Lafcadio Hearn: Between Literature and Journalism

Abstract

The article is devoted to the early period of the work of the Anglo-American writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904). It mainly includes American articles in periodicals. The topic is poorly studied in the domestic research field, as well as Hearn’s works in general, which leads to scientific novelty. The study was carried out with the help of intertextual and motive analysis of newspaper articles in identifying common plots of the writer’s work and references to other authors. It is noted that although Hearn became famous thanks to his stories and legends collected in Japan, he was formed as a writer in America. The article examines the features of Hearn’s style as a journalist: author’s masks (detective, comical narrator, whistleblower), playful communications with the reader, the presence of Gothic elements, references to literary works of favorite authors, common vocabulary, and combination of real facts with fiction. Hearn’s role as a forerunner of whistle-blowing journalism and new journalism is noted, and a series of articles on the tannery murder are examined. There is a movement from sensational and shocking articles to more calm meditative observations, from external to internal. Journalistic experience, as the study showed, significantly influenced Hearn’s literary activity (brevity of form, mixing documentary and fiction, elements of a detective story, subjective position of the narrator).