"Walcząc o swoje pisanie, walczę o życie" - o kolekcjach reportaży Melchiora Wańkowicza

Abstract

In her article, the author attempts to describe a few works by Melchior Wańkowicz, a reporter and a writer, best known for his monumental Bitwa o Monte Cassino (The Battle of Monte Cassino). Drawing upon the terminology elaborated by Manfred Sommer, she concludes that, at the final stage of his life, Wańkowicz turns into a “gatherer” who revisits and reorders his earlier writings to compose new collections. Although the reportages in question vary in terms of their artistic quality, the consistency and doggedness of their author who, approaching the end, still deals with his prolific literary output, is striking. For Wańkowicz writing had always been raison d’être, and the sense of the end looming on the horizon contributed largely to rekindling of his creative powers. A tentative hypothesis put forward by the author suggests that the method of composition peculiar to Wańkowicz (a literary mosaic) may be seen as another variant of the anthology.