Journalistic Genres and Literary Movements
Journalistic Genres
Types of Journalistic Genres
Journalistic genres can be classified into various types:
- Objective Information: (Informative genres with a referential function)
- Subjective or Interpretative Vision of Events: (Opinion genres with an expressive and appellative function)
- Entertainment Texts
Informative Subgenres
a) News
News objectively presents facts that are interesting to a wide range of people.
Structure:
- Headline (Including kicker, title, and subtitle): Provides an overview of the reported facts and is crucial in newspapers.
- Lead (First paragraph of the story): Presents the most important elements of the information.
- Body (Supporting details): Provides additional information and context.
News often includes accompanying photographs, which enhance the visual appeal and impact of the text.
b) Article
Informative journalism that requires documentation and research by the journalist on the specific topic.
c) Interview
Presents a conversation between a journalist and a person who shares their views on a current issue or their area of expertise (often through a questionnaire format).
Opinion Subgenres
a) Opinion Article
Presents a specialist’s opinion on a current event and is typically signed by the author.
b) Column
Similar to an opinion article but more concise and focused, also signed by the author.
c) Editorial
An unsigned opinion piece expressing the newspaper’s stance on a current topic.
Hybrid Subgenres
a) Review
The author reports on and evaluates a cultural or artistic event. It usually appears the day after premieres, presentations, or events.
b) Chronicle
A type of reflective information that combines the journalist’s perspective with an objective presentation of facts. Often classified as an opinion genre. The chronicler narrates, comments, and analyzes with a style that often approaches literary narrative.
Linguistic Characteristics of Journalistic Articles
Tonal Resources
- Proper pronunciation
- Emphasis
- Typographic resources (such as interrogative or exclamatory marks)
Morphosyntactic Resources
- Omission of determiners (common in sports reporting)
- Use of phrases and periphrastic constructions (aims to create an impression of more developed language)
- Nominalization (abundance of noun phrases compared to verb phrases)
- Abundant use of complements (allows for concise sentences with complex structures)
- Use of short sentences (to quickly capture the reader’s attention)
- Intentional selection and combination of elements
- Direct quotations (to enhance credibility)
- Impersonal sentences (when the action is more important than the subject)
- Frequent use of passive voice (influenced by the English language)
- Preference for certain tenses (past imperfect, simple past perfect, past perfect subjunctive, present)
Lexical-Semantic Resources
- Creation of neologisms (to describe new or changing realities)
- Use of euphemisms (to avoid directly naming sensitive topics)
- Use of jargon (specific vocabulary for each publication or section)
- Tendency towards irony
- Use of literary language (hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy)
- Use of abbreviations, acronyms, and shortened forms
Literary Movements
Parnasianism
A poetic movement that developed in France as a reaction against Romanticism. Characterized by depersonalized poetry and positivism, it emphasized formal perfection. The founders were Théophile Gautier and Leconte de Lisle. The publication of the anthology The Contemporary Parnassus marked the formal beginning of the movement.
Parnassian poets advocated for depersonalized poetry that avoids drawing on personal feelings. The central theme revolves around the world of art, with a preference for Greco-Roman antiquity and the East as forms of escapism. The pursuit of beauty, perfection, and rarity were paramount.
Parnassian poetry is formalist, following the movement’s famous slogan: “art for art’s sake.” Parnasianism significantly influenced the development of Modernism, particularly in the work of Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, a prominent figure in the movement.
Symbolism
One of the most important artistic movements of the late nineteenth century. Symbolist poetry aimed to use language as an instrument of knowledge, imbuing it with mystery and mysticism. Stylistically, it sought perfect musicality in its rhymes.
A fundamental concept in Symbolism is “correspondence”—the secret affinity between the sensible and spiritual worlds. To achieve this, Symbolists used various techniques, primarily synesthesia.
French poets Charles Baudelaire (The Flowers of Evil, Artificial Paradises), Arthur Rimbaud (A Season in Hell), and Paul Verlaine (Poètes maudits) were precursors to the movement. Stéphane Mallarmé, a poet of beauty and darkness, is considered the most representative Symbolist (The Afternoon of a Faun, Hérodiade).
In Spain, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer can be seen as a precursor to Symbolism, and its influence on Hispanic Modernism is evident, especially in the works of poets like Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Decadence
A literary movement that emerged in the late nineteenth century, combining elements of Parnassianism and Symbolism with the concept of the “poète maudit” (cursed poet). The cursed poet embodies a pessimistic view of existence, seen as problematic and degraded. Their response is a morbid fascination with themes of corruption, cruelty, and the allure of the deplorable.
Decadence emphasized aesthetic refinement and was linked to the figure of the dandy, whose philosophy centered on self-absorption, the exaltation of aesthetics and elegance, meticulous self-care, the provocation of strangeness, and an imperturbable demeanor in the face of adversity.
Key representatives include French poets Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. As a protest against prevailing materialistic values, decadents sought refuge in artistic beauty, personal refinement, and exotic, unreal worlds. Eroticism and a morbid sensuality also served as forms of escape, exploring themes of sadism, masochism, hedonism, and the femme fatale.
Decadence influenced Spanish modernist poetry, particularly in the Sonatas of Ramón del Valle-Inclán, which embody the figure of the damned and bohemian poet, and in certain poems by Manuel Machado that align with the decadent aesthetic.