Permeability in Non-Fiction Genres: The Essay and the Chronicle

Abstract

Based on the notion of literature of thought as a complex set of literary forms seeking to develop an argument, this study sets out to demonstrate the paradigmatic value of the essay in relation to these writings and the cross-border nature of non-fiction genres, of which the essay and the chronicle are two of the most closely rela­ted. The analysis begins by tackling the description of the characteristic features of the essay as conceived by Montaigne, with the aim of establishing the lines of force of this matrix form, which gave rise to a tradition of unsystematic and permeable personal and reflective writings that has endured to this day. The study goes on to describe specific features of contemporary journalistic writing in the light of the canon model, with particular emphasis on the subjective view of the gaze and on the notion of currency that highlight the permeable and hybrid side of this genre