Feuilleton

The feuilleton is an artistic-publicistic genre — a short newspaper or magazine work of topical content, in which a current social problem is treated satirically or humorously, using artistic means: imagery, irony, and wit. The feuilleton combines the promptness of journalism with the artistry of literature; it exposes social vices, bureaucratism, and hypocrisy. The genre took shape in the French press of the nineteenth century. In Ukrainian literature a master of satirical short prose was Ostap Vyshnia, whose 'smiles' (humorous-satirical miniatures close to the feuilleton) won nationwide love; working in this genre were also Volodymyr Samiilenko and, later, the authors of the satirical magazine Perets (Pepper). Feuilletonic sharpness and publicistic pathos are also characteristic of modern essay writing that responds to painful social questions.