10 October 2017 A literary postcard from Krakow!
As part of the Conrad Year we have issued postcards and stamps commemorating the writer – a Polish-born author who became one of the most prominent figures in world literature. You can now send your greetings from literary Krakow to any place around the world!
Free postcards and stamps (the latter for PLN 4) are available in InfoKraków City Information points (except those in Balice and ICE Krakow Congress Centre).
What is the link between Joseph Conrad and Krakow? He was brought up and educated here as a boy; from here he set out into the world to become a seaman and, after twenty years of seafaring, to navigate the waters of world literature. It was in that old royal and academical city that I ceased to be a child, became a boy, had known the friendships, the admirations, the thoughts and the indignations of that age. It was within those historical walls that I began to understand things, form affections, lay up a store of memories and a fund of sensations with which I was to break violently by throwing myself into an unrelated existence – wrote Joseph Conrad about our city in his Notes on Life and Letters.
The literary postcards present pictures taken in the Belgian Congo (setting of Heart of Darkness) by Kazimierz Zagórski, a Polish photographer and traveller. The images were a part of his Disappearing Africa project, in which the author sought to capture the world untouched by colonial culture. The same topic happens to be one of the central problems addressed in Conrad’s writings.
InfoKraków points will also provide tourists and Krakow residents with leaflets elucidating Joseph Conrad’s ties to the city specially prepared for the Conrad Year. With them in hand, you can set off on a literary journey to discover the reminders of the writer’s presence, not only in cultural sources but also in the urban space as such.
More information about the celebration of the Conrad Year can be found at the website: www.conradfestival.pl.
