and artistic knowledge. The paper portrays both the history and the achievements of the Laboratory of Reportage and the method it employs.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Polyphonic Documentary Novel
The Polyphonic Documentary Novel
(The Polyphonic Documentary Novel)
- Author(s):Marek Miller
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:41-58
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:reportage; documentary novel; polyphony; multimedia; oral history
- Summary/Abstract:The goal of the paper is to present the polyphonic documentary novel. This concept has been elaborated by the "Laboratory of Reportage". The Laboratory is a place for journalistic experimentations and explorations, where teams of journalists work collectively on text, use multimedia to tell stories, and penetrate the area between journalism and literature, journalism and playwriting, and journalism and screenplay writing. When combining novel and reportage writing, the polyphony, being focused on a novel’s objectivity, directness, as well as social and community philosophy, becomes the pivotal concept. The paper deals with the issue of the polyphonic documentary novel’s relation with history, drama and screenplay, as well as other issues stemming from the Laboratory’s practice.
- Price: 4.50 €
Reportage as Literature. Genealogy of Marek Miller’s Laboratory of Reportage and its Place
Reportage as Literature. Genealogy of Marek Miller’s Laboratory of Reportage and its Place
(Reportage as Literature. Genealogy of Marek Miller’s Laboratory of Reportage and its Place)
- Author(s):Zygmunt Ziątek
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:59-77
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:reportage; Laboratory of Reportage; Marek Miller; literature; polyphony
- Summary/Abstract:The present essay aims to answer the question regarding the place of the Polish reportagein the new historical and communicational situation (after 1989) dominated by electronicmass media. The entire genre is shifting towards literature. This is not a specifically Polishphenomenon, but here it coincided with a great generational change. The genre developmentwas partially blocked by martial law and its consequences, but it was also characterizedby a very strong position of its more literary type worked out by the previous generation,whose representatives regarded it as a testimony formula: the most popular kind of Polishstorytelling in the 20th century. All this has influenced the formation of three schools ofreportage writing that have been operating in the last 20 years. They seem to have beeninspired by three masters of the previous generation: Hanna Krall, Krzysztof Kakolewski andRyszard Kapuscinski. Their presence is proof of the important role the tradition plays insituating the contemporary genre within the history of Polish literature.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Concept of the Polyphonic Documentary Novel of the Laboratory of Reportage and Mikhail Bakhtin’s Theory. The Political Face of Polyphony
The Concept of the Polyphonic Documentary Novel of the Laboratory of Reportage and Mikhail Bakhtin’s Theory. The Political Face of Polyphony
(The Concept of the Polyphonic Documentary Novel of the Laboratory of Reportage and Mikhail Bakhtin’s Theory. The Political Face of Polyphony)
- Author(s):Paulina Orłowska
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:79-91
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:polyphony; Bakhtin; reportage; dialogue; politics
- Summary/Abstract:The paper discusses the theoretical relation between the "Laboratory of Reportage" (LR) and the vision of polyphony postulated by Mikhail Bakhtin. Even if the "Laboratory of Reportage" has not produced a work that could be labelled as polyphonic, it does not mean that such a goal is impossible to reach. The author of the paper argues that Marek Miller, the LR creator and principle polyphony documentary novel theorist, is right when associating the LR oeuvre with the thought of the Russian philosopher, for whom the polyphonic novel, meant as a dialogue contraposed to all types of metanarrative, presents a political dimension understood as processual representation of plurality of voices.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Space of Community in the Projects of the Laboratory of Reportage
The Space of Community in the Projects of the Laboratory of Reportage
(The Space of Community in the Projects of the Laboratory of Reportage)
- Author(s):Krzysztof Muszyński
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:93-108
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Laboratory of Reportage; community; geopoetics; polyphony; Mikhail Bakhtin
- Summary/Abstract:The author undertakes a reflection upon the notion of a community by analysing three books inspired by the "Laboratory of Reportage": Karolina Apiecionek’s Mundial ’74. Dogrywka (1974 World Cup. Extra Time), Jakub Kulawczuk’s Czas zatrzymany (Suspended Time) and Kinga Grafa, Marta Mazus, Władysław Rybinski and Marta Wójcik’s Wyspa Montrésor (Montrésor Island). The author points at formal similarities of analysed works and, through the close reading of the texts, defines places around which the community gathers and splits. In the first place, the topics of the above-mentioned books are discussed along with the modalities of narrative construction, dramaturgy and differentiation of language taking place in all three polyphonic reportages. The reflection, which is to be located on the border between literary studies, sociology and geography – just as the Laboratory of Reportage’s methods are borderline – is inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory and, primarily, by Elżbieta Rybicka’s Geopoetyka (Geopoetics).
- Price: 4.50 €
The Last Grenada: The Różycki Bazaar Myth in the Polyphonic Documentary Novel "Dzieje Bazaru Różyckiego" (History of the Różycki Bazaar)
The Last Grenada: The Różycki Bazaar Myth in the Polyphonic Documentary Novel "Dzieje Bazaru Różyckiego" (History of the Różycki Bazaar)
(The Last Grenada: The Różycki Bazaar Myth in the Polyphonic Documentary Novel "Dzieje Bazaru Różyckiego" (History of the Różycki Bazaar))
- Author(s):Leszek Nurzyński
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:109-134
- No. of Pages:26
- Keywords:myth; narration; polyphonic documentary novel; Laboratory of Reportage; history of the Różycki Bazaar
- Summary/Abstract:The author analyses the relation between the mythical narration and the polyphonic documentary novel, which in turn is grounded in oral history documents. The main object of the paper is to present the outline of the history of the Różycki Bazaar on which the "Laboratory of Reportage" – operating at the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw – has been working. The voices of hundreds of testimonies, constituting the narrative, are seen to be not only carriers of a myth. These voices appear to be a mythical narrative themselves. In order to corroborate such a thesis, it is necessary to answer the question whether the documentary form of the narrative, meant to reach the uttermost level of objectivity, merely tells a myth and whether its mythopoetic function is not in conflict with the necessity for a truthful account of events. Finally, can the narrative created on this basis represent the common element for a community, since its main objective is to register the state of the group’s self-consciousness? Principal theories used in this paper are Northrop Frye’s conception of myth and Hayden White’s narrative schemes.
- Price: 4.50 €
School – Community – An Island of Ethos (Reflections of a Teacher about the Laboratory of Reportage)
School – Community – An Island of Ethos (Reflections of a Teacher about the Laboratory of Reportage)
(School – Community – An Island of Ethos (Reflections of a Teacher about the Laboratory of Reportage))
- Author(s):Piotr Wojciechowski
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:135-162
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:media; reportage; myth; mythotronics; media ecology
- Summary/Abstract:The text presented here is a literary essay rather than a scientific paper. The author shows how fruitful it was to use the metaphor and the wisdom of myths when working with the "Laboratory of Reportage" students. He points to the fact that myths are not merely a part of social group identity, but that they can also be used as artificially created tools able to manipulate the identities. Beside classical myths developing naturally and making a lasting contribution to the culture and spirituality, there are myths constructed currently. The myths of our civilization are being built and spread with the conscious purpose of manipulating politics and markets. The "Laboratory of Reportage" refers to such activity as “mythotronics” – the purposeful influencing of the individuals and social groups by using the artificially constructed mythology. When we deal with the idea of the polyphonic documentary novel, we conform with two parallel goals: reporting objective facts and showing the events as the revelation of a myth. The “hidden narrator” – the one who edits the polyphonic documentary novel – always works under the “mythosphere” influence. Thus, we could call his work“ a mythotronic action”. Moreover, the text includes the discussion relative to the nature of facts populating and creating the world of media. The author underlines the importance of media ecology meant as a critical evaluation of economy, politics and cultural environment determining the media content.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Criticism of the Polyphonic Methodology: A Theology of Journalism
The Criticism of the Polyphonic Methodology: A Theology of Journalism
(The Criticism of the Polyphonic Methodology: A Theology of Journalism)
- Author(s):Jacek Wasilewski
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:163-176
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Laboratory of Reportage; polyphonic novel; narration; Marek Miller; metahistory
- Summary/Abstract:The paper aims to analyse the polyphonic novel as a process and a genre from three perspectives. In the first place, by problematizing the function of the narrator of journalistic reports – such a critical analysis enables us to note different narrative levels. The narrator does not present a single story but rather observes the phenomenon for a longer stretch of time. He is not a columnist, for whom the story represents the argument to be used in public discourse. Neither is he a historian, whose description refers to abstract beings. All this influences the results of journalistic work. The journalist points at the common experience of human groups by conserving his individual perspective. In the second place, the polyphony allows us to note the specific value of the individual voice – timbre, style, perspective. Moreover, all this leads us to the third perspective – the elaboration of a common history, which shall be considered as being in accordance with the truth of our conscience.
- Price: 4.50 €