Ruch Literacki

The article examines the role of the Second World War in the life and writings of Melchior Wańkowicz, a popular journalist and author of the iconic account of the Battle of Monte Cassino (January-May 1944). What is special about his preoccupation with the war, which recurs as a prominent theme in virtually all of his work, is his approach, unique both in the context of Polish and world literature. It can be demonstrated by an analysis of his war narratives and the argument of his last book Wojna i pióro [The War and the Pen], published in 1974. They show the complexity and the dynamic nature of war, which cannot be subsumed under any ideological or aesthetic scheme.

This article discusses the relationship between photography and text in Melchior Wańkowicz’s literary reportages. Drawing on the terminology developed in the field of intersemiotic studies, the article concentrates primarily on his books published between 1934 and 1957, i.e. in the interwar period, during the war, and after the war, before his return to Poland. Wankowicz was an enthusiast of the art of photography, and with each successive book experimented more boldly with getting photos into dialogue with the accompanying text. He is most successful in producing a synthesis of picture and word (something akin to the idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk) in Na tropach Smętka [On the Trail of Smętek], Sztafeta - Książka o polskim pochodzie gospodarczym [A Relay Race: A Book about Poland Pushing Ahead with its Economic Plan] and Bitwa o Monte Cassino [The Battle of Monte Cassino]. Of all those books, Sztafeta is exceptional in practically being irreducible to a text-only version.

This article presents a brief survey of the main political themes in the writings of Melchior Wańkowicz. Its aim is, firstly, to map the contour of his political sympathies, attitudes and beliefs that underpinned his otherwise diverse literary and journalistic work, and, secondly, to identify the motifs that recur in and link the four phases of his life's work (pre-war, wartime, post-war in exile, post-1958 in Poland). What follows is a more detailed analysis of Wańkowicz’s political thought conceived as a product of a conservative attachment to the notion of organic community; a rally-race concept of historical continuity; and a sense of living through a civilizational change. He looked at the problems of Polish nationhood and the socio-political upheavals from the perspective of a denizen of an In-Between Age. With a keen eye for detail and an unrivalled command of the Polish language, he was an adaptable and eclectic writer, distinguished by true humility in the face of reality. The Polish diaspora never forgave him his brutally honest exposure of their disgraceful behaviour in Kundlizm [Mongrelism] and the coming to terms with the Soviet-dominated post-war Poland in Klub trzeciego miejsca [The Third Place Club]. In all, the article concludes, although he had no ambition to work out a belief system of his own, his work remains an fascinating testimony of a writer’s (a man’s, a Pole’s) repeated efforts to cope with the dramatic events of the 20th century.

This article compares two socio-economic literary documentaries about interwar Poland featuring Poland A and B (i.e. the better developed Western part and the underdeveloped Eastern part of the country) and the COP (Central Industrial District). The books present the reader with two very different pictures of Poland: one is a portrait of a poor country stuck in crisis, the other a vision of country on the path of dynamic growth. The contrast, one might assume, reflects the character and the geographical position of the places the authors chose to visit (e.g. Wolhynia in the east and the industrial Łódź in the west). The only places visited by both are Rożnów i Rzeszów. Surprisingly, their portraits of are hardly similar, although, objectively, they should be. So the difference must be attributed to the style and sensitivity of either author. In the end, though, their visions are complementary and offer us some truth about the interwar Republic of Poland. At the same time they alert us to the nature of the Polish literary reportage.

This article discusses Melchior Wańkowicz’s journalism from the 1940s and 1950s, in particular his book of essays The Poles and America (1954). On the basis of his letters to the publisher Czesław Bednarczyk has been possible to establish the precise chronology of his work, especially when he returned to and rehashed articles that had been published earlier. His collection of 1954 can be divided into three blocks, the role of the Polish diaspora in the history and in present-day of the United States, and the great sociocultural change of the mid-20th century. The latter – the transition of the Western civilization from into an Atlanticist and ultimately into a universal one – has been spearheaded by the United States, and the Polish Americans, Wańkowicz argues, played a significant role in that process. There are also some polemical remarks about some publications issued in America concerning Poland's 20th-century history.

This article examines Karafka La Fontaine’a [La Fontaine’s Carafe] as a meditation on the creative process and, first of all, the significance of book reading in the life of individuals and communities (readers’ preferences and reading strategies). It draws attention to the role of the rhetorical tradition in Wańkowicz’s intellectual formation and the convergence of his critical appreciation and comparative studies.