Comparison on kapuscinski.info

Ryszard Kapuściński and Hanna Krall — two ways of writing reportage

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ryszard Kapuściński and Hanna Krall are among the most important names in Polish reportage, yet they represent two different ways of thinking about literary non-fiction. Both write about history, violence, memory and human experience at its limits. Both use literary form without giving up their grounding in reality. What differs is the scope of their vision, the rhythm of the narrative and the way the reporter is present. Kapuściński more often looks at great processes: decolonisation, revolutions, dictatorships, the fall of empires. Krall concentrates on an individual life, especially on the experience of the Holocaust, on memory and on survivors. In Kapuściński the individual leads to the history of the world. In Krall the history of the world is inscribed in a single life.

Ryszard Kapuściński and Wojciech Jagielski — reporters of conflict and change

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ryszard Kapuściński and Wojciech Jagielski are often paired as two reporters of a world in a state of collapse: civil wars, falling regimes, borders drawn by violence and the memory of changes that were never completed. For many readers Jagielski is the natural continuation of the tradition that Kapuściński helped to shape in Polish reportage. Both travel to where history accelerates. Both write about Africa, the Caucasus, Asia and places where the state is a fiction and everyday life unfolds alongside great politics. And yet they differ in their way of looking, in the role of the narrator and in their attitude to generalisation. Comparing these two reporters helps us see how Polish reportage changed between Kapuściński’s generation and the reporters who came after him.