Reflective laughter : aspects of humour in Russian culture / edited by Lesley Milne.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Milne, Lesley.

Series:

Anthem Russian and Slavonic studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russian wit and humor--History and criticism.

Russian wit and humor.

Russian literature--History and criticism.

Russian literature.

Satire, Russian--History and criticism.

Satire, Russian.

Physical Description:

xi, 222 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Anthem Press, 2004.

Summary:

The end of the Cold War brought new opportunities to explore the long tradition and myriad uses of humour through over two centuries of Russian literature and culture. Reflective Laughter is the first book devoted to an overview of this subject. Bringing together contributions from a number of distinguished scholars from Russia, Europe and North America, this volume ranges from the classics of nineteenth-century literature through to the intellectual and popular comedic culture, both state-sponsored and official, of the twentieth-century, taking in journalism, propaganda, scholarly discourse, jokes, films and television. In doing so, it explores how our understanding remains distorted by the polarization of the East and West during the Cold War. This comprehensive and entertaining book will be of relevance to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Russian and comparative literature and in cultural studies, as well as a broader audience.

Contents:

2 Tragicomic Principles in Pushkin's Drama 'The Covetous Knight' / Valentina Vetlovskaia 15

3 Gogol as a Narrator of Anecdotes / Efim Kurganov 27

4 Antony Pogorelsky and A. K. Tolstoi: The Origins of Kozma Prutkov / Marietta Tourian 37

5 Comedy between the Poles of Humour and Tragedy, Beauty and Ugliness: Prince Myshkin as a Comic Character / Natalia Ashimbaeva 49

6 The Young Lev Tolstoi and Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey: the Test of Irony / Galina Galagan 57

7 Fashioning Life: Teffi and Women's Humour / Edythe C. Haber 63

8 Two Facets of Comedic Space in Russian Literature of the Modern Period: Holy Foolishness and Buffoonery / Ivan Esaulov 73

9 Jokers, Rogues and innocents: Types of comic hero and author from Bulgakov to Pelevin / Lesley Milne 85

10 Escaping the Past? Re-reading Soviet Satire from the Twenty-first Century: the Case of Zoshchenko / Gregory Carleton 97

11 Evgeny Zamiatin: The Art of Irony / Vladimir Tunimanov 109

12 Godless at the Machine Tool: Antireligious Humoristic Journals of the 1920s and 1930s / Annie Gerin 119

13 The Singing Masses and the Laughing State in the Musical Comedy of the Stalinist 1930s / Evgeny Dobrenko 131

14 The Theory and Practice of 'Scientific Parody' in Early Soviet Russia / Craig Brandist 147

15 Laughing at the Hangman: Humorous Portraits of Stalin / Karen Ryan 157

16 Varieties of Reflexivity in the Russo-Soviet Anekdot / Seth Graham 167

17 Humour and Satire on post-Soviet Russian Television / John Dunn 181.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [193]-222).

ISBN:

1843311194

OCLC:

57128670