LETTER-REPORTAGE AS A GENRE MODIFICATION OF WINSTON CHURCHILL’S EPISTOLARY

Abstract

The article is devoted to revealing the genre modifications of Winston Churchill’s private epistolary, in particular letters of reportage that incorporate features of non-fiction and fiction genres. The object of the research is the writer’s epistolary which involves private letters of Winston Churchill, a writer and a politician, collected into Speaking for themselves: Personal letters between Winston and Clementine Churchill which present a written dialogue between Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine that lasted for a half of a century from 1908 to 1964. The scientific research clarifies the meaning of the terms: «reportage fiction», «epistolary», «writer’s letter» and determines style peculiarities of a letter– reportage which represent genre fusions (variations) and stylistic modifications of the epistolary text in W/Churchill’s private letters. Based on the carried out analysis of W. Churchill’s epistolary dialogues with his wife, the main genre and style dominants have been characterized which may serve as the key factors for determining the genre modification of a letter of reportage referring to private writer’s epistolary. The results of the conducted research demonstrate that these dominating features involve imagery, expressiveness, appealing to the recipient’s feelings; characterization in a private letter of reportage a real life circumstances, people, nature, objects; concentration on the tiniest visual, hearing and psychological details; the effect of the addresser’s presence: writer’s own clearly expressed vision of the situation, analytical: psychological analysis of the surrounding life, self-analysis of writer’s inner thoughts, behaviour and actions of other people; which is achieved through internal monologue, dialogue with the recipient; clear thematic compositional structure: highlighting thematic levels (paragraphs) and rubricating of the epistolary text, etc. It has been found out that Churchill’s letters of the reportage genre reproduce real events of both the private and social, political life of the writer in his individual stylistic paradigm, applying artistic techniques: typification, detailing, psychologism, symbolism, achieving imagery with a predominance of ironic coloring of the described events.