On the Issue of the Genre of Epistolary Work

The purpose of the article is to characterize a letter to the editor as a separate genre in terms of its structure, function, relationship between the author and the addressee, specific content and linguistic means that make up the scope of this form of communication. The Introduction draws attention to the anthropological dominance of modern philological research. References to the writer’s archive, the rendition of the epistolary heritage both as a fact of their creative biography and as a historical and literary phenomenon is proposed. The theoretical part is devoted to the understanding of the most important approaches to the theory of genre, including writing as a special genre of documentary prose. The problem of research analysis and perception of letters is updated. The content and formal indicators of the genre are characterized. The analytical part is presented by a model of historical-functional analysis and interpretation of a letter to the editor. The attention is focused on its functional specificity. It is proved that the genre of a letter to the editor can be removed from the sphere of journalistic genres to a literary genre with its historical and literary significance. In the Conclusion a letter is presented as a separate genre in terms of its form and function; the main genre characteristics are given. It is emphasized that motivation, purposefulness, dialogism as genre signals allow a letter to the editor to be classified as a work of literature.