MINOR HUMOROUS GENRES
MINOR HUMOROUS GENRES, include an anecdote, an anecdote-riddle, a fable lakap idioms, nebylitsa story, repetitive tales, jokes, foster rhymes, bywords, pleasantries.
Anecdote is a folklore genre, a short joke prose story with an unexpected and paradoxical ending. A. satirizes different bad traits of people (stupidity, greed, vanity, laziness, superstition, etc.) and social vices (social injustice, bureaucracy, bribery), etc. The main character is often a witty, resourceful person developing the comic situation. A. characters are Aldar, Khodzha Nasretdin, Vasiliy Ivanovich Chapayev, Vovochka, Erense-sesen, Little Red Riding-hood, Stirlitz, the new Russians, representatives of different peoples, etc. as well as fairytales characters – a wolf, a hare, a bear, a fox, etc. A. usually has no more than two characters. A satirized and condemned object can be either a fictional, generalized character (simpletons and fools, authorities, clergy, etc.) or real people. The distinctive features of A. are clear compositional structure, laconic text, clarity. A. consists of beginning and denouement. They reflect the worldview and psychology of people, their morality, customs and history. There are similar genres in different folklores. See also Minor humor genres.
Anecdote-riddle, is a story the comic effect of which is reached by discovering a ridiculous solution, for example: “Once I saw a city simpleton, so I hid 10 eggs in the bosom of my beshmet and asked him: “Tell me, what do I have in my bosom? If you guess, all eggs are yours, if you tell how many eggs I have, I will give you all 10 of them.” The simpleton was surprised: “Sir, I’m not a clairvoyant, how can I guess about what I have never seen. Tell me at least some features of what you’ve hidden, then I’ll tell.” “Alright, listen. “It has yellow inside and white outside.” “I’ve guessed, guessed, – cried the simpleton. – It’s carrot and turnip” and others.
Repetitive tale is a joking take, the plot of which does not develop after a certain moment: right after the beginning of the tale comes an ending unreasonably fast. The beginning can be substituted by the ending and vice versa, it is the illusion of an infinite tale created by repeti tions of certain constituents of the text. Sometimes the structure of R.t. is the same with the classic structure of a traditional tale, e.g. traditional beginning: “Once upon a time there was an old man and woman. They built a stone house. Shall I tell from the beginning?”; “– Shall I tell you a tale about a white bull? – Tell. – You tell. I tell” etc. As a rule, R.t. is told to get rid of annoying listeners.
Lakap is a story based on a real anecdote situation connected with a name or nickname origin spread in some lands; for example: “One of the villagers from Galiakhmetovo village was building his house. Someone asks him: “Will you finish building soon?” – “I just have to finish a Frenchman’, – he replied meaning “fronton”. Since then everybody called him Kutuzov.”
Nebylitsa, is a story, piece of news that does not correspond with reality. Fiction in nebylitsa stories is almost absurd: the unborn brothers are catching dead fish in dried up rivers (“Three fishermen”); blind, lame, armless and naked people catch a hare, eat its meat (“Those who caught an unborn hare”); “On a spinning mill a big crucian ate an eel. The end!” etc. The N. appeared in ancient times, their purpose was to make the spirits kind as they, according to the mythical beliefs, acted back in opposite ways to human words and actions.
Joke, foster rhymes, is a small rhymed idiom which adults say to amuse children, involve them into a game with their fingers, hands, feet etc. For example, “Ladushki, ladushki...”, “Soroka-beloboka kashku varila...” (A white magpie was cooking porridge), “Idet koza rogataya...” and others. These jokes and foster rhymes help to develop children. The small poems and songs make a child laugh, stimulate motor reflexes and establish emotional contact with a child.
Byword is a funny sentence, a combination of words in speech. For example, “Shchi da kvas...”; “Po kochkam, po kochkam...” and others.
Pleasantry is a poetic or less often a prose, small genre of literature which does not have a proper plot. It is used to present reality in an absurd way to create a merry mood in listeners. Buffoons or strolling comedians (singers, dancers, actors, magicians, acrobats, bear trainers etc.) developed the genre. They used to perform in masks and special costumes. The dramatic parodies and songs usually were accompanied by the harp, pipe, tambourine, whistle or bagpipe. For example: “A dog is baking pies in the kitchen. / A tomcat is pounding crackers in the corner. A cat is sewing a dress on the window. / A hen in boots is sweeping the house”.
The comic effect is created by different expressive means of language: rhymed verse, rhythm, grotesque, hyperbola, litotes, contaminations, different repetitions, playing with similarly pronounced words and comic neologisms, dialogues etc. There are similar genres in different folklores.
T.V. Zueva, I.E. Karpukhin A.M. Suleymanov
