publitsistika v. zhurnalistika

[David Powelstock]

The Oxford definition of publitsistika seems to reflect the usage of the
word I have encountered in Soviet newspapers and other materials of the
1930s, except that I found the term applied also to politicized cultural
propaganda and even more politically neutral informational pieces on
cultural matters.  So part of the problem here is the word's historical
connotations; another part is that in the SU the boundary between "facts"
and "commentary" was often fluid to the point of evaporation.

I'm not very familiar with how the word was used in the post-Stalinist USSR.
Was it de-stalinized in any way?  Somehow I doubt it.  I would be very
interested to learn about how the term is used today.  There is kind of a
funny bilingual pun latent in the word publitsistika: to an American ear it
may sound at first like it might mean something like "public relations," or
the art/science of publicity.  (In some sense, from the CPSS's perspective,
it did mean something like this!) I wonder whether Russian 'firmy' have
adapted the terms to purposes such as this?

Cheers,,
David P
(owelstock)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Janneke van de Stadt
> Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 1:36 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] publitsistika v. zhurnalistika
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Can anyone help me nail down, as much as possible, how
> publitsistika differs from zhurnalistika?  Oxford translates
> the former as "sociopolitical journalism" (?),  but my sense
> is that "publitsistika"
> tends more toward "sociopolitical commentary" rather than
> strict "journalism" (however fictional that may seem).
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Janneke
>
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