WEB-ресурс научно-практических конференций

Master of Journalism Eskina L.

Contemporary ethics in columns written by spanish novelist Arturo P?rez-Reverte

Starting with the first columns, published sixteen years ago, Arturo P?rez-Reverte has decided deflate false common ethics and insincere politicians, who manipulate power. Author chose position of journalist, who does not want to accept oblivion of the past and fratricide deeply connected with barbarity. Does not matter how glamorous his disguise is. His enemies are corruption , drug traffic, petty tyranny, incompetence, hypocrisy, and elastic conscience. The columnist argues that all of this impede s progress of civilisation. Is there any?

Topics that are broached by publicist on his every-Sunday column were looked up in the context of the moral-ethical crisis of the customers’ society that is especially critical in Ukraine . Particular attention is given to the importance of the thoughtful study of the world and first of all native history and culture to help journalist understand his professional responsibility before the audience and himself.

Actually this very right word ‘responsibility’ recently become the fashionable focus for the businessmen, but it lost its real sense, to a great pity of truly noble hidalgo of the world literature and journalistic Arturo P?rez-Reverte .

Have to be reminded that columnist is the writer of an essay appearing regularly in a newspaper or periodical, usually under a constant heading. Reverte write for the wide popular Spanish weekend edition to the 24 newspapers ‘ XLSemanal ’ and his column name ‘ Patente de corso ’. Under the same name were published selected articles for the 1993 – 1998. The same heding still has also a column by Arturo P ? rez-Reverte. Patente de corso was a document signed by King of Spain. During the middle age it allowed pirates with impunity attacked enemies of the Crown. Novelist confesses he would gladly wrote his name in it and went into the see on his own boat with this sheet of paper, presented to him his publisher.

Selected articles (1998-2000) ‘Con ? nimo de ofender ’ could crash all our hopes, but luckily writer lives us “some particular ring-buoys” , [1, p. 11 ] . Anyway essays become much more sceptical.

Columns collected in the ‘ No me coger?is vivo’ (2001 -2005) are perplexing evidences of the informational age and consumers’ society. Although originally humorous, the column in many cases has supplanted the editorial for authoritative opinions on world problems. Usually independent of the policy of the publication, the columnist is allowed to criticize political and social institutions as well as persons. Reverte’s articles can be considered like a real, out-of-time literature not only as a contemporary journalist’s view .

Novelist, essayist Reverte firstly demonstrates not only his position of citizen, but also highly personal, human position of a man who knows what he is talking about. He had certainly defined moral principles that grow along with critical research of Spanish and world history. Later they were ament by wars that P?rez-Reverte saw as a reporter of Spanish radio and television.

What is ethics for the Arturo P?rez-Reverte ? First of all it is a crucial point of his job and his human being. And required the same honesty to themselves from his auditory. For ancient Greeks the study of the concepts involved in practical reasoning: good, right, duty, obligation, virtue, freedom, rationality, and choice. Also the second-order study of the objectivity, subjectivity, relativism, or skepticism that may attend claims made in these terms. For the kinds of problems encountered, see under the special terms. And the very every person must sincerely answer to him or herself. Unfortunately, we lose eagerness to practice good .

We also blurred edges of decency and breach, good and evil, innocent and injustice, justice and outrage. Though, morality refers to ethical issues — principles of right and wrong conduct — as well as instances of real behavior — the manner in which individuals comply more or less fully with such standards. Based on the Latin mor — ‘a manner, custom’ — this term covers all kinds of human actions, although it is often associated specifically with virtue in sexual conduct. To encourage moral conduct, early theological representations of sin and evil highlighted the body's capacity for suffering. P ? rez - Reverte knows suffering well. He worked as war reporter for twenty-one years (1973 - 1994). He started his journalistic career writing for the now-defunct newspaper Pueblo and then for Televisi?n Espa?ola (the Spanish state-owned television), often as a war correspondent.

Anyway, ethics is the science of morality or the systematic study of moral rules and principles. The term "morality" refers to rules that prescribe the way people ought to behave and principles that reflect what is ultimately good or desirable for human beings.

In the medieval and early modern ages, morality referred to a religious framework; through diet and bodily maintenance, the individual was expected to defend himself against the temptation of the flesh. Codes of morality have evolved in keeping with larger cultural, historical, and economic currents. And Reverte’s thoughts are always up-to-date. He confesses he read column of his French colleague Fr?d?ric Beigbeder . ‘I don’t always share his ideas but he is smart and I like what he is saying as much as the angles and points of view from ones he considered troubles’ [2].

Prostitution had long been considered wicked and detrimental to the commonweal, but it was not until the nineteenth century, when national interests were linked directly to commercial economies, that this practice became known as ‘the social evil’. More than other traditional targets of moral reform, such as the drunkard or blasphemer, the prostitute was vilified because of her unproductivity ; she partook of sexuality without repaying the nation with the commodities it needed most — citizens and domestic stability.??In modern industrial societies, the body has largely lost its connotation as a vessel of sin and has become increasingly involved in the secular mechanisms of consumption and display. The 1920s were crucial for the formation of the modern-day body ideal; by the end of the decade, women, under the combined impact of the cosmetic, fashion, and advertising industries, had for the first time in large numbers put on makeup and rayon stockings, and abandoned corsets for rubber girdles. The rage for sunbathing in the interwar years further legitimated the public display of the body. Anyway, the columnist won’t blame these poor women, only the state who push them onto panel. P?rez-Reverte like this ‘social evil’ much more than modern models. He also prefers thieves to politicians. In the article The very last artists from the collection Petente de corso P?rez-Reverte called them ‘aristocracy of the good old Spain of rascals’ and ‘jewellers of his business who can horseshoe from a gallopierred horse ’ [ 3, p. 67, 69 ] .

Whereas Christian religious traditions aimed to subordinate the body to ‘higher’ spiritual ends, modern consumer culture works to release the naked body from shame and guilt. Anyway Reverte prefer public naked true to public naked body. The individual's primary responsibility shifts from his soul to his health, body shape, and appearance. Since the 1960s the ideal of the youthful body has dominated Occidental culture; fitness and slimness have largely replaced spiritual goals as indicators of human worth. But the opprobrium inflicted on the immoral remains powerful: those who do not maintain standards of bodily maintenance are considered lazy, self-indulgent, even a burden to national well- being.??While age-old controversies regarding homosexuality, pornography , drinking, gambling, and other ‘immoral’ practices remain current today, they are perhaps less compelling than the dilemmas created by recent innovations in medical technology. The availability of techniques to alter the beginning of life (through fertility drugs, surrogacy, or prenatal testing) and the end of life (through doctor-assisted suicide or machine-enhanced existence) has prompted the growth of a new morality — the ethics of medical intervention on the human body. The world has chaned and this new one doesn’t fit to Arturo Prerz-Reverte. Hose Luis-Martin Nogales explain ‘author sees in his articles the way of confrontation to contemporary world through its researching ’ [4, p. 13]. And research requires sincerity. The writer doesn’t care about his health he prefers smoking and drink real alcohol drinks during chatting with his old friends.

P?rez-Reverte's novels are usually centered on one strongly defined character (male or female), often well known by him people, and exhibit the author's Hemingway - like ability to build layers of complexity around each person. Actually he doesn’t like Hemingway at all. Plot moves along swiftly but not so fast as to make the reader lose contact with the place and time, and the writer often employs the services of a narrator who is somehow a part of the story but apart from it.

The majority of action usually takes place in Spain and often draws on numerous references to Spanish history, colonial past, art and culture, ancient treasures and the sea. The novels frequently deal with some of the major issues of modern times such as drug trafficking or the relationship of religion and politics, as well as timeless themes of morality, honor and ethics, love and lust and power and money, though never in a simplistic fashion - recognizing that there is usually more than one way to interpret a situation and the lines between right and wrong are often blurred beyond recognition.

In his columns and his main characters, he usually displays his pessimism about human behavior, shaped by his wartime experiences in places like Fantasmas de los Balcanes , his weekly column for 10 June 2007 explains why he avoids reminiscing about the Bosnian War [5].

In 1930 Jos? Ortega y Gasset wrote his The Revolt of the Masses. There well-known Spanish philosopher argued that ‘violence become a custom’ [6, P. 109]. Have to be mention this books first appeared in the form of newspaper articles. Each life is one point of view on the universe; truth is therefore plural, for no one view is uniquely true. We normally pretend we are fine. Are we indeed? Sometimes we even wonder whether we dare tell ourselves the truth. And casually we decide, we don’t dare . Our hearts are not in the right places. As a matter of fact we don’t think we could bear it. We should contemplate think about our way of thinking. What a disgusting thing we turning over all over our minds? We have invented handfuls of comforting thoughts. How very wrong they are. And we are also. But so far we didn’t think profoundly, but it’s not to late to try and keep doing this in the future. We should bring back to our thesauruses word love and affection. It is time to call things their proper names: affection, honour, friendship, and motherland.

Ethics and morality, responsibility of journalist, terrorism, national idea, problem of the language , education , age of information and products in our supermarkets are the topics that still keep Arturo Perez- Reverte writing his column ‘con ? nimo de ofender ’ and with great eagerness to make this ‘damn’ world a bit better. And he, definitely, do this the best.

1. Ногалес Х. Л. М. Свидетель века: (вступительная статья к сборнику эссе А. Переса - Реверте «С намерением оскорбить») . – М.: Эксмо, 2005. – С. 4 – 12.

2. P?rez-Reverte A. La princesa de Cl?ves y la palabra ` patriota ? // El Semanal . – 15 квітня 2008.

3. Корсарский патент: Эссе / П ер. с исп. Н. Кириловой. – М.: Эксмо, 2005. – 720с.

4. Ногалес Х. Л. М. Навеяно ураганом: (вступительная статья к сборнику эссе А. Переса - Реверте «Живым не возьмете») . – М.: Эксмо, 2006. – С. 5 – 16.

5. P?rez-Reverte A. Fantasmas de los // El Semanal . – 15 квітня 2008.

6. Ортега-и-Гассет Х. Восстание масс. – М.: АСТ, 2003. – 512 с.