Public Apology: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

The article describes the genre of public apology in the diachronic and synchronic aspects. The data from different types of discourse serve as the material for the analysis: belles­lettres, nonconformist, judicial, political, mass­-media. The method of discourse analysis was the leading one while analyzing the functioning of public apology in various types of interaction. The method of contextual study of communicative situation was also applied. The article defines the communicative aim of the public apology, draws a boundary line between an apology and penitence, and identifies the position of public apology among other genres of judicial discourse. Within the framework of political discourse the author singles out cognitive and discourse peculiarities of public apology and describes the forms of public apology on the national and international levels. The genre of public apology is viewed as representation of values in the discourse of new sensibility. The videos in the format of public apology are analyzed as a separate genre mode.There is a conclusion that the genre approach to the study of the communicative practices in the diachronic and synchronic aspects allows to describe not only the current situation with the genre nomenclature, but also to forecast the development of genre forms.