NARRATIVE 'INTERACTIONS': 'TRAVELS WlTH HERODOTUS' BY RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI

• Authors: Horodecka M.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article analyzes the narrative form of Ryszard Kapuscinski's 'Travels with Herodotus'. A key role in its structure is played by two types of autobiographical narration, personal reminiscences and intertextual reflection (quotations from Herodotus' Histories). The authorial 'I' is present in both of these strands: while reconstructing his portrait from memories picked up on the way into his own past he stops to peer into the mirror of Herodotus, matching the ancient traveller's character, values and work habits with his own. In this way he builds a double-track autobiography. For all its autobiographical self-centeredness the 'Travels' are instilled by a longing for an encounter with the Other. Whereas in Kapuscinski's earlier works Otherness was usually contemporaneous, the 'Travels' are driven by a desire to break through the boundaries of time, to meet Herodotus directly, face to face. There seems to be no other way of getting in touch with that venerable traveller than interweaving the two discourses, the Polish and the Greek, and entering into dialogue with the latter through interpreting the Other's text in the manner of hermeneutics. Finally, Kapuscinski's careful reconstruction and creation of Herodotus' character has one more function - open the 'Travels' to issues of philosophy of history.

Keywords

EN

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATION; DOUBLE-TRACK AUTOBIOGRAPHY; HERMENEUTICS; KAPUSCINSKI RYSZARD -'TRAVELS WITH HERODOTUS'

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Ruch Literacki
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 2(287)
• Pages: 215-231
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Horodecka M.

• M. Horodecka, Uniwersytet Gdanski, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, Zaklad Teorii Literatury, ul. W. Stwosza 55, 80-952 Gdansk, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08PLAAAA04799135