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Polish Cultural Institutes
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage - Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych
Publisher:
Adam Mickiewicz Institute ul. Mokotowska 25 00-560 Warsaw tel. (+48 22) 44 76 100 fax (+48 22) 44 76 152 www.iam.pl ![]() about us
redakcja@culture.pl
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Born in Pinsk, now in Belarus, in 1932, Kapuściński is the pre-eminent writer among Polish reporters. After honing his skills on domestic stories, he traveled throughout the world and reported on several dozen wars, coups and revolutions in America, Asia, and especially in Africa, where he witnessed the liberation from colonialism. He has devoted several books to Africa, including the "Heban / Ebony". After earning a reputation as an insightful reporter, Kapuściński amazed his readers in the 1970s with a series of books of increasing literary craftsmanship in which the narrative technique, psychological portraits of the characters, wealth of stylization and metaphor, and the unusual imagery served as means of interpreting the perceived world. Kapuściński's best-known book is just such a reportage-novel of the decline of Haile Selassie's anachronistic regime in Ethiopia - "Cesarz / The Emperor", which has been translated into many languages. "Szachinszach / Shah of Shahs", about the last Shah of Iran, and "Imperium", about the last days of the Soviet Union, have enjoyed similar success. Kapuscinski is fascinated not only by exotic worlds and people, but also by books: he approaches foreign countries first through the gate of literature, spending many months reading before each trip. He knows how to listen to the people he meets, but he is also capable of "reading" the hidden sense of the scenes he encounters: the way that the Europeans move out of Angola, a discussion about alimony in the Tanganyikan parliament, the reconstruction of frescoes in the new Russia - he turns each of these vignettes into a metaphor of historical transformation. This tendency to process private adventures into a synthesis has made Kapuściński an eminent thinker, and the volumes of his "Lapidarium" are a fascinating record of the shaping of a reporter's observations into philosophical reflections on the world and people. "One of the things that caught my attention as I wandered through the territory of the Imperium was the way that, even in abandoned and derelict little towns, even in almost empty bookstores, there were on sale, as a rule, maps of this country. On those maps, the rest of the world was somehow in the background, in the margins, in the shadows.Source: www.polska2000.pl; copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza. Ryszard Kapuściński died in Warsaw, on January 23, 2007. Selected Bibliography:
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Browsing history![]() ![]() ![]()
![]() On Monday, September 20, the first Polish arena for the Euro 2012 Cup will open in Poznań. The official ceremony will be honoured with a concert featuring Sting performing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Steven Mercurio. Until September 25 (except for Sundays and holidays), the John the Baptist Archcathedral in Warsaw will host daily organ recitals as part of the 7th edition of the "Grand Organ of the Archicathedral" Festival. "Dotyk człowieka/Beruehrungen" is the title of the exhibition presenting works of six Polish contemporary artists displayed at the German Embassy in Warsaw (Jazdów street): on view until September 27. On October 17, the National Museum in Poznań will host the first public presentation of Claude Monet's "Beach in Pourville". The painting was stolen ten years ago. The painting returned to the museum in January 2010 after the folice found the thief. Jazz pianist Chick Corea will give his only Polish solo concert on November 8 in Zabrze.
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