About the Russian jokes

In 2022, the project "Conversations about Russian Literature" of the Faculty of Philology and Media Communications was launched again

"Conversations" were opened by Ksenia Stanislavovna Litsareva, Professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature and Teaching Methods of Vyatka State University. The lecture "The Cheerful Genre of the Russian Joke" was held on January 19 at the Kirov Regional Scientific Library "A. I. Herzen".

Ksenia Stanislavovna told the audience that the anecdotes go back to the ancient tradition, it has connections with the fables and the fairy tales, but nevertheless the anecdotes have its own specifics: it is a genre that requires a situational context. An anecdote cannot be told just like that, an anecdote must appear at the right time and in the right place. Anecdotes cannot be perceived en masse, in collections. They are really funny only when they appear in the course of a conversation “suddenly” and hit the target. And here the metaphors proposed by the lecturer fit perfectly - the anecdote should “appear from an ambush”, should “shoot like a sniper at the very point”. The anecdote should accentuate the thought, highlight the most important thing.

Ksenia Stanislavovna noted that there are a large number of serial jokes: political, historical, about writers, about heroes of films and cartoons, etc. Speaking of such a lecture, one cannot do without examples. Here is a free-form anecdote told by the famous philologist Yu. M. Lotman at one of his lectures:

    Napoleon in 1812 went to Moscow, deciding to conquer Russia and put one of his relatives at the head of the Russian Empire. He hoped for the support of the Russian people and promised the peasants liberation from serfdom. However, the Russian people rebelled against Napoleon and expelled the conqueror, as they considered that a French foreigner could not occupy the Russian throne. The right to the Russian throne, according to the Russian people, has only a German.

The project "Conversations about Russian Literature" is being implemented as part of the strategic project "Harmonious Personality" and the program of academic leadership "Priority 2030".


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