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 quite common ones is an essay. What is it, many will learn at school.
Characteristics of the genre
Essay - a word borrowed from the French language (essai), translated means essay, attempt, trial. In Russian literature this is what they call a small prosaic work written in free form. Analyzing the concept of “essay” in more detail, what kind of genre it is, we can call it a composition that expresses the author’s personal attitude and his opinion about what he describes. At the same time, the writer makes it possible to feel his feelings, emotions and thoughts. However, it is not necessary that the author’s words 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 was especially popular in the 18th – 19th centuries. During this period, it became one of the main genres in French and English journalism. The greatest development of essays was promoted by R. Rollan, J. Orwell, G. Wells, G. Heine, B. Shaw, T. Mann, A. Morua. 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 the few works. So, for example, Pushkin addressed this genre in his work Travel from Moscow to Petersburg, and Dostoevsky in The Writer's Diary. In the twentieth century A. Bely, V. Ivanov, V. Rozanov, and a little later A. Solzhenitsyn, K. Paustovsky, I. Ehrenburg, Yu. Olesha, M. Tsvetaeva, F. Iskander turned to essay writing.
Special features
Considering the question: “An essay - what is this genre and how does it differ from others?”, One cannot fail to mention its distinctive features. This is an essay that surprises with a completely new look at the subject. The work is characterized by imagery, which enriches it, makes it more picturesque and vibrant. It details and highlights interesting details, and the author’s thought sometimes takes such paradoxical turns that it simply amazes the reader. Essay on the theme of "Life" is imbued with special lyricism. After all, everyone has their own idea of it, completely different from the author's. However, the text is literally saturated with confidential intonation, which gives the reader unimaginable, completely fresh and unusual associations.
The creators of such essays differ from their colleagues from other
literary genres. You can say about every talented author who writes an essay that this is a real master, who knows how to select quotes, rhetorical questions very competently, delightfully use metaphors, aphorisms, comparisons. The author of the essay is capable of amazingly combining different styles in one work - from scientific to colloquial. At the same time, he puts his soul into the work, and therefore, having read it, you can understand not only the position of the writer, but also learn about his interests, look into his inner world.