The Polish School of Fabrication: Literary Travel Reportage. Ziemowit Szczerek’s Journeys from Mordor to the Intermarium

Abstract

This article discusses the writing of Ziemowit Szczerek in the context of its genre credentials as travel reportage. Because Szczerek’s work can be read as literary reportage, this article addresses the controversy over the genre’s referentiality and literary status. It also discusses gonzo journalism, which was a source of inspiration for Szczerek, as well as creative devices that problematize issues of fictionality in reportage in reference to themes of imagined geography (E. W. Said), cultural self-stereotypes and hetero-stereotypes, and intertextual relations. The argument leads to the claim that Szczerek’s literary reportage is deeply embedded in creative fiction, perhaps in the vein of Andrzej Stasiuk’s work, and that this only enhances the value of his work.