Essay - what is this genre?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In modern literature there are a huge number of genres in which you can sometimes get confused. To prevent this from happening, they should be clearly distinguished. One of the most common is an essay. What it is, many learn at school.

Characterization of the genre

Essay is a word borrowed from the French language (essai), in translation it means an essay, an attempt, a test. In Russian literature, this is what they call a small prose work written in free form. Analyzing in more detail the concept of "essay", what kind of genre it is, we can call it an essay that expresses the author's personal attitude and his opinion about what he describes. At the same time, the writer gives the opportunity to feel their experiences, emotions and thoughts. However, the words of the author do not necessarily interpret the chosen topic completely and exhaustively. Writing an essay can be reflected in the form of a story, confession, essay, letter, article, speech, diary. The boundaries of this genre are rather arbitrary and blurred.

A bit of history

The essay gained particular popularity in the 18th-19th centuries. During this period, it became one of the main genres in French and English journalism. The greatest development of essayismR. Rolland, J. Orwell, G. Wells, G. Heine, B. Shaw, T. Mann, A. Morois contributed. We can say with confidence that she enjoyed special attention in Europe. In Russian classical literature, the essay was not very popular. What it is can be more fully understood from a few works. So, for example, Pushkin addressed this genre in his creation “Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg”, Dostoevsky in the “Diary of a Writer”. In the 20th century, A. Bely, V. Ivanov, V. Rozanov turned to writing essays, and a little later A. Solzhenitsyn, K. Paustovsky, I. Ehrenburg, Y. Olesha, M. Tsvetaeva, F. Iskander.

Special Features

Considering the question: "Essay - what kind of genre is it and how does it differ from others?", One cannot but mention its distinctive features. This is an essay that surprises with a completely new look at the subject. The work is characterized by figurativeness, which enriches it, makes it more picturesque and vivid. Interesting details are colored and emphasized in it, and the author's thought sometimes takes such paradoxical turns that it simply amazes the reader. Essays on the topic "Life" are imbued with special lyricism. After all, everyone has their own idea of \u200b\u200bit, completely different from the author's. However, the text is literally imbued with a confidential intonation that gives the reader unimaginable, completely fresh and unusual associations.

The creators of such essays are different from their colleagues from other literary genres. You can say about every talented author who writes an essay that this is a reala master who can very competently select quotes, rhetorical questions, delightfully use metaphors, aphorisms, comparisons. The author of the essay is able to amazingly combine different styles in one work - from scientific to colloquial. At the same time, he puts his soul into the work, and therefore, after reading, you can understand not only the position of the writer, but also learn about his interests, look into his inner world.