The concept of "comic" comes from the Greek "koikus" - "cheerful", "funny" and from "komos" - a cheerful gang of mummers at the rural festival of Dionysus in Ancient Greece and passed into the Russian language with the meaning "funny".

We can give the following generalized scheme for creating comic in fiction: objective laughter (funny) - means of comic (language means - phonetic, lexical, phraseological, grammatical means and non-linguistic means) - forms of comic (humor, satire) - result - laughter (comic) (Borev 1957:74).

All means of creating a comic can be divided into several groups: phonetic means; lexical means (tropes and the use of vernacular, borrowings, etc.); morphological means (incorrect use of case forms, gender, etc.); syntactic means (use of stylistic figures: parallelism, ellipsis, repetitions, gradation, etc.)

TO phonetic means can be attributed, for example, the use of orthoepic irregularities, which helps the authors to give a capacious portrait of the narrator or hero.

Stylistic figures include anaphora, epiphora, parallelism, antithesis, gradation, inversion, rhetorical questions and appeals, polyunion and non-union, silence, etc.

Syntactic means - default, rhetorical questions, gradations, parallelism and antithesis.

Lexical means include all tropes as figurative and expressive means, as well as pun, paradox, irony, alogisms and malapropisms.

These are epithets - "words that define an object or action and emphasize in them some characteristic property, quality."

Comparisons - comparison of two phenomena in order to explain one of them with the help of the other.

Metaphors are words or expressions that are used in a figurative sense based on the similarity in some respect of two objects or phenomena.

To create a comic effect, hyperbolas and litotes are often used - figurative expressions containing exorbitant exaggeration (or understatement) of size, strength, value, etc.

Irony also refers to lexical means. Irony - "the use of a word or expression in the reverse sense of the literal for the purpose of ridicule."

Malapropisms - replacement of syllables and sounds similar in pronunciation

In addition, lexical means also include allegory, personification, paraphrase, etc. All of these means are trails.

However, only the tropes do not fully define the lexical means of creating comedy. This should also include the use of colloquial, special (professional), borrowed or dialect vocabulary.

By morphological means, we have included cases when the author deliberately incorrectly uses grammatical categories in order to create comedy.

Pun [fr. calembour] - a play on words based on deliberate or involuntary ambiguity generated by homonymy or similarity in sound and causing a comic effect.

Alogism (from a - negative prefix and Greek logismos - mind) -

1) denial logical thinking as a means of reaching the truth; irrationalism, mysticism, fideism oppose logic to intuition, faith, or revelation;

Paradox - 1. A strange statement, at odds with the generally accepted opinion, as well as an opinion that contradicts (sometimes only at first glance) common sense. Talk in paradoxes. 2. A phenomenon that seems incredible and unexpected, adj. paradoxical. ( Modern vocabulary foreign words 1993)

The first attempts to classify wit go back to ancient antiquity: they were undertaken by Cicero and Quintilian. Cicero gave the first formal classification and divided all wit into two main types (Luke 1968:192).

1. The funny comes from the very content of the subject.

2. Verbal form of wit, which includes:

ambiguity, unexpected conclusions, puns, unusual interpretations of proper names, proverbs, allegory, metaphors, irony.

In connection with the study of the theory of the comic in general aesthetic terms, one should mention A. Makaryan's book "On Satire", in which the author, despite its title, talks more about the "comic". The author discusses two types of comic words: witty and comic word. It seems, however, that wit is the object of an entirely different field of study. As for comic words, according to Makaryan, they are associated with ignorance, cultural backwardness, nervousness, etc. Trying to define groups of comic words, he writes: “Departure from the generally accepted use of the word: dialectisms, professionalisms, archaisms, neologisms, barbarisms, violation of semantic and grammatical connections - all this often gives the word a comic meaning” (Makaryan 1967: 200).

However, in specific cases, the author experiences difficulties in distinguishing between the means and methods of the comic. So, the author considers the main sources of verbal comedy to be the disorder of thoughts and their logical design, the scarcity of thoughts, ornateness, pretentiousness of speech, the disruption of the connection between remarks, the comic increase or decrease in intonation, the loss of the thread of thought during a conversation, words expressing contradictory concepts, repetitions, comedy. sounds and puns.

The comic effect of ordinary commonly used words is associated primarily with the possibilities of their metaphorization and ambiguity. The comedy is enhanced by individual words when they are connected differently, they acquire additional comic coloring in a comic environment, with misunderstandings that arise in the course of dialogues and mutual remarks of characters. Of course, the comic possibilities of words are also manifested in the language of the author in the course of the story, but the language of the characters has wider possibilities for achieving artistic goals (Luke 1968:200).

Comic art is able to reveal the comic potential not only of common, emotional words, but also of terms, terminological words and combinations. An important condition the acquisition of lexical units of comic coloring is the comic environment, the unexpected connection of a word in a text with other words and expressions (Alexander, Richard 1997).

From the pages of Gogol's story stepped a real nation, not a popular print, not a fake, but living people with their sorrows and joys, anxieties and hopes. And, of course, the humor of the writer. It literally permeates the fabric of the story. The skill of the writer is immense, inexhaustible: the ability to connect the incompatible, painting with a word. V. G. Belinsky said: "A writer appeared with us, whose humorous talent had such a strong influence on all literature that he gave it a completely new direction"

This research topic is very relevant and interesting. This year was the anniversary for the writer (1809). New and new readers, getting acquainted with the works of Gogol, do not cease to admire the skill of the artist. His humor literally permeates the fabric of the stories.

"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" is the first book by N.V. Gogol, which immediately won success and recognition. The author painted kind and attractive images of people from the people, at the same time, spiritual emptiness and petty interests aroused the writer's terrible indignation. In this work the manner inherent only to Gogol is laid down - to notice the sad behind the funny, "through the laughter visible to the world. Tears invisible to him." Therefore, in scenes filled with lively humor, sunny laughter. With the help of humor, the author does not criticize everything in the depicted person or phenomenon, but only certain aspects .

Exploring this topic, I turned to people of different ages with a question: "What emotions do the works of N.V. Gogol "May Night, or the Drowned Woman" and "The Night Before Christmas" evoke in you?" The answer was almost the same - this is humor, laughter caused by different scenes, funny words, actions of heroes.

The subject of research in the work is the cycle "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" by N. V. Gogol, namely "May Night, or the Drowned Woman" and "The Night Before Christmas"

The object of study in the work was proverbs and sayings, words and phrases of different styles of vocabulary, elements artistic narrative helping to create a comic effect.

Hypothesis: surprise, hyperbole, inconsistency and mixing of words and phrases of different styles entails the creation of a comic effect.

To create a scientific research work, a descriptive method was used - one of the most relevant in linguistics: the language is constantly changing, and these changes must be recorded. The linguistic method allows you to identify and trace the use of words, phrases, proverbs and sayings in different styles.

The purpose of the work is to identify and trace the patterns of use of words, phrases, proverbs and sayings, as well as elements of artistic narration that help create a comic effect in the works of N.V. Gogol.

The main objectives of the study:

1. Track how words and phrases of different style layers are combined.

2. Explore the combination of high, poetic vocabulary with the common people.

3. Analyze the use of elements of artistic narrative: surprise, hyperbole.

4. Find out exactly which words and phrases help create a comic effect.

5. Pay attention to how proverbs and sayings are used in a conversational style.

Working on this topic, I referred to the article by G. P. Sokolova "" To a lesson with N. V. Gogol", analyzed N. V. Gogol's collection " Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", namely the works " May Night, or Drowned Woman and "The Night Before Christmas"

"Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"

"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" - the first book by N.V. Gogol, immediately won success and recognition. A. S. Pushkin wrote: “Everyone rejoiced at this lively description of a singing and dancing tribe, these fresh pictures of Little Russian nature, this cheerfulness, simple-hearted and crafty at the same time.” The author painted kind and attractive images of people from the people, at the same time, the writer's terrible indignation was caused by spiritual emptiness.

This work contains a manner inherent only to Gogol - to notice the sad behind the funny, "through the laughter visible to the world, invisible tears to him." Therefore, in scenes filled with lively humor, sunny laughter, disturbing notes are intertwined every now and then. The author tries to turn the unfair world upside down with the help of devastating satire. The name of the author was not on the book; instead, the title indicated: "Tales published by asichnik Rudy Pank." In appearance, a simpleton, but in fact a wise and crafty farmer chuckles at the authorities. For example, in The Night Before Christmas, the author, with the help of skillful satire, depicts a world dominated by callousness, self-interest, mental limitation, malice, hostility.

So, drawing the image of Solokha, the author ridicules cunning, hypocrisy, the desire to do meanness to people in order to satisfy their interests. She “bowed to everyone”, she was friendly with everyone, but she was most friendly with the Cossack Chub, who had a lot of linen in his chests, “eight stacks of bread always stood in front of his hut”, there were a lot of different living creatures in the yard, and the garden was densely sown vegetables, poppy seeds, sunflowers and tobacco. “Solokha found it not superfluous to attach all this to her household, thinking in advance about what order it would take when it passed into her hands.” And so that her plans would not be destroyed in any way, she plotted all sorts of intrigues with the blacksmith Vakula, tried to quarrel him with Chub, so that "Vakula does not drive up to his daughter and does not have time to clean up everything for himself."

At the same time, the story also contains good-natured laughter, which we instantly distinguish from caustic, scourging laughter. With the help of humor, the author does not criticize everything in the depicted person or phenomenon, but only certain aspects. Therefore, humor contains not only ridicule, but also the author's sympathy, sympathy.

This is the laughter, where there is as much innocence as natural wisdom.

In the work, the pathos of folk and national feelings, expressed with exceptional penetration, becomes close, generally accessible to any reader at any historical time.

Peculiarity colloquial speech

Colloquial speech is widely represented in fiction, while the author only creates a semblance of natural colloquial speech. The stylistic means characteristic of the colloquial style are carefully selected by the writer. The conversational style of speech allows words and expressions that give communication a relaxed tone.

N.V. Gogol makes extensive use of words with diminutive suffixes.

The word vernacular has several meanings. It is used both for the name of a variety of the Russian language, and for the stylistic qualification of any one word in explanatory dictionaries marked "simple".

As the name of a variety of the Russian language, the word SPEECH denotes irregular speech, SIMPLE SPEECH, family-colloquial speech, free from any restrictions of prohibitions.

If earlier (before the revolution of 1997) the word vernacular denoted the speech of an illiterate (and illiterate) urban population, now vernacular has gone beyond the city limits and is observed in the communication of literate people in an informal situation.

What is so attractive about vernacular? Freedom in the choice of words and expressions, the ability to introduce expressive words and phrases into speech, nicknames, such as N.V. Gogol said: Chukhonsky, or any other tribes, but all himself is a nugget, a lively and lively Russian mind that does not go into his pocket for a word, does not hatch it like a hen chickens, but sticks it right away, like a passport on an eternal sock "

And one more statement of the writer about the accuracy of folk Russian words: "The word of the British will respond with heart-study and wise knowledge of life; the short-lived word of the Frenchman will flash and scatter with a light dandy; the German will intricately come up with his own, not accessible to everyone, cleverly thin word; but there is no word that would be so sweepingly, briskly, it would have burst out of the very heart, it would have boiled and quivered so aptly, the Russian word so aptly said.

Colloquial vocabulary is especially diverse, denoting a negative or ironic assessment of any qualities of a person. Colloquial words often complement synonymic rows, including stylistically neutral, bookish and colloquial words. Some forms are found in fiction as a means of characterization.

Spoken language, in addition to its direct function as a means of communication, also performs other functions: in fiction, it is used to create verbal portrait, for a realistic depiction of the life of a particular social environment, in the author's narration serves as a means of stylization, when confronted with elements of book speech, it can create a comic effect. Let us dwell in more detail on certain aspects of colloquial speech.

Techniques of humorous narration in achieving comic effect

In my work, I tried to consider the following elements that create the comic effect:

1. Proverbs and sayings - "a boiling spring folk poetry".

2. Acceptance of incompatibility. The combination of high, poetic vocabulary with the common people.

3. Reception of hyperbole.

4. Reception of surprise. The thoughts and actions of the characters, the development of the plot can be unexpected.

5. Reception of inconsistency, which is created by contrast, contradiction: ugly - beautiful, insignificant - sublime.

Proverbs and sayings

Gogol widely used proverbs and sayings, he saw in them "the extraordinary fullness of the people's mind, who knew how to make everything his tool: irony, mockery, clarity, accuracy of pictorial consideration." Gogol called proverbs and sayings "a boiling spring of folk poetry." This is due not only to the worldly wisdom, their aesthetic qualities, but also the virtues of their language.

"Where is it good for you! Old yak bis. Kharya is all wrinkled, like an empty purse. - And the low structure of the distiller shook again from loud laughter." ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

"Hey! A pig climbed into the hut, and puts its paws on the table." ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

"God save you, matchmaker!" ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

"for no reason at all, the month danced in the sky, and assured the whole village with God's word."

“It was necessary,” Chub continued, wiping his mustache with his sleeve, “some devil, so that he didn’t happen, the dog, to drink a glass of vodka in the morning, intervene! the night is a miracle! It's bright, the snow is shining in the moonlight. Everything was visible as in the daytime. I didn't have time to go out the door - and, lo and behold, at least gouge out my eye!" (Christmas Eve")

"What else do you want? When he needs honey, he needs a spoon! Go away, your hands are harder than iron. And you yourself smell of smoke. I think you have smeared me all over with soot." (Christmas Eve")

“However, a penetrating eye would immediately see that it was not amazement that kept its head in one place for a long time. So only an old, experienced cat sometimes allows an inexperienced mouse to run around its tail; and meanwhile quickly creates a plan how to cut off its path to its hole. the lone eye of the head was fixed on the window, and already the hand, having given a sign to the tenant, was holding on to the wooden handle of the door, and suddenly a cry arose in the street "(" May Night, or the Drowned Woman ")

Acceptance of incompatibility

In the dictionary of the modern Russian language in the article, 16 meanings are given for the word exit, but the first one is: "walking, walking, leave the room, leave it." Do they walk on all fours? This passage uses the technique of incompatibility.

"True, the volost clerk, coming out of the tavern on all fours, saw that the moon was dancing in the sky for no reason at all, and assured the whole village of it with God; but the laity shook their heads and even raised him to ridicule." (Christmas Eve")

“At this word, the hearts of our heroes seemed to merged into one, and this huge heart beat so strongly that its uneven knock was not muffled even by a rattling lock. The doors opened, and the Head became pale as a sheet; the distiller felt cold, and his hair , it seemed they wanted to fly to heaven; horror was depicted in the face of the clerk; the tenths rooted to the ground and were not able to close their mouths open in unison: their sister-in-law stood before them. ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

The epithets "eagle, falcon" are commonly used in oral folk art to characterize the hero, describe the appearance, Gogol uses these words to create a comic effect, comparing the incomparable. These epithets have nothing to do with the hero himself and the words "the head is crooked, the lonely eye is his villain"

"And since that very time, the head has learned to sensibly and importantly lower its head, stroke its long, twisted mustache and cast a falcony glance from under its brows." ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

“The head is crooked; but on the other hand, his lonely eye is a villain and can see a pretty villager far away. Not before, however, he will point it at a pretty face until he takes a good look at whether his sister-in-law is looking from where.” ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

"The head, like a master, sat in only a shirt and linen trousers. His eagle eye, like the evening sun, gradually began to squint and fade." ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

The combination of high, poetic vocabulary with the common folk

Gogol's ability to combine high, poetic vocabulary with the common people, which is necessary to create memorable scenes, humorous pictures. The following sentences are a prime example.

“All toys are for her; but I stand before her like a fool and keep my eyes on her. And everyone would stand in front of her, and I would never take my eyes off her! in the heart of whom she loves!" (Christmas Eve")

We see a mixture of different styles of vocabulary in other examples, mouths, eyes, cheeks, and here lips, eyes, cheeks

“Here she sat down on a bench and again looked in the mirror and began to straighten her braids on her head. She looked at her neck, at a new shirt embroidered with silk, and a subtle feeling of self-satisfaction was expressed on her lips, on fresh cheeks and shone in her eyes.” (Christmas Eve")

“Wonderful, beloved Oksana, let me kiss you!” the encouraged blacksmith said and pressed her to him, intending to grab the kiss; but Oksana rejected her cheeks, which were already at an inconspicuous distance from the blacksmith’s lips, and pushed him away. (Christmas Eve")

The word "courageously", "triumphant" does not really correspond to the appearance of the heroes and causes a smile when we read:

But the weaver and godfather bravely defended the sack and forced her to step back. Before they had time to recover, the wife ran out into the passage already with a poker in her hands. She nimbly grabbed her husband's hands with the poker, weaving on the back, and was already standing near the sack. (Christmas Eve")

Meanwhile, the triumphant wife, placing the kagan on the floor, untied the sack and looked into it. But it is true that her old eyes, which had seen the sack so well, were deceived this time. (Christmas Eve")

Go, go, damn woman! This is not your good! - said, approaching, godfather. The wife started again at the poker, but at that moment Chub got out of the sack and stood in the middle of the passage, stretching like a man who has just awakened from a long sleep. (Christmas Eve")

Synonyms for the word face: the first is the word physiognomy, then mug, muzzle, muzzle, pug, mine, mug, snout, ryashka (rude simple), face (obsolete), etc. Gogol has the words face and mine or face - mugs are placed side by side, which achieves a comic effect.

"At times, on his face, whose beard and mustache the blizzard lathered with snow more quickly than any barber, tyrannically grabbing his victim by the nose, showed a semi-sweet mine." (Christmas Eve")

“Hello, Solokha!” Chub said, entering the hut. “Perhaps you didn’t expect me, did you? mine, which let you know in advance that his clumsy head was working and preparing to let go of some sharp and intricate joke. (Christmas Eve")

"Distiller, taking advantage of the time, ran up to look into the face of this troublemaker, but timidly stepped back, seeing a long beard and a terribly painted mug." ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

“Have mercy, pan head!” some shouted, bowing at their feet. that after that not a single woman will undertake to pour out a commotion. ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman")

Reception of hyperbolization

"Look, what a miracle!" - thought the blacksmith, his mouth gaping in surprise, and at the same time he noticed that the dumpling was climbing into his mouth, and he had already smeared his lips with sour cream. Pushing the dumpling away and wiping his lips, the blacksmith began to think about what miracles there are in the world and what wisdom he brings a person to. devilry noticing, moreover, that Patsyuk alone could help him. (Christmas Eve")

Patsyuk “lived like a real Cossack: he didn’t work, slept for three-quarters of the day, ate for six mowers and drank almost a whole bucket at a time” (The Night Before Christmas)

“This one is even lazier than Chub: he at least eats with a spoon, but this one doesn’t even want to raise his hands!” (Christmas Eve")

“After her father left, she dressed up for a long time and coaxed herself in front of a small mirror in a tin frame and could not stop admiring herself. "People lie, I'm not good at all." But the face that flickered in the mirror, fresh, alive in childhood youth, with shining black eyes and an inexpressibly pleasant smile that burned through the soul, suddenly proved the opposite. "But my black eyebrows and eyes, - continued the beauty, without letting go of the mirror, "so beautiful that they have no equal in the world? What's the good in this upturned nose? And in the cheeks? And in the lips? As if my black braids were good? Wow! One can be frightened of them in the evening: they, like long snakes, twisted and coiled around my head. I see now that I am not at all good! - And, pushing the mirror a little further away from me, she cried out: - No, I am good! Oh, how good! A miracle! What joy! I will bring to the one whom I will be a wife, how my husband will admire me! He won't remember himself. He will kiss me to death." (Christmas Eve")

Reception of surprise

The reception of surprise is characteristic of the development of the plot.

"So, the devil wanted to take possession of the soul of Vakula, but he himself was under his power" ("The Night Before Christmas")

Here, seizing a twig, he gave him three blows, and the poor devil began to run like a peasant who had just been beaten down by an assessor. So, instead of tricking, seducing, and fooling others, the enemy of the human race was himself fooled. ("Christmas Eve")

Acceptance of mismatch

Most often, humor is built on a discrepancy between the external and the internal, for example, when the pan head, the rich Cossack Chub and the clerk want to be important persons, but end up in a comic situation. Reading the story, we laugh heartily at these "important" visitors to Solokha, who fell into one bag, over their heads, who could not restrain their hiccups and coughs and turned out to be exposed.

In the story, we also see arrogant generals who obligingly fuss and bow to Potemkin, they "seemed to catch his every word and even the slightest movement, so that now they could fly to carry it out."

Conclusion

Thus, after analyzing the works "The Night Before Christmas" and "May Night, or the Drowned Woman", we came to the conclusion that with the help of individual elements of the artistic narrative, N.V. Gogol achieves a comic effect.

We can conclude and confirm the hypothesis that:

1. There are many methods of humorous narration, for example, surprise. The thoughts and actions of the characters, the development of the plot can be unexpected.

2. The reception of inconsistency is created by contrast, contradiction: ugly - beautiful, insignificant - sublime, inner emptiness - appearance with a claim to significance

3. Reception of hyperbole

4. Gogol widely used proverbs and sayings, he saw in them "the extraordinary fullness of the people's mind, who knew how to make everything his tool: irony, mockery, clarity, accuracy of pictorial consideration."

5. The reception of incompatibility is vividly used. Gogol managed to combine high, poetic vocabulary with the common people, which is necessary to create memorable scenes, humorous pictures.

Practical significance

This work can be used in literature lessons when studying the work of N.V. Gogol, namely, his works "The Night Before Christmas" and "May Night, or the Drowned Woman". Also, the material of the study can be used in the study of the topic "Proverbs and sayings". In Russian lessons, examples from the work can be used by studying the topic "Vocabulary".

In principle, anyone can joke well. But only one can be called a master of humor who knows how to use it in different forms and apply different techniques, because this allows you to be more flexible, adapt to any situation, competently insert a “red” word, getting right “to the point” and no one touching. Probably, it is for this reason that already in Ancient Greece the comic was born as a philosophical category that denotes aesthetically and socially significant and culturally designed funny. Then the problem of the comic was considered in detail by the philosopher Aristotle, and later by A. Schopenhauer, A. Bergson, Z. Freud, V. G. Belinsky, M. M. Bakhtin, V. Ya. Propp, Yu. B. Boryaev, A. A. Sychev, A.V. Dmitriev and other researchers.

The grotesque, sarcasm, irony, humor, satire and other types can be attributed to the area of ​​the comic. In addition, it can manifest itself in many genres and types of art, such as feuilletons, comedies, sketches, buffoonery, caricatures, ditties, etc. The comic is also expressed in puns, jokes, anecdotes. It often arises by itself in all sorts of errors, typos, misprints, reservations and misunderstandings.

Next, we will look at the main types of comic that are most common in life and art, and also give examples for each type, and then we will talk about the most popular comic techniques that are easy to use in everyday life, and give exercises to practice them.

• Joke
• Joke
• Irony
• Oxymoron
• Parody
• Satire
• Graphic arts
• Wit
• Sarcasm

About everything in order.

Joke

A joke is a short text or phrase of humorous content. She may have various forms, for example, tales, question or answer. Almost always, a joke has an ending (climax) that ends the story and makes it funny.

Joke

An anecdote is a small funny story with an unexpected ending. A play on words, meanings of terms and concepts, some associations can act as an anecdote. In some cases, to understand a joke, you need to have certain knowledge, for example, geographical, historical, literary, social, etc. , because jokes can relate to any area of ​​human life. It is also worth noting that the authors of anecdotes almost always remain unknown, and the narrators never claim authorship.

EXAMPLE:

The lion is walking in the forest. Meets a giraffe:
- Hey long neck! Who is the bravest in the forest?
- You lion!
The lion smiled contentedly and moved on.
Sees a zebra
- Hey, striped! Who is the most beautiful in the forest?
“Of course you are, lion!”
The lion, proud, went on.
Sees an elephant:
- Hey, long-nosed! Who is the smartest in the forest?
The elephant takes the lion with its trunk, throws it over its back and throws it into the swamp. The lion climbs out, shakes off the mud and says:
“Well, why be so nervous? I could have just said "I don't know".

Irony is the use of words in a negative sense, contrary to the literal, as a result of which outwardly positive statements take on a negative connotation. Also, irony is often called mockery or even mockery. The meaning of irony is that missing features are attributed to an object or situation in order to emphasize this absence. Irony will allow you to give a negative or comic character to something or someone. In addition, anti-irony and self-irony are distinguished. In self-irony, a person laughs at himself, and in anti-irony, a negative message suggests the opposite, i.e. positive connotation.

EXAMPLE (Irony): "Come here, literate" (in relation to an illiterate person)

EXAMPLE (Self-irony): "Well, here I showed myself in all its glory" (about inappropriate behavior in a tricky situation)

EXAMPLE (Anti-irony): “But we, fools, are unaware” (it is understood that “we” understand everything anyway)

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is also called "smart stupidity", i.e. a combination of incompatible (opposite in meaning) words. Often used in art to create a stylistic effect.

EXAMPLES: A living corpse, false truth, joyful sadness, burning cold, etc.

Parody

A parody is an imitation of something known to create a funny effect. Behavior can be parodied famous people, the game of actors, the performance of musicians, habits, speech, facial expressions, gestures, etc. In art, parodies of music, painting, and literary works are common.

EXAMPLE: Arkady Raikin "Poet of the sixties "(a parody of R. Rozhdestvensky)

Satire

Satire is a kind of comic pathos, a harsh denunciation and ridicule of negative phenomena in life, social and human vices. Sometimes satire is not funny. Humor is used in satire so that the satirical work is not perceived as direct criticism or preaching of shortcomings. There are several varieties of satire: oral, theatrical, literary and graphic.

EXAMPLE (verbal satire): concert "The whole truth about Russian dope » Mikhail Zadornov

EXAMPLE (theatrical satire): play "Every day is not Sunday "Based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky (Satyricon Theater named after Arkady Raikin)

EXAMPLE (literary satire): the novel "The Master and Margarita" by M. Bulgakov, the story "The Nose" by N. Gogol, the novel "Lord Golovlev" by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, the story "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by M. Twain, the story-parable "Animal courtyard” by D. Orwell, etc.

EXAMPLE (graphic satire): Soviet magazine "Crocodile »

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is called caustic, vicious and stinging ridicule, bilious remarks, malicious irony over something vicious and vile. As a rule, sarcasm (like satire) makes fun of human vices and serious atrocities, especially those committed by officials, politicians and dignitaries.

EXAMPLE: "Here you are fat, you should lose weight" (in relation to a skinny girl who is on a diet)

EXAMPLE: "Do not ask what you can do for your homeland - you will be reminded of it anyway" (military wisdom)

EXAMPLE: " Our foreman connected space with time. He ordered to dig from the fence until lunchtime "(army wisdom)

EXAMPLE: “Demonstrators beaten by police against police violence” (article title)

Graphic arts

Graphics is special form comic, different from its written and oral expression. The most common types of comic graphics are comics, cartoons and caricatures. Competent comic graphics, in particular political ones, are aimed at increasing social self-awareness and civic responsibility, identifying political likes and dislikes.

EXAMPLE (comic):

EXAMPLE (cartoon):

EXAMPLE (caricature):

And, summing up the conversation about the types of comic, a few words about wit and humor.

Wit

Wit is called any work of the comic - the very act of creating humor, anecdote, jokes, satire, etc. There can be no comic without wit. We will talk about wit in detail in the next lesson, but for now we will only note that it allows a person to joke so that the essence is expressed in just one phrase, and in such a way that there is nothing to add. Wit is distinguished by the presence of a joke, but the absence of contempt, as well as brevity. But one cannot achieve “sharpness” by brevity alone; it is achieved through the use of unexpected thought.

EXAMPLE: “I made a decision to take care of myself. I quit smoking and drinking, went on a diet, refused heavy food. And in two weeks I lost 14 days"(a phrase by the American actor Oscar Levant).

Humor

Humor can be understood in two senses. The first is the very understanding of the comic, i.e. the ability to recognize and demonstrate the funny. And the second is soft condescending, written or oral criticism. Humor suggests the presence of gaiety and harmless mockery, it is not associated with malice and malice, such as sarcasm or satire. The mask of the funny in humor hides a serious attitude towards the object of laughter, which is not limited to just one funny thing. True humorists perceive humor as a grace of the mind that is good; reflection of the creative abilities of the intellect. True humor is characterized by a sense of beauty, the ability to see the unusual in the ordinary, high taste, a sense of proportion, observation and creativity.

Proceeding from this, the sense of humor should be perceived as the ability to understand humor and perceive the funny; as an emotional, intellectual, aesthetic and moral feeling. Because of its rarity, a subtle sense of humor is always worth its weight in gold, but it can and should be developed and nurtured.

The types of comic we have considered are quite enough to understand how wide and multifaceted this topic is. But in any case, this information is purely theoretical, because any form of funny is built on the use of a number of special techniques, and this is practice. Therefore, the next point of our lesson will be the techniques of the comic.

Basic tricks of the comic

The basic techniques of the comic are necessary in order to create the so-called images of phenomena that give rise to the funny. The following are some of the most common techniques used in comic art:

We offer you a brief description of each of them (in each of the large groups there are private receptions).

Change and deformation of phenomena

The change and deformation of phenomena is:

• Exaggeration - a technique that affects and increases the features of behavior, appearance, character, situation
• Parody - imitation of the original object, exaggerating it character traits sometimes to the point of absolute absurdity
• Grotesque is a technique for generalizing and sharpening life relationships through a bizarre and contrasting combination of real and fantastic, plausible and illogical, funny, caricature
• Travesty - vulgarization and humiliation of phenomena that are considered worthy, worthy of respect
• Caricaturing is a simplification that distorts the essence by emphasizing minor and minor points and neglecting essential features.

Unusual effects and juxtapositions

Unusual effects and comparisons include mainly surprise with the aim of creating a comic:

• Plot moves and turns that are not foreseen by the listener, reader or viewer, and that occur contrary to his assumptions and expectations
• Unforeseen comparisons or convergences of mutually exclusive or simply different phenomena that go beyond ordinary comparisons (for example, similarities between people and animals or people and objects)
• Comparisons demonstrating unexpected similarities and coincidences of generally accepted views and everyday situations with views and situations that are absurd and ridiculous
• Demonstration of contrast by comparing types of people that are opposite to each other (most often in terms of views, habits, temperament, character traits, etc.)
• Wits based on a comparison of incommensurable or distant phenomena

Disproportion in connections and relationships between phenomena

The disproportion in connections and relationships between phenomena in most cases is expressed in anachronisms (attributing people, objects, phenomena or events to another time) from the field of way of thinking, language, customs, principles or views.

An imaginary unification of heterogeneous phenomena

The imaginary unification of heterogeneous phenomena is understood as:

• Grotesque, based on multiple transitions from one area to another, and applying contradictions, combining different styles and creative methods
• Simulation of situations where the behavior of the characters is contrary to the circumstances
• Discrepancies between behavior and appearance, character or any other psychophysiological manifestation of individuality
• Inconsistencies in appearance and nature, illusion and reality, theory and practice, reality and fantasy, conceit and true value
• ironic statements that hidden meaning there is a denial of the literal meaning
• Sarcasm as indignant mockery is a reflection high degree indignation, characterized by gloominess and causticity
• Inconsistencies between the usual purposes of objects and unusual options for their use
• Unnatural, ridiculous, unexpected or surprising repetitions of phenomena, situations, phrases, actions

Creating phenomena that deviate from the norm

Creating phenomena that deviate from the norm includes:

• Violation of rational, efficient, productive and efficient norms
• Performing useless and unnecessary work (choosing means that are inappropriate for the task, complicating simple tasks, violating logic, erroneous associations and inferences, etc.)
• Chaotic statements and logical confusion (logical incoherence, unforeseen turns and insertions, unusual use of words)
• Absurdist dialogues in which there is no connection between the participants' remarks
• Logical inversions, where the qualities of objects and situations are shifted
• Statements that seem ridiculous at first glance

The list can go on, but we will limit ourselves to this. If you have a desire to get acquainted with a more voluminous and systematized description of comic techniques, you can refer to the relevant sources, a small list of which we will give at the end of the lesson.

Now we offer you some good exercises and recommendations with which you can learn how to apply some of the techniques of the comic in your everyday life.

Exercises and recommendations for developing the skills of using comic techniques

There are no special conditions for these exercises. All of them can be performed by you at will and in any sequence. But to achieve the maximum result, we recommend that you practice daily in your free or special time allotted for this.

"Funny story"

Make up a story about yourself and tell it to someone. This will allow you:

• Check how well developed your sense of humor is
• Find out if you know how to joke on purpose
• Understand what your mistakes were in creating the story and narration
• Laugh at yourself with another person

"Associations"

Take any word and pick up five associations to it as quickly as possible. It is desirable that the associations be interesting, unusual and unexpected.

"Anti-associations"

"Ambiguity"

When talking about something, think about how many meanings each word you use has. It is recommended to remember both habitual usages and figurative and slang meanings.

"One Letter Words"

Take one letter of the alphabet and make a long meaningful sentence with the beginning of all the words on it. The exercise allows you to replenish vocabulary and make thinking more flexible.

"Unusual Definition"

Take any common word and come up with an unusual definition for it that does not match the meaning. You can come up with definitions based on similarity or consonance with other words.

"New words"

Take some prefix or ending, for example, "super-", "-nost" or "anti-", and come up with a new concept. Then give this concept a dictionary definition and make some meaningful sentences with it.

"What to do with the item?"

Take any perfectly ordinary object (box, pencil, thread, etc.) and come up with 20 ways to use it.

"Resemblance Search"

Choose any two objects that have nothing in common (a bird and a stool, a glass and a telephone, etc.). Task: find 10-15 similarities between them.

"Identification"

Turn on a comedy TV show. While watching, identify the tricks and jokes used by comedians (comparison, anecdote, sarcasm, double meaning etc.).

"Journalist"

Imagine yourself as a journalist. Take any magazine or open photos on the Internet, and come up with funny captions for 10-15 of them. It is best if the descriptions reflect the topic, but diverge from the real picture.

"Replacing with synonyms"

Take any word and replace it with synonyms with a comical message (for example, "the driver is the luminary of the steering wheel and pedals", "cat food is Vaska's zhrachka", etc.).

"Wordplay"

Take a word with several meanings and build a sentence so that in the second part the whole meaning changes (for example: "Stirlitz fired blindly. The blind woman fell," etc.).

"False Expectations"

Make up a sentence so that in the first part the expectation is formed, and in the second it is destroyed.

"Internal contradiction"

Choose a few expressions containing internal contradictions(“sunglasses”, “blue wagon”, “money machine”, etc.), and make up some jokes based on them.

"Consonance"

Pick up words that have other words inside, but already different in meaning, and make up a few jokes with them (for example, “gentlemen of fortune - gentlemen at the COTTAGE”, “pomelo - and POMELO and NAMELO”, etc.)

"Learning Words and Sentences"

Find a word or set expression (“authorities”, “bird's milk”, “human rights”, etc.), and think carefully about the meaning. If there interesting essence, build a joke on it.

We also want to repeat once again that you need to practice as much and as often as possible - this will allow you to learn how to apply comic techniques competently and quickly. Given that it depends to a large extent on thinking, attention, creativity, the ability to find associations, think logically and draw conclusions, we, among other things, advise you to pay attention to ours and go through it.

And as an excellent addition, as we promised, we give you a list of useful literature, from where you can get a lot of interesting and important information about many subtleties of humor and comic:

• Y. Borev "Comic"
• Y. Borev "On the comic"
• V. Vinogradov “Stylistics. Theory of poetic speech. Poetics"
• B. Dzemidok "On the comic"
• G. Kazimov “Theory of the comic. Problems of language means and techniques"
• A. Luk "About a sense of humor and wit"
• E. Safonova "Forms, Means and Techniques of Creating the Comic in Literature"

In the fourth lesson, as already mentioned, we will talk in more detail about wit and how to develop it, as well as present some excellent related exercises. After completing the lesson, you will have all the means to make anyone laugh, even if before that you were a complete bore.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...3

1 Theoretical justifications for the study of the comic as an aesthetic category…………………………………………………………………………..5

1.1 The general nature of the comic effect…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1.2 Stylistic ways of expressing comic effect…………..11

1.2.1 Humor……………………………………………………………………11

1.2.2 Irony…………………………………………………………………..12

1.2.3 Satire…………………………………………………………………...13

2 Comic in modern English works…………..…………….15

2.1 Story Level………………………………………………………......16

2.2 Character Level………………………………………………………..19

2.3 Supply level…………………………………………………….22

2.4 Phrase level………………………………………………….24

Conclusion………………………………………………………………..............25

List of sources used…………………………………………...26

Appendix A Ways of using comic effect by English-speaking authors of the 20th century ……………………………………………….29

Appendix B Techniques for using comic English-speaking authors of the 20th century …………………………………………………………………….30

Introduction

The comic has always been one of the subjects of stylistic research. But over time, the mentality and understanding of the comic effect changes. Its forms and means, as well as the styles of the authors, change. Certain techniques and ways of expressing the comic are used, due to which the style and language become unique and unrepeatable. However, one can find the most common features expressions of comic effect by the authors of one century. Therefore, in this work, some literary sources will be analyzed and the main methods and techniques of expressing the comic effect used contemporary authors in English stories.

Goal of the work is to analyze the comic as a category expressed by linguistic means in modern English literature.

The goal was specified in the following tasks :

Consider and clarify the concept of comedy as a stylistic category,

Highlight the different levels of the text in which the comic effect is manifested,

Analyze techniques and means of comic effect on various levels text.

Object of study constitutes comic effect as a stylistic category.

Subject of research are the ways and techniques of expressing the comic effect in a literary text.

Material For research served as storiesH. Munro "The Story-Teller", H. Munro "The Mouse", Owen Johnson "The Great Pancake Record", James Thurber "Doc Marlowe", Muriel Spark "You Should Have Seen The Mess".

Course work consists of two parts: theoretical and research. In the introduction, the purpose and objectives of the study, the subject and object of study are indicated. The theoretical part deals with the comic effect, its ways and means of expression. The research part analyzes English works of the twentieth century. The appendix contains diagrams.

1 Theoretical justifications for the study of the comic as an aesthetic category

“Feeling is one of the forms of human consciousness, one of the forms of reflection of reality, expressing the subjective attitude of a person to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of his human needs, to the correspondence or non-correspondence of something to his ideas.” Not all human needs are innate. Some of them are formed in the process of education and reflect not only the connection of man with nature, but also his connection with human society. "Aesthetic feelings" are the cause of the emergence of aesthetic categories. For example, in his book On the Sense of Humor and Wit, A. N. Luk gives a list of human feelings, in which, in addition to higher social feelings, he also includes a list of "aesthetic feelings":

a) feeling elevated

b) Feeling beautiful

c) Feeling tragic

d) Sense of the comic.

These "aesthetic feelings" make up four aesthetic categories: the category of the sublime, the category of the beautiful, the category of the tragic and the category of the comic, which will be considered in this work.

1.1 General nature of comic effect

According to the definition given in the dictionary by I. T. Frolov, “comic is a category of aesthetics that expresses in the form of ridicule the historically determined (full or partial) inconsistency of a given social phenomenon, the activities and behavior of people, their customs and customs with the objective course of things and the aesthetic ideal progressive social forces. Course work will be built on the basis of this definition of the comic, as it fully reflects the essence of the comic. The comic effect in its origin, essence and aesthetic function is social character. Its origins are rooted in the objective contradictions of social life.

The comic can manifest itself in different ways: in the discrepancy between the new and the old, content and form, goals and means, actions and circumstances, the real essence of a person and his opinion about himself. A form of the comic is, for example, an attempt by the ugly, the historically doomed, the inhuman, to hypocritically portray itself as beautiful, progressive, and humane. In this case, the comic evokes angry laughter and the satirical, negative attitude. The senseless thirst for accumulation for the sake of accumulation is comical, since it is in conflict with the ideal of a comprehensively developed person.

The comic has various forms: satire, humor, etc. The concept of "comic" comes from the Greek "koikus" - "cheerful", "funny" and from "komos" - a cheerful gang of mummers at the rural festival of Dionysus in Ancient Greece and passed into the Russian language with the meaning "funny". Starting with Aristotle, there is a huge amount of literature about the comic, its essence and origins; the difficulty of its exhaustive explanation is due, firstly, to its extraordinary dynamism, playfulness, and secondly, to its universality (everything in the world can be considered both seriously and comically).

The general nature of the funny is easier to understand by referring through the etymology of the word to the playful, festively cheerful (often with the participation of mummers) amateur folk laughter, known from ancient times, which is characteristic of all peoples. This is laughter from the joyful carelessness of excess strength and freedom of the spirit, as opposed to the oppressive worries and needs of previous and upcoming everyday life, and at the same time reviving laughter (in the middle of the century it was called “risus paschalis” - “Easter laughter” after long deprivations and prohibitions of Great Lent ).

In terms of communicative content, the comic is universal and at the same time dual, because it can simultaneously combine praise and reproach, praise and reproach. On the one hand, the comic is subjective in nature, and the choice of the comic object is determined by a set of value and behavioral stereotypes that make up the mentality of an individual and a nation at a certain stage of historical development. On the other hand, it is interesting that the discovery of the comic depends on collective intentionality. Thus, in order to achieve the effect of laughter, it is necessary that the participants in communication be “on the same communication wave”, in other words, that there should be at least empathy between them, due to certain points of contact, which can be the unity of the worldview on everyday, social , professional levels. This position is confirmed by the works of M. Eipta (Mahadev Apte), a culturologist and anthropologist, who notes: “Laughter arises when communicants feel comfortable with each other, when they are open and at ease. And the stronger the bonds that bind a given communicative group, the more pronounced the effect” (How Stuff Works 2000: 18).

The anthropological significance of the funny is great, it is associated with both individual and group mentality. So, I.V. Goethe believed that in nothing the character of people is revealed so much as in what they find funny. This truth is equally applicable both to individuals and to entire societies and epochs (what seems funny to one cultural and historical environment, starting with customs, rituals, forms of entertainment, etc., causes laughter in another, and vice versa ( Chernyshevsky 1949)).

In connection with the study of the theory of the comic in general aesthetic terms, one should mention A. Makaryan's book "On Satire", in which the author, despite its title, talks more about the "comic". Indeed, the first part of the monograph is called "Comic in Literature", the second - "Comic". In the second part, the author, who set himself the task of "exploring the main artistic means satirical creativity”, considers such phenomena as “comic of words”, “figurative comic”, “logism and alogism”, “comic of position”, “comic of characters”, “comic of circumstances”, “comic of action”. The author discusses two types of comic words: witty and comic word. However, wit is the subject of an entirely different field of study. As for comic words, according to Makaryan, they are associated with ignorance, cultural backwardness, nervousness, etc. Trying to define groups of comic words, he writes: "Departure from the generally accepted use of the word: dialectisms, professionalisms, archaisms, neologisms, barbarisms, violation of semantic and grammatical connections - all this often gives the word a comic meaning." However, in specific cases, the author experiences difficulties in distinguishing between the means and methods of the comic. So, the author considers the main sources of verbal comedy to be the disorder of thoughts and their logical design, scarcity of thought, ornateness, pretentiousness of speech, disruption of the connection between remarks, comic increase or decrease in intonation, loss of the thread of thought during a conversation, words expressing contradictory concepts, repetitions, comedy. sounds and puns.

The comic effect of ordinary commonly used words is associated primarily with the possibilities of their metaphorization and ambiguity. The comedy is enhanced by individual words when they are connected differently, they acquire additional comic coloring in a comic environment, with misunderstandings that arise in the course of dialogues and mutual remarks of characters. Of course, the comic possibilities of words are also manifested in the language of the author in the course of the story, but the language of the characters has more opportunities to achieve artistic goals.

The comic embraces satire and humor, which are equal forms of the comic.

In philological and aesthetic literature, techniques and means of the comic are often confused and identified.

The means of the comic, along with linguistic ones, also cover other means that cause laughter. The linguistic means of the comic are phonetic, lexical, phraseological and grammatical (morphological and syntactic) means.

The techniques of the comic are generated differently and are formed, first of all, by linguistic means.

Comic art is able to reveal the comic potential not only of common, emotional words, but also of terms, terminological words and combinations. An important condition for the acquisition of comic coloring by lexical units is the comic environment, the unexpected connection of a word in a text with other words and expressions.
In prose, the possibilities of words in creating comic effect, apart from ironic intonation, are as follows:

a) the historical formation of the meaning of a certain part of lexical units in a comic quality;

b) unexpected polysemy, homonymy and synonymy of lexical units;

c) a change in the stylistic conditions for the use of words belonging to different spheres.

Phraseological units serve to express the comic in three cases:

a) accompanied by an ironic intonation;

b) historically formed in the language in a comic capacity;

c) with a successful combination with other words and expressions.

A significant role in the art of the comic is played by witticisms that are expressive and cause laughter.

Comic effect plays important role and culture in general. Modern sociological research shows that, on the one hand, it can act as an instrument for the destruction of traditions, on the other hand, it can preserve and support the existing system, which can be considered as a destructive and constructive function of the comic.

1.2 Stylistic ways of expressing comic effect

There are such types of comic effect as humor, satire, grotesque, irony, caricature, parody, etc. Such a selection of species comes from a mixture of forms and techniques of the comic. Grotesque, caricature, parody are included in the technique of hyperbole and in the aggregate constitute a method of deformation of phenomena, characters, and also serve both satire and humor to the same extent.

“Humor (English humour - moral mood, from Latin humour - liquid: according to the ancient doctrine of the ratio of four bodily fluids, which determines the four temperaments, or character), special kind comic effect ; the relation of consciousness to the object, to individual phenomena and to the world as a whole, combining an outwardly comic interpretation with an inner seriousness. According to the etymology of the word, humor is obviously “wilful”, “subjective”, personally conditioned, marked by the imprint of the “strange” mindset of the “humorist” himself. In contrast to the actual comic interpretation, humor, reflecting, tunes in to a more thoughtful, serious attitude to the subject of laughter, to comprehend its truth, despite the funny oddities - in this humor is the opposite of ridiculing, destructive types of laughter.

On the whole, humor strives for a complex assessment, like life itself, free from the one-sidedness of generally accepted stereotypes. “At a deeper (serious) level, humor reveals the sublime behind the insignificant, the wisdom behind the insane, the true nature of things behind the wayward, and the sad behind the ridiculous.” Jean Paul, the first theoretician of humor, likens it to a bird that flies up to the sky with its tail up, never losing sight of the earth - an image that materializes both aspects of humor.

“Depending on the emotional tone and cultural level humor can be good-natured, cruel, friendly, rude, sad, touching, and the like. The “fluid” nature of humor reveals a “proteic” (Jean Paul) ability to take any form that meets the mood of any era, its historical “temper”, and is also expressed in the ability to combine with any other types of laughter: transitional varieties of ironic, witty, satirical, funny.

1.2.2 Irony

Irony is translated from the Greek "eironeia", literally - "pretense".

In various fields of knowledge, the comic effect is defined in different ways.

In stylistics - “an allegory expressing mockery or slyness, when a word or statement acquires in the context of speech a meaning that is opposite to the literal meaning or denies it, casting doubt on it.”

Irony is reproach and contradiction under the guise of approval and consent; a property is deliberately attributed to a phenomenon, which is not in it, but which should have been expected. Irony is usually referred to as paths, less often as stylistic figures. A hint of pretense, the "key" to irony is usually contained not in the expression itself, but in the context or intonation, and sometimes only in the situation of the utterance. Irony is one of the most important stylistic means of humor, satire, and the grotesque. When ironic mockery becomes evil, caustic mockery, it is called sarcasm.

By virtue of its intellectual conditioning and critical orientation, irony approaches satire; at the same time, a line is drawn between them, and irony is seen as a transitional form between satire and humor. According to this provision, the object of irony is mainly ignorance, while satire has a destructive character, creates intolerance towards the object of laughter, social injustice. "Irony is a means of imperturbable cold criticism".

1.2.3 Satire

Satire (lat. satira, from earlier satura - satura , literally - “mixture, all sorts of things”), a kind of comic; merciless, destroying rethinking of the object of the image (and criticism), which is resolved by laughter, frank or latent, "reduced"; a specific way of artistic reproduction of reality, revealing it as something perverted, incongruous, internally untenable (substantive aspect) through comical, accusatory and ridiculing images (formal aspect).

Unlike direct denunciation, artistic satire is, as it were, two-plot: the comic development of events in the foreground is predetermined by some dramatic or tragic collisions in the "subtext", in the sphere of the implied. Satire itself is characterized by the negative coloring of both plots - visible and hidden, while humor perceives them in positive tones, irony is a combination of an external positive plot and an internal negative one.

“Satire is an essential means of social struggle; the actual perception of satire in this capacity is a variable, depending on historical, national and social circumstances. But the more popular and universal the ideal, in the name of which the satirist creates a denying laughter, the more "tenacious" satire, the higher its ability to revive. The aesthetic "super task" of satire is to excite and revive the memory of the beautiful (goodness, truth, beauty), offended by meanness, stupidity, vice.

Satire retained the features of lyricism, but lost its genre definition and turned into a kind of literary genre that determines the specifics of many genres: fables, epigrams, burlesque, pamphlet, feuilleton , satirical novel. In the last half century, satire has invaded science fiction(O. Huxley, A. Asimov, K. Vonnegut and others).

2 Analyzing stories and highlighting levels of comic effect

On the examples of the stories studied in the course work, it can be seen that the comic effect was widely used by the authors of the twentieth century at various levels. Therefore, the functioning of the methods and techniques for expressing the comic effect at various textual levels will be considered:

story level,

character level,

Offer level,

Phrase level.

Authors often use various means and techniques to create comic effect at the plot level. The predominant means are irony and satire, and the methods are metaphors, repetitions, introductory constructions and neoplasms.

The example of Owen Johnson's story "The Great Pancake Record" shows that even the title speaks of the frivolity of this "sports" record. It talks about how the boys from the college were glorified. Each of them had some hobbies for sports, but one day a new one came to them, who did not go in for any kind of sport. Johnny Smeed only liked to eat and sleep. When the students ran out of money for food, they agreed with the shop owner that if Johnny ate more than 39 pancakes, he would feed them for free. The record was to eat more than anyone in the history of the college.

Forty-nine pancakes! Then, and only then, did they realize what had happened. They cheered Smeed, they sang his praises, they cheered again.

"Hungry Smeed's broken the record!"".

The use of irony in this case underlines the "significance" of this record for the college.

Throughout the text, it is noticeable that newcomers were judged on their athletic achievements and physique, but when they learned that Johnny Smeed had never played sports, they immediately began to regard him as unworthy of their attention:

"A dead loss! ”, “Good for nothing…”.

"- You'll try for the college team?

In this case, the author wants to emphasize the superiority of students over beginners. In addition to using various means of the comic, the author often uses such comic techniques as repetition, metaphors and introductory constructions. For example:

"Six it is," said Hickey, adding a second figure. "Six and six are twelve."

The second six vanished as quickly as the first.

"Why, that boy is starving," said Conover opening his eyes.

"Sure, he is," said Hickey. "Not hasn" t had but thing for ten days."

"Six more," cried Macnooder.

"Six it is," said Nickey. "Six and twelve is eighteen".

The repetition of the number "six" emphasizes the experience and makes the story more emotional.

"You have undermined the effect of years of careful teaching".

This phrase does not seem funny if you do not know the plot of the story. Only after reading, it will become clear what exactly is meant by "carefulteaching". The use of irony, in this case, emphasizes that the children's aunt has in mind good fairy tales and does not pay attention to the behavior and character of her nephews. Children do not know how to behave in a public place, and it is important for their aunt that they are not told inappropriate stories that they enjoyed listening to.

“We walked home together. I admired his bloody nose. He said that my eye was like a poached egg, only black.”

At first glance, this phrase sounds even sadder than funny. But this conversation takes place between the boys who just got into a fight with each other. The use of exaggeration ("admired" - a word completely unsuitable for the style of the story as a whole, and too elevated for this situation and everyday dialogue between two children) and metaphor ("poachedegg" - the eye of one of the boys is compared to a poached egg, which is usually boiled without shells and it has a heterogeneous and puree-like appearance; apparently, the boy’s eye resembled this particular egg) help to understand their mood and already friendly feelings, and, in addition, to see their pride in themselves.

Equally interesting is a short story written by Dorothy West called "The Richer, The Poorer" which describes the lives of two sisters. The author deliberately emphasizes their lifestyle and their miserly attitude towards money:

"She never touched a penny of her money, though her child's mouth watered for ice cream and candy."

Here the author means that one of the sisters is such a greedy person that she does not want to satisfy even her most strong desires(she won't touch a penny even though she's "drooling" at the sight of ice cream and candy).

IN this story neoplasm technique is also used:

"A job in hand was worth two in the future."

In this case, the author transforms famous proverb"Abirdinhandisworthtwointhebush" so as to show greed and the desire to earn as much money as possible. The comical situation is that, while earning money, they did not spend it, but collected it in order to live beautifully and richly in the future, but, having lived to old age, they realized their stupidity.

Very often, writers achieve character-level comic effect through metaphor and exaggeration. At the character level, the main way to express the comic is satire, and the most commonly used techniques are paradox and metaphor.

The role of the comic at the character level in the work of James Thurber "Doc Marlowe" is very well visible.

“Doc Marlowe was a medicine-show man. He had been a lot of other things, too: a circus man, the proprietor of a concession at Coney Island, a saloonkeeper; but in his fifties he had traveled around with a tent-show troupe made up of a Mexican named Chickalilli, who threw knives, and a man called Professor Jones, who played the banjo."

It is rather difficult to imagine a healer who is engaged in circus activities and owns a pub. But throughout the story we see how highly valued his potions are. In addition, for comic effect, the author describes his beggarly existence:

"He was wery low in funds".

It can be assumed that the circus performer and the healer do not have money, but it is hard to imagine that the owner of the pub does not have them. Moreover, describing the healer and the owner of the pub in one person, the author wants to emphasize the comical situation in which the inhabitants of this settlement found themselves. They did not have qualified doctors, so they were forced to seek help from a healer who did not have an impeccable reputation.

The DorothyWest story "The Richer, The Poorer" describes Lottie very well. She dreamed of growing up quickly and earning a lot of money, because as a child she had very few toys, she loved to ride a bicycle, which she had to borrow from friends for a while. Having matured, she got a job as a nanny, and when she faced the choice of working or studying, she went to work without hesitation. She never spent the money she earned, although her child asked for sweets. Having saved all her life, it was only in her old age that she realized how worthless her life was.

SuddenlyLottiewassixty.

With this sentence, the author emphasizes how busy Lottie was in earning money. Having set herself the goal of accumulating as much money as possible, she missed her childhood and youth, and only in her old age she realized that her life had already passed and she had no time for anything, because she was “suddenly” 60 years old.

"Her way of life was mean and miserly".

This sentence perfectly reflects her whole life. The author ironically emphasizes how "stingy" and "useless" Lottie's life was.

“He was thin and small, with a long, pointed nose and a wide mouth…

Smeed understood that the future was decided and that he would go to the grave as "Hungry" Smeed".

“He was “a dead loss”, good for nothing but to sleep a lot and to eat like a glutton with a hunger that could never be satisfied.”

The author describes a boy who felt that the most important years of his life were college life. He wanted to leave a memory of himself for future students, but did not know how to achieve this, because apart from the "talent to eat" he could not distinguish himself in anything else.

The comic effect is also achieved by the fact that the author gives nicknames to all the characters ("Hickey", "OldTurkey", "Spider", "RedDog", "Butcher").

In MurielSpark's YouShouldHaveSeenTheMess, the author achieves comic effect at the character level by describing the boy's attitude towards disorder:

"One day, I was sent over to the Grammar School with a note for one of the teachers, and you should have seen the mess!" I am so glad that I did not go to the Grammar School, because of its mess…

After that I went the Grammar School more and more. I liked it and I did like the mess.”

Using satire and many comic techniques, modern English-speaking authors create comic images, making their works more lively and funny.

At the sentence level, the comic effect is very common among English-speaking authors of the 20th century. To express it, the authors use all the ways and means of conveying the comic effect in approximately equal proportions.

In Owen Johnson's short story "The Great Pancake Record" the author often uses irony:

"Afinefootballteamwe'll have".

This is an ironic exclamation, because at the beginning of the story the author writes about a boy who weighed only about 48 kilograms and never played football or baseball:

“He was “a dead loss”, good for nothing but…”.

You can well translate the following phrase as "Well, still":

"Yes, you are."

The author uses satire to show the superiority of students over beginners. This phrase was uttered in order to show that participation in the game in their team should be a great honor for all newcomers.

H. Munro's story "TheStory-Teller" uses introductory constructions and paradoxes.

“At any rate I kept them quiet for 10 minutes, which was more than you were able to do.”

“Thirty-two is a long way to go,” said Conover, looking apprehensively at the little David, “fourteen pancakes is an awful lot.”

David is the biblical hero who defeated Goliath, and Johnny Smeed simply broke the "record" of his predecessors.

After analyzing some stories of modern English-speaking authors, we can conclude that this level is used most rarely.

At the level of phrases, the prevailing devices are stereotypical phrases and introductory constructions. Authors often use humor. Satire at this level was used extremely rarely in the 20th century.

O. Johnson's short story "The GreatPancake Record" often contains comic phrases:

"Go down to the grave".

This phrase refers to the boy's nickname. The author uses an exaggeration because he wants to show that this nickname will not haunt him until his death, but for Johnny Smeed these are the most important years, as he thinks, and therefore he uses this phrase.

H. Munro's "The Mouse" describes the behavior of a teenager who has a mouse in his pants. He could not scream, as it happened on the train, a woman was sleeping in the same compartment with him, and he did not want to wake her up, and therefore he behaved very strangely. When the woman woke up, he explained to her the reason for this behavior. She asked if his pants were tight or wide, and when he answered that they were tight, she uttered the following phrase: "Strange ideas of comfort." The author uses a metaphor in this case, as it is doubtful that mice have any idea of ​​comfort at all.

Conclusion

In this course work, the comic effect was considered as an aesthetic category, theories of creating a comic, its means and techniques were also studied. In the research part, an analysis was made of the ways and techniques of expressing the comic effect on the examples of modern English-speaking authors.

The study showed that in their works, English-speaking authors of the twentieth century seek to create a comic effect with the help of various ways and methods of expression.

After analyzing the ways and means of expressing the comic effect at various textual levels, we can conclude that irony and humor are used approximately equally, although satire is the predominant way of expressing the comic. The least used techniques are convergences, allusions and parodies. The greatest preference is given to repetitions, neoplasms and introductory constructions.

Thus, we can sum up - the comic effect as a stylistic category manifests itself at various levels of the text and is the determining factor in text formation in humorous works.

List of sources used

1Aznaurova, E. S. The stylistic aspect of nomination by the word as a unit of speech / E. S. Aznaurova // Language nomination (types of names). - M .: Publishing house of Enlightenment, 1977. - S.86-129.

2Aristotle. On the Art of Poetry / Aristotle. - M., 1957. - 129 p.

3Arnold, I.V. The style of modern in English/ I. V. Arnold. - L .: Education, 1973. - 304 p.

4Akhmanova, O. S."Vertical context" as a philological problem / O. S. Akhmanova, I. V. Gyubbenet// - Questions of linguistics. - 1977. - No. 6. - S. 44-60.

5Bergson A. Collected works. V. 5 / A. Bergson. - St. Petersburg, 1914. - 684 p.

6Boldyreva, L. M. Stylistic potency of phraseological units in the field of humor, irony and satire / L. M. Boldyreva // Questions of the lexicology of Germanic languages. - M., 1979. - Issue. 139. - S. 48-62.

7Boreev, Yu. B. About the comic / Yu. B. Boreev. – M.: Izd-vo Iskusstvo, 1957. – 232 p.

8Boreev, Yu. B. Comic / Yu. B. Boreev. - M., Art, 1970. - 239 p.

9Boreev, Yu. B. Comic and artistic means of its reflection / Yu. B. Boreev. –– M., 1958, p. 298-353.

10Bronsky, I. Yu. On the use of phraseological units of the English language to create a comic effect / I. Yu. Bronsky // Questions of philology and history of teaching foreign languages. - Stavropol, 1976. - S. 39-56.

11Verbitskaya, M. V. Literary parody as an object of philological research / M. V. Verbitskaya. – Tbilisi: publishing house of the Tbilisi University. - 1987. - 166 p.

12Galperin, I. R. Stylistics of the English language / I. R. Galperin. - M .: Higher. school, 1977. - 332 p.

13Hegel. Aesthetics. T. 2. / Hegel. - M., 1969. - 845 p.

14Guralnik, W. A. Laughter is a weapon of the strong / U. A. Guralnik. - M., 1961. - 48 p.

15Gubbenet, I. V. On the problem of understanding the literary and artistic text (on English material) / I. V. Gyubbenet. - M .: publishing house Mosk. un-ta., 1981. - 110 p.

16Dzemidok, B. N. About the comic / B. N. Dzemidok. - Kyiv, 1967. - 284p.

17Dmitrovsky, M. I. Weapon of laughter / M. I. Dmitrovsky. - Alma-Ata, 1968. - 144 p.

18Ershov, L. F. Satire and modernity / L. F. Ershov. - M., Sovremennik, 1978. - 271 p.

19Ivin, A. A. The art of thinking correctly / A. A. Ivin. – M.: Enlightenment, 1990. – 240 p.

20Imanaliev, K. K. On the skill of satire / K. K. Imanaliev // Sat. articles. Issue 1. - Frunze, 1960. - 130 p.

21Kiseleva, R. A. Stylistic functions of author's neologisms in modern English comic and satirical prose / R. A. Kiseleva // Uchenye zapiski Leningrad. ped. Institute of foreign lang.: Questions of theory English. and Russian languages. - Vologda, 1970. - T. 471. - S. 43-53.

22Krasikova, O. V. Introductory elements of a sentence as a stylistic and syntactic device in the works of Jerome K. Jerome / O. V. Krasikova // Specificity and evolution of functional styles. - Perm, 1979. - S. 136-144.

23Lazarus, M. O. Parables and legends / M. O. Lazarus. - M., 1953. - 63 p.

24Luk, A. N. On the sense of humor and wit / A.N. Luk. – M.: Izd-vo Iskusstvo, 1968. – 192 p.

25Makaryan, A. N. About satire / A. N. Makaryan; per. from Armenian. - M., Publishing house Soviet writer, 1967. - 381 p.

26Mikhlina, M. P. On some language techniques for creating a comic effect / M. P. Mikhlina // Uchenye zapiski ped. in-ta. - Dushanbe, - 1962. - V.31. - Issue. 14. - P. 3-14.

27Morozov, A. A. parody like literary genre/ A. A. Morozov // Russian literature. - 1960. - No. 1. - P.48-78.

28Nikolaev, D. P. Laughter is a weapon of satire / D. P. Nikolaev. - M., Art, 1962. -224 p.

29Ozmitel, E. K. On satire and humor / E. K. Ozmitel. - L., 1973. - 191 p.

30Potebnya, A. A. From notes on the theory of literature / A. A. Potebnya. - Kharkov, 1905. - 583 p.

31Pokhodnya, S. I. Linguistic types and means of implementing irony / S. I. Pokhodnya. - Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1989. - 128 p.

32Propp, V. Ya. Problems of comedy and laughter / V. Ya. Propp. - St. Petersburg, 1997. - 284 p.

33Skrebnev, Yu. M. Stylistic functions of introductory elements in modern English. lang. : autoref. dis. / Yu. M. Skrebnev. - L., 1968, 32 p.

34Tremasova, G. G. Language means of expressing satirical meaning (English and American fiction, and journalism of the twentieth century): author. dis. / G. G. Tremasova. - M., 1979. - 126 p.

35Frolov, I. T. Philosophical Dictionary / I. T. Frolov. - 4th ed. - M.: Politizdat Publishing House, 1981. - 445 p.

36Chernyshevsky, N. G. Sublime and comic. Full coll. op. T.2. / N. G. Chernyshevsky. - M., 1949. - 584 p.

37 Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. – London, 1978

Annex A

(reference)

Ways of using comic effect by English-speaking authors of the twentieth century

Annex B

(reference)

Techniques for using the comic by English-speaking authors of the 20th century

Introduction

The subject of this work is vocabulary that contributes to the creation of a comic effect. The comic is a rather complex phenomenon, "one of the most difficult aesthetic categories." That is why the theory of the comic text has attracted the attention of researchers since antiquity.

This problem was studied by such researchers as E.G. Kolesnikova, A. Shcherbina, R.A. Budagov, E.A. Zemskaya. Their works were used in the writing of this work.

The material for the study was the novel by the famous Soviet satirists I. Ilf and E. Petrov "The Twelve Chairs".

In 1927, with the joint work on the novel "The Twelve Chairs" began creative collaboration I. Ilf and E. Petrov. The plot basis of the novel was suggested by Kataev, to whom the authors dedicated this work. In his memoirs about I. Ilf, E. Petrov later wrote: “We quickly agreed that the plot with chairs should not be the basis of the novel, but only the reason, the reason for showing life.” The co-authors succeeded in this to the full extent: their works became the brightest "encyclopedia of Soviet life" of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The novel was written in less than half a year; in 1928 it was published in the magazine "30 days" and in the publishing house "Earth and Factory". In the book edition, the co-authors restored the bills, which they had to make at the request of the editor of the magazine.

Goal of the work: more detailed acquaintance with this topic in the course of training.

Task- to identify the features of the functioning of linguistic means that create a comic effect in the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov "The Twelve Chairs".

Speech means creating comic effect in a novel

The comic is generated by human nature; it is inherent in the national spirit, it is in the blood of the people. The great masters learned it from the people, oral creativity. Having polished its forms, they again returned it to the people. The people have always highly valued witty people, masters of humor, skillfully using the weapon of satire. The comic art of true masters of laughter is a force that constantly calls for progress: “Comic art is truly revolutionary. Laughter has never served the forces of reaction and regression."

"By "Comic" is meant both natural events, objects and the relationships that arise between them, as well as a certain type of creativity, the essence of which is the conscious construction of a certain system of phenomena or concepts, as well as a system of words in order to cause the effect of the comic." There is a significant qualitative difference between ordinary laughter and comic (comic). Laughter expresses the natural, physiological reaction of a person, his subjective attitude to the impression received. The comic, on the other hand, has a more general, objective content. He represents the highest level of laughter. In works devoid of genuine comedy, “the plot turns out to be unpretentious, the images are insignificant, truly satirical angry laughter is replaced by vulgar giggles.”

The comic in speech is inextricably linked with its expressiveness, emotional and evaluative expressiveness, which allows the author to express his attitude to the objects of reality and give them an appropriate assessment. The essence of creating a comic effect lies in the fact that, in addition to the expressive shades that are inherent or inherent in them potentially, additional expression is communicated, comic, resulting from a contradiction caused by a purposeful deviation from the language of the norm.

The realization of the comic in relation to any work is the meaning of the text. The comic text is based on a deviation from linguistic stereotypes, "the game in creating and interpreting a comic text is realized in the unpredictability and conventionality of actions aimed at destroying stereotypes."

The most typical for I. Ilf and E. Petrov are the means based on the use of stylistic means. These are puns, the figurative use of words, phraseological units, the injection of synonyms and the formation of comic proper names, as well as the method of mixing styles.

In creating puns, authors often use the so-called open connecting structures. This method consists in the fact that words that are distant in meaning, phrases expressing logically incompatible concepts, are combined as homogeneous, often while they refer to one polysemantic word, but its different meanings:

“She brought with her the frosty breath of January and a French fashion magazine…”

The first part of the phrase implies a figurative, poetic meaning of the word, while the second refers to the direct one. The contrast between the meanings of the word and causes a comic effect.

The main way to create a pun in the texts of Ilf and Petrov is the polysemy of the word, as, for example, in the following sentence, based on the collision of the direct and figurative meaning of the word: “ To tell the truth, Russian whites are pretty gray people».

The words “white” and “gray” refer to the same semantic range in their basic meanings as color designations, but they differ in figurative meanings (“white” - “counter-revolutionary, acting against the Soviet regime” and “gray” - “unremarkable, mediocre". On the basis of close main meanings, the co-authors collide very distant additional, derived meanings, as a result of which a comic effect arises.

A very important role is played by the technique of mixing styles (moving words and expressions from one style of speech to another) - i.e. placement in a stylistic environment alien to them of elements of speech professional, scientific and technical, journalistic, official business, etc. - a specific means of creating various shades of comic tonality, emphasizing the individual comic picture of the world AND. Ilf and E. Petrov.

« The sun was beating down, and the blond seasons stood motionless in the shade of their umbrellas. At this time, we clearly felt the presence on the airforeign body . This is true! Pavlidis ran up to us, waving his hat.».

In this example, a person is referred to as an inanimate object, which makes one feel a slight mockery of the co-authors over the described person.

An ironic effect (more precisely, a mockery) can result from a “simple” replacement of a stylistically neutral word with an expressive colloquial, colloquial synonym or professional term, which in turn is an important component of the style mixing technique. For example:

« Ostap did not indulge his opponents with a variety of openings. On the remaining twenty-nine boards he did the same operation: he moved the king's pawn from e2 to e4...».

The disdain felt in the actions of Ostap Bender reveals an ironic a fragment of a comic picture in the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov.

The novel also uses vivid metaphors. They are created on the basis of well-known direct meanings of words, by comparing and contrasting concepts from distant semantic spheres. The comic effect arises from the unexpectedness of comparable concepts:

"Spring was dying before everyone's eyes."

“She brought with her a herd of girls in sundresses”

“The sky was in small cloud dumplings…”

On the reception of surprise

For Ilf and Petrov, cases of metonymic transfer are typical, replacing a person with the name of clothing, part of the body, or even occupation:

“... “Court and Life”, a hairy man, approached him. The secretary continued to read, deliberately not looking in the direction of Court and Life, and making unnecessary notes in the front. “Court and Life” came in from the other side of the table and said touchily ... "

“A one-eyed man was sitting in the chess section reading Shpilhagen's novel… And the one-eyed man ran away. Ostap examined the premises of the chess section ... "

This technique performs a revealing function in characterizing characters and describing individual negative phenomena.

Also, the authors intentionally expand the meaning of some nouns, comparing objects or phenomena according to a random similar feature, making it the main one. This serves for a comic rethinking of the well-known names of objects, phenomena, life facts. For example, students who are the first to occupy a compartment on a train are called "firstborns."

In addition to the generally accepted use of words in a figurative sense, I. Ilf and E. Petrov have cases when, to name a character, they use words that were used earlier in the characters’ speech as an “expressive characteristic”. The comic effect also occurs in cases where the figurative or very conditional expression of the character, used by him as an expressive characteristic, is included in the author's narrative as a neutral name for the person:

« -Thieves live in your house number 7! yelled the janitor. - Any bastard! Viper seven-batyushnaya! Has a secondary education!. I will not look at secondary education!. Gangrene damn!!!

At this time, a seven-batushka viper with a secondary education sat behind a dustbin on a can and yearned.

The comic effect is created by the discrepancy between the objective nature of the author's narration and the words of the hero, which have a pronounced evaluative, expressive character or belong to a different style of speech. The discrepancy between the points of view on the reality of the author and the hero, the difference in their manner of speech creates a vivid contradiction between the context and the transferred words, contributes to their ironic perception:

« Ptiburdukov the second ... said that the patient does not need to follow a diet. Everything is possible. For example, soup, meatballs, compote... He does not recommend drinking, but for appetite it would be nice to introduce a glass of good port wine into the body... But the patient did not think to introduce into the body neither compote, nor fish, nor meatballs, nor other pickles».

Separate consideration is required for such linguistic means of creating a comic effect as the formation of proper names and the various use of phraseological units. Based on them, a work of art acquires not only a bright emotional coloring with memorable colorful characters, but also becomes popular thanks to the “catch phrases” that are rooted in everyday speech.

idiom comic novel speech