Metatekstowy i intertekstualny wymiar motta Nowe Ateny Benedykta Chmielowskiego w Cesarzu Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego
The Metatextual and Intertextual Dimension of the Motto from The New Athens by Benedykt Chmielowski, as Used in The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the metatextual and intertextual dimension of one of the mottos for The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński, which is a quote from The New Athens by Benedykt Chmielowski. The latter was the first Polish encyclopaedia, which was highly undervalued by traditional authorities in the field of literary history, for it failed to meet the intellectual standards of the Enlightenment and was marked with the anachronistic mentality of the Saxon times. The analysis relates to the way in which Chmielowski’s motto provides an interpretative frame for the controversial book by Kapuściński, devoted to the decline and fall of the oldest African Empire – Ethiopia – in the 1960s and 1970s. The author of the paper’s main focus falls on the relationship between the meaning of the source text and the semantics of modern reportage, the role played by the popular image of Benedykt Chmielowski in the process of interpretation, the relationship between the quote and the archaic style of The Emperor, and the ways in which the quote from The New Athens interacts with the other mottos of the book – the multiplicity of which signals a new narrative strategy used by the reporter and writer.

• Details
• Contents