17 Essay

Among the pioneers of a national essay, researchers in Russian journalism cite the names of A.P. Chekhov (“Sakhalin Island”), G.I. Uspensky (“Ruin”), N.V. Korolenko (“Without language”), and others. A considerable number of outstanding masters This genre made Soviet journalism famous, for example, A. M. Gorky, M. E. Koltsov, B. N. Polevoi, K. M. Simonov, ...

The essay is considered the “king” of artistic and journalistic genres, but from the point of view of preparing it, it is one of the most labor-intensive. And this is true, since a journalist can write a good essay only if he is confident in the various methods of displaying reality that exist in his craft. When preparing an essay it is not enough, for example, to be able to find a suitable subject of a speech, successfully collect material, analyze it. We must also appropriately rethink the information and translate it into a form that will be recognized, really sketched.

The essence of the essay is largely predetermined by the fact that it combines reportage (visual-figurative) and research (analytical) beginning. Moreover, the “development” of the reporting principle is perceived as the predominance of the artistic method, while the author’s emphasis on analyzing the subject of the image, revealing its interrelationships, acts as the dominance of the research, theoretical method. Accordingly, in the course of their application, a predominantly artistic, or predominantly theoretical concept of the displayed object is created. And within the framework of one or another concept, empirical facts are collected or “processed”. It is the clarity of this circumstance that for a long time served as a starting point for heated debates about whether to refer a newspaper (magazine) essay to fiction or to documentary-journalistic.

The predominance during the preparation of an essay of one or another method depends primarily on the purpose and subject of the study. So, if the subject of the research is a problem situation, then a theoretical method would be appropriate for its study. If the subject of journalistic interest has become a person, then the artistic method will be more suitable for identifying its character, allowing, so to speak, to more naturally penetrate the psychology of the person, without an idea of ​​which it is difficult to judge the merits or shortcomings of any person, including the hero essay.

A contemporary essay is often characterized by documentary richness, often to the detriment of artistry. This is obviously caused by the fact that the source material, i.e. The actual events reported by the essayist are often so dramatic, their plots are so unpredictable, the revealed secrets are so tempting, sensational that they themselves are able to attract the attention of the reader and be perceived by them at the level of information drawn from the most interesting works of art. In this case, the need for intensive artistic processing of the initial information often becomes superfluous.

The main types of essays. Portrait Essay The subject of this essay is a person. The essence of this type of publication is to give the audience a certain idea of ​​the hero of the speech. Solving this problem, the journalist, as a rule, first of all seeks to reveal the most important thing - to show how this hero serves the values, in what he sees the meaning of his existence. For this is an extremely important moment in the life of every person.

Knowledge of the “meanings of life”, which are served by the heroes of publications, is necessary for the reader’s audience in order to align their goals with the goals of other people, which to some extent helps them orient themselves in this world and, possibly, correct their actions, lifestyle, etc. the simple message of the author that some Dmitry Mikhailovich professes such and such values, ideals would hardly be of real interest to the audience. Much more interesting and often more important, it is necessary for her to know - how does he uphold these values, what difficulties does he overcome in fighting for them? The description of this struggle, actions, actions is called a show or disclosure of the character of the hero.

In a successful portrait essay, the character of the hero is given, as a rule, in a non-trivial situation. Therefore, it is very important for the author to find such a “plot” in the life of the hero, which contains some unusual difficulties, has a dramatic character. It is here that you can find specific manifestations of the character of the hero, his talent, perseverance, hard work and other significant, in terms of achieving the goal, qualities. In the same case, when such a “plot” cannot be found in the life of the hero, it is more difficult for the author to rely on the creation of interesting material.

Although a talented essayist may find something interesting in this situation. He can, for example, effectively use the method of conditionality or resort to associations (that is, include suitable interesting material from his past experience), etc. etc. This portrait sketch arises as a result of an artistic analysis of the hero’s personality, based on the study of its various aspects (moral, intellectual, creative, etc.), i.e. as a result of identifying the nature of the hero. Finding a full portrait essay on the pages of the modern Russian press is not easy.

Most of the portraits of famous people - entrepreneurs, economists, bankers, politicians and other figures arise most often as a result of a relatively brief summary of their biographies or career descriptions and some business characteristics.

Problem essay A certain problem situation appears in the subject of display in essays of this type. It is the course of its development that the essayist follows in his publication. In its logical construction, the problem essay may be similar to a representative of analytical genres, like an article. The reason for this similarity is primarily the dominance in the course of displaying the problem situation of the research start. As in the article, in the problem essay, the author finds out the causes of a particular problem, tries to determine its further development, to identify ways to solve it [3]. This, of course, predetermines many features of the performance, no matter what genre we would try to attribute it to.

At the same time, the problem essay can always be quite easily distinguished from the problem article. The most important difference is that in a problem essay the development of a problem situation never seems to be, so to speak, “in the nude”, i.e. in the form of statistical laws or generalized judgments, conclusions, etc., which is characteristic of the article as a genre. The problem in the essay appears as a barrier that very specific people with their strengths and weaknesses are trying to overcome. On the surface of a particular activity that the essayist studies, the problem very often manifests itself through conflict (or conflicts), through collisions of people's interests. Exploring these conflicts, their development, he can get to the heart of the problem.

At the same time, observation of the development of the conflict in the essay is usually accompanied by all sorts of experiences from both the characters of the essay and the author himself. Trying to comprehend the essence of what is happening, the journalist often attracts various associations, parallels, deviations from the topic. In the essay - this is a common thing, while in the problematic article they are inappropriate. It is impossible to write a problem essay without understanding the area of ​​activity that is affected in it. Only a deep insight into the essence of the matter can lead the author to a precise understanding of the problem that underlies the situation under study, and describe it accordingly in his essay [4].

Travel essay Travel essay, like some other journalistic genres (for example, a note, report, correspondence, review), belongs to the earliest forms of texts that marked the development of journalism. Obviously, this is due to the fact that such a travel essay form of display of reality was almost the first in fiction. And therefore, it was well mastered, which helped it to quickly gain a foothold on the pages of the periodical press as soon as it appeared.

The authors who glorified the travel essay as a genre of Russian literature and journalism in the 19th century were A.S. Pushkin (“Journey to Arzrum”), N.I. Novikov (“An excerpt of the journey in I *** T ***”) , A.N. Radischev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”), A.P. Chekhov (“Sakhalin Island”). Many excellent travel essays were created by Soviet-era journalists, for example, I. A. Ilf and E. P. Petrov, M. E. Koltsov, and other journalists.

Of all the essay forms, the travel essay mostly claims to be an adventurous plot (“adventure”). Such adventurousness is determined by the nature of the preparation of this type of publication. Since the travel essay is a description of certain events, incidents, meetings with different people that the author encounters during his creative journey (trips, business trips, etc.), the essay’s plot reflects the sequence of these events, incidents, meetings that are travel (adventure) journalist. Of course, a good travel essay cannot be a simple enumeration or a statement of everything that the author saw during his trip. Yes, and publish everything seen by a journalist is unlikely to be able to afford the edition for which the essay is being prepared. One way or another, the essayist has to select the most interesting, the most important. What should be considered the most interesting and important depends on the intention that he develops during the trip. Of course, the idea may arise long before the creative trip. The source material for him can be as past personal observations of a journalist, as well as information received from the same newspapers, magazines, radio and television. But it is possible that the journalist will receive a certain task from his editor or the idea will arise under the influence of some other factors (for example, as a result of the journalist’s participation in some political action).

Travel essays can pursue a variety of purposes. So, the main thing for a journalist can be a demonstration of how in different cities, districts through which he passes, one kind of problem is solved (for example, how the state cares for people with disabilities). He can set himself the goal of another plan, for example, to investigate how the population of different cities spends their free time, which hobby they prefer. There are endless such goals. As a result of their implementation, travel essays of various contents may appear. In any case, the journalist should be able to use the advantages provided by the travel essay. And above all - the very fact of its movement “in time and space” in order to give the essay a dynamic form in order to allow the reader to feel all the tension and “charms” of the journey and thereby make him an “accomplice” of his business trip, his search.

See also

• Reportage
• 15 Review