„Write as your ear hears it”: Text and pretext in the polyphonic reportages of Svetlana Alexievich

Anna Karonta

doi:10.18778/1505-9057.64.10

Authors

Anna Karonta Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Polish Studies, Department of Literary Theory, ul. Gołębia 16, 31-007 Kraków https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8250-3407

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.64.10

Keywords:

Alexievich Svetlana, polyphonic reportage, oral testimony, voice, tradition of collective singing

Abstract

The article analyzes the process of incorporation of the witnesses’ verbal testimonies into the public sphere, of which polyphonic reportage is a part. This genre has become known mainly thanks to Svetlana Alexievich, whose works are based entirely on recorded conversations and interviews. Listening to the witnesses enables the reporter facing the dominant discourse of the past to reach out to others, the process of discovering and textualizing of which can be described with reference to the folk tradition of collective singing.

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Author Biography

Anna Karonta, Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Polish Studies, Department of Literary Theory, ul. Gołębia 16, 31-007 Kraków

Anna Karonta – a literary scholar, Ph.D. student at the Department of Literary Theory at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University. A graduate of Polish philology, Slovak philology and comparative studies. She deals with women’s reportage narratives in the context of representation and critical reception of the past.

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