Friday, December 16, 2005

Oh yeah - I guess I should explain the title. The fejeton (usually spelled feuilleton, like in French) is difficult to define – it basically consists of a short essay on a serious topic which is written in a sarcastic and humorous tone. It's kind of a genre somewhere between journalism and literature. The fejeton became popular in Central Europe in the early 20th century, and is still practiced in the Czech Republic and Germany today. In the mainstream Czech press well-known Czech writers (primarily fiction writers) publish regular essays on issues of various social or political importance, and they're usually enjoyable reads. I like the language they use as well as the references to literature or philosophy and interesting mixture of genres that adds a unique perspective to a discussion. Many older fejetons are now available in collections of the authors’ works. If you're interested, some good collections of fejetons that are available in English are A Cup of Coffee with my Interrogator by Ludvík Vaculík and Toward the Radical Center by Karel Čapek.

Anyway, I was kind of trying to imitate the tone of the fejeton on this blog, so that's how I chose the title - it's hard to write regular polished essays, so that's why I'm sticking with "tone" rather than "style."

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