Monologue in Literary Journalism by Swietlana Aleksijewicz. Representation of Close Other in Second-hand Time

This article proposes an analysis of the Soviet people’ image in Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. It discusses the category of the “close Other” (Czapliński). Particular attention is paid to the role of the aesthetics of spontaneity (Czermińska). The techniques of narrative polyphony (Bachtin) were also described. The article proposes the hypothesis, that the motivation of this model of narrative is strenghtening the characters’ point of view. Simultaneously the reporter appears as involved in the process of transformation of witnesses’ consciousness. Reportage thus seems to be a genre which is not only reproducing the story, but also has the performative power. One of its aspects is the psychotherapeutic function of the textual and metatextual communication. The image of the Other in the text thus appears as an identity in the process, which can be seen as a an antiorientalistic strategy of the narrator