Literatura on kapuscinski.info

"A Treatise on Falling", Review of the Book "The Emperor"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Andrzej W. Pawluczuk. Source: Literatura no. 9, p. 14, 1979

Every time I read a new book by Kapuściński, every time I took him to task for writing only about what happens far away from us. After his debut “Busz po polsku” his early reportages were already reporting from distant foreign parts. And they did so with an extraordinary sense of conditions there, of the mechanisms of power and corruption there, and with such splendid understanding of the exotic soul, that I would sometimes recognise in a Latin American faint with fear my own, frightened face. There grew in me then a grievance that I would read nothing about our own rough-hewn reality that would be equally gripping. Something written in that transparent language where one does not notice individual words and sentences but sees only whole scenes. Whole images from life, with their meanings already inscribed in them. With meanings so meaningful that from them it may sometimes follow that they have no meaning at all. I thought then, especially when reading “Christ with a Rifle on His Shoulder” and the reportages about Angola, that Kapuściński with particular relish delights in seeking out and tracking down the nonsenses and paradoxes of history. That he likes to undermine our European measure of the world — smoothed, clean, sated, contented. But when I recently read “The Soccer War”, which is a kind of synthesis of his previous books, I perceived something more.

Newsweek Polska Library of Thought — 235 Books of the Century: "The Emperor"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Newsweek. Source: Newsweek. Date of publication: 2005-03-01

“Manuscripts don’t burn” — wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in “The Master and Margarita”. And since then we often repeat that sentence, seeking in it confirmation of our faith that literary truth always triumphs, that it is stronger than the inattention of readers, than the persecutions of dictators. Even — than the passage of time" — so begins the preface to the Newsweek Polska supplement “235 Books of the Century”, authored by Piotr Bratkowski. It presents a proposal for the library of the contemporary intellectual. It includes titles from the last sixty years, among them: The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz, A World Apart by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Rising ‘44 by Norman Davies, and The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński.

The Emperor — A Pamphlet on Totalitarianism. Review of the Book "The Emperor"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Maciej Skórczewski. Date of publication: 2000-02-01

Ethiopia, mid-1970s. Night, silence, tension and fear palpable in the air. Somewhere in the remotest corner of Addis Ababa, in the quietest house, in deep conspiracy, an interview begins — or rather a long monologue of witnesses. People who, on account of what they did in the past, are condemned to constant hiding. Outside, a revolution is progressing. The country is gripped by civil war; a struggle for power is being waged. A decisive advantage is being gained by the mutinous army, the army that until recently served its ruler faithfully — the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I. It is the year 1975; the storm calms down, a second war begins — a war in which victors hunt the vanquished, a war in which death is delivered not by technology but by an “ordinary” denunciation by a neighbour. In such conspiratorial conditions we meet people who until recently served the highest authority in Ethiopia — Emperor Haile Selassie I. And so begins another and one of the finest books by Ryszard Kapuściński, entitled “The Emperor”. A book that has been universally recognised as a pamphlet on totalitarianism.

The Lawyer Demanded Notarised Documents from Ethiopia

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: William R. Brand. Source: http://alfaomega.webnode.com/products/ryszard-kapu/ Date of publication: 2010-03-09

We met Ryszard Kapuściński in Kraków, on a muggy day, in late spring 1981. In the pocket of his beige jacket he had a pack of “Radomskie” cigarettes. He said to me: “With that beard you look like a mujahideen.”

He was not an author frequently published outside Poland, and Kasia and I had never before translated a whole book. After nine months of trying, we still had no publisher and had translated only one third of “The Emperor”. We would probably have given up, if not for one thing he said to us that day.

Theatrical Productions of "The Emperor"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

“The Emperor” has also been staged many times. Theatrical adaptations (premieres):

• 24.11.1978 Stefan Jaracz Theatre, Łódź, directed by Jerzy Hutek • 04.1979 Small Stage of the Powszechny Theatre, Warsaw, directed by Jerzy Hutek • 15.01.1981 J. Szaniawski Drama Theatre, Wałbrzych, directed by Kazimierz Tałaj • 1981 “Format” Stage, Kraków, directed by J. Kopczewski • 1981 Szaniawski Drama Theatre, Płock • 1983 Adekwatny Theatre, Warsaw, directed by J. Wócik, monodrama by Magda Teresa Wójcik • 27.10.1987 Studio Theatre, Warsaw — Polish version of the London production • 11.03.1987 The Royal Court Theatre, London. Directed by Jonathan Miller and Michael Hastings • 02.02.1981 TVP Television Theatre, Studio of Facts and Sensations, directed by Jerzy Hutek • 14.04.2002 Adekwatny Theatre, Warsaw, directed by Magda Teresa Wójcik, monodrama by Jolanta Olszewska • 1980 Polish Radio Theatre, adaptation by E. Marcinkowska • 1995 opera version, Opera Festival, Palatsi (Finland), performed by Soronlinna • 2002 Drama Theatre in Warsaw. Directed by Magda Teresa Wójcik, performed by Jolanta Olszewska