History of Journalism and Literature as University Disciplines

Abstract

Reforms in education, which have led to humanitarian catastrophe, are encouraging universities to seek new opportunities in teaching and learning the history of literature and journalism so that it could serve as a bridge for overcoming the cultural gap. The article describes 4 points of the discipline convergence. The matter of no less importance is the involvement of students into research work. One of its directions (though, of course, not the single one) is the studies of national journalism in its links with literature. It is quite correct and methodologically valid to consider journalism as a kind of literary activity as it contains work with the word and text creating. Many writers who have become undisputed classics now came to literature via journalism. For others it was a kind of literary work and a natural way of life for a man of letters. And still others came into complex, often forced, or even conflicting relations with it. Whatever it was, each case is specific and requires specific study. This is the first area of research. The second one is the history of critical assessments, creation of the writer’s literary reputation in its contemporaneity and then in posthumous criticism. University faculties of journalism may well be, and actually are becoming or have already become, such scientific centers. They have accumulated a wealth of material, such as theses, research papers, monographs, etc. And, of course, (thirdly), one of the areas of a close contact between literature and journalism is publicism. Such research has been efficiently conducted at universities for a long time. In literary criticism in recent years, the term of «artistic and journalistic unity» has been discussed which persuades us in commonality of many philological, historical and journalistic research. The fourth direction is journalistic performances as pretexts or sources of artistic works. The plot of “Crime and Punishment”, some novels by N. Leskov, “Sentimental novels” by M. Zoshchenko is the series which goes on. Such topics of final qualifying works, as well as master’s and doctoral theses as “M. Bulgakov and journalism”, “N. Gumilyov and journalism” are quite legitimate. Such studies are already underway. In modern conditions the role of humanities, which would help overcome the cultural gap, or at least could resist it, is becoming particularly important.