Flamboyant journalism of A.I. Herzen and F.M. Dostoevsky: amidst rhetoric and poetics

The article analyses the structure of the works “S togo berega” ( From The Other Shore ) by A.I.Herzen and “Dnevnik pisatelya” ( The Diary of a Writer ) by F.M.Dostoevsky. It is proved that even though both works are usually referred to flamboyant journalism, in fact, they have different typological characteristics. The Diary of a Writer by F.M.Dostoevsky, as opposed to Herzen's work, is not limited by the language harmony and is characterised by the holistic inner form of the polyphonic architectonic form. Taking A.Gornfield's and M.M.Bakhtin's ideas of the rhetorical – poetical opposition as the basis, two text types may be distinguished among fictional and journalistic texts: a) “elegant journalism” and b) “fictional and journalistic unity”. While the first one is completely based on the principles of rhetoric and is a direct opinion of the publicist, the latter is a work with an aesthetic image built on the principles of poetics.