Reportaż historyczny jako forma współczesnej etnografii na przykładzie Czarnego ogrodu Małgorzaty Szejnert
Historical Reportage as a Form of Contemporary Ethnography on the Example of Czarny Ogród (“The Black Garden”) by Małgorzata Szejnert

Summary/Abstract: Reportage in Poland has achieved a unique status. Serious analyzes of this kind of creativity from the literary perspective are, however, mostly focused on the work of Ryszard Kapuściński or Hanna Krall, while those concerning the representatives of the new school of Polish reportage take at most the form of sketches. Surprisingly, there is a lack of proper discussion on the work of Małgorzata Szejnert, a person of great merit for Polish reportage. Her last books: Czarny ogród (“Black Garden”), Wyspa klucz (“Key Island), Dom żółwia. Zanzibar (“Turtle’s House: Zanzibar”) i Usypać góry. Historie z Polesia (“Dump Mountains: Stories from Polesie”) are not only literary works, but they are an important contribution to other disciplines. As a result of a detailed analysis of the “Black Garden” (Genology; Historical reportage and historiography; “Black Garden” and anthropology; The Poetics of the “Black Garden”; Identity; Geopoetics; Conclusion), the author of the paper states that practically the reportages by Małgorzata Szejnert are historiography, although it is also reasonable to say that these reportages are also a form of ethnography, because they meet all criteria mentioned by Clifford Geertz. The descriptions of individual communities are comprehensive, they cover many aspects of everyday life and bring the realities of life closer together, and thus help readers to understand other communities.

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