Eliza Szymanowska - Reportage as an undefinable genre

This article contributes to theoretical-literary considerations on one of the most valued journalistic genres. It discusses the literariness and the press nature of reportage, as well as other typical features of this genre. Reportage is considered to lie between fiction and journalism. The aim of this article is to present a number of common features of reportage and other, related genres of literature and journalism. The complexity of methodological disputes between researchers who find it difficult to define the character of reportage and to locate its meaning in the historical-literary process and the history of the press are discussed. Setting the border between theoretical and methodological reflections in the area of press studies and literature studies becomes an aim in itself (autotelic and immanent).

Keywords: transborder genre, documentarity vs. literariness of reportage, roots of journalism, humanistic journalism, persuasive function, rhetorical tools