30 Obituary

Many newspapers publish such informational materials that look quite specific, although in the pages of newspapers and magazines they are present quite often and, perhaps, from the first days of the birth of the periodical press. These are obituaries. The genre originality of the obituary is determined, quite obviously, by the subject matter, which is the fact of the death of a person. The meaning of publications of this kind, in contrast to, say, criminal reports, is known, first of all, that they simply inform the audience about the death of people (first of all, those known to this audience). In addition, obituaries, as a rule, contain a brief biography of the deceased, report on where and how he worked, on his achievements, awards. Sometimes the obituary tells about the cause of death, the place of the funeral. The obituary is usually completed with farewell words, an expression of grief for the deceased.

Epitaph Epitaph, like the obituary, is dedicated to the personality of the deceased person. But unlike the obituary, in which the informational principle prevails, i.e. the message to the reader is very specific data from the biography of the deceased, information about the cause of his death, place and time of the funeral, the epitaph serves as a reminder of the merits of the deceased person, presented in their social aspect. The emphasis in the epitaph is not on the fact of someone's death, not on the sad side of such a sad event, but on the virtues of a person who are no longer just assessed as decorating the personality of the deceased, indicating its importance, originality. The main thing is that they are usually viewed as authoritative criteria by which behavior, contemporaries of the hero of the epitaph, and those who live today are evaluated. Epitaph is primarily an evaluative genre, and in this respect it is “built in” in one row with some comments, critical articles, and a review.

See also

• Reportage
• 15 Review