Literary essay – Art or journalism?

Jan Tomkowski

English version of the article

Although it is difficult to precisely define what an essay is, it is obvious that it is older than the press itself. However, later on, as can be seen on the example of English but not only the Enlightenment periodicals, of the essay development was dependent on the existence of ambitious press. In the 19th and 20th centuries, most interesting essays were published in various monthlies and weeklies, for example the Parisian “Kultura” created favourable conditions for many émigré authors. Today’s press is increasingly indifferent to essay writing resulting in essayists publishing in low circulation literary periodicals, which do not play much of a role on the media market.

KEYWORDS

essay, “Spectator”, magazines, publishers, “Kultura”