In my thesis, I examine three selected literary reportages by the Polish journalist, writer, poet, and photographer Ryszard Kapuściński: Imperium (1993), Szachinszach (Shah of Shahs, 1982), and Jeszcze dzień życia (Another Day of Life) (1976). Out of the three, only Imperium has been translated into Slovene. And for the other two, I relied on their English translations. In the first part of the thesis I provide information about Ryszard Kapuściński' s life and define the genre of literary reportage. Since the focus of my thesis is the representation of authority, the second part outlines the theoretical framework for further analysis. I explore different concepts of authority, relying on theories of Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, and Ania Loomba. In the third part of the thesis, I apply these theoretical approaches and use them for a thematic analysis of the three selected reportages. A common ground of all three is that they are driven by a social transformation—either imminent or ongoing—through which Ryszard Kapuściński observes the mechanisms of both past and emerging structures of authority. The analysis reveals that despite the diversity of the social-historical contexts depicted—the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Angolan Civil War—numerous parallels can be drawn, particularly between the first two. However, these parallels do not lead to simplification or generalization; instead, Kapuściński proves to be an author deeply concerned with the nuances of human experience.
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