Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
LITERATUROVEDCHESKII
ZHURNAL
The Journal of Literary History and Theory
Peer-reviewed Academic Journal

S.P. SHEVYREV ABOUT THE LAUGHTER IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE

Aleksandr N. Nikolyukin

Aleksandr N. Nikolyukin – Doctor of Science in Philology, Director of Research, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Prospekt 51/21, 117997, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: anikolyukin1928@yandex.ru

Abstract

For the first time the topic of laughter in Ancient Russia was voiced in an article by S.P. Schevyrev “The Theory of the Ridiculous, with Application to Russian Comedy” (1851) and in his book “History of Russian Literature” (1846–1860), where he completely opened ancient Russian literature to the reader. In this book the notion of laughter comes through as one of the permanent features of Old Russian and modern Russian literature. Shevyrev calls Daniil Zatochnik (12th century), the master of “weeping laughter and smiling sadness”, the first Russian humorist and compares the lucid laughter of Gogol with Daniil’s humor and laughter. All Russian comedies (by Fonvizin, Griboedov, Gogol) Shevyrev considers as phenomena of funny, bright laughter. This is directed against the old tendency in literary studies to see in every great comedy first of all a satire, a denunciation. In the works of Shevyrev the concept of laughter was expressed by the word “funny”.

Keywords

Russian literature; laughter; funny; comedy; S.P. Shevyrev; N.V. Gogol.

Recieved

20.02.2022

Accepted

10.03.2022

For citation

Nikolyukin, A.N. “S.P. Shevyrev About the Laughter in Russian Literature”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 2(56), 2022, pp. 112–124. DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2022.56.07

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2022.56.07

References

1. Averintsev, S. “Bakhtin, smekh, khristianskaya kul'tura” [“Bachtin, Laugh, Christian Culture”]. Available at: http://classica.rhga.ru/upload/iblock/f9f/26 (date of access: 05.09.2021). (In Russ.)
2. Averintsev, S. “Bakhtin i russkoe otnoshenie k smekhu” [“Bachtin and Russian View on Laugh”]. Ot mifa k literature: Sbornik v chest' 75-letiya E.M. Meletinskogo [From Myth to Literature. Collection for 75 years of E.M. Meletinski]. Moscow, RGGU Publ., 1993, pp. 341–345. (In Russ.)
3. Aristotle. Ob iskustve poezii [Ars Poetica], ed. F.A. Petrovskii. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura Publ., 1957, 184 p. (In Russ.)
4. Vyazemskii, P.A. Ehstetika i literaturnaya kritika [Aesthetics and Literary Criticism]. Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1984, 458 p. (In Russ.)
5. Hobbes, T. Leviafan, ili Materiya, forma i vlast' gosudarstva [Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil]. Available at: https://www.civisbook.ru/files/File/Gobbs_Leviafan.pdf (date of access: 05.09.2021). (In Russ.)
6. Hobbes, T. Traktat o chelovecheskoi prirode [Treatise on Human Nature]. Available at: https://vlab.wikia.org/ru/wiki_(1640)?action=edit (date of access: 05.09.2021). (In Russ.)
7. Gogol', N.V. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem [The Complete Works and Letters]: in 17 vols. Moscow; Kiev, Izdatelstvo Moskovskoi Patriarkhii Publ., 2009. Vol. 3–4. 688 p. (In Russ.)
8. Jean Paul. Prigotovitel'naya shkola ehstetiki [Introduction to Aesthetics]. Available at: https://www.100bestbooks.ru/files/Jean_Paul_Prigotovitelnaya_shkola_estetiki.pdf (date of access: 05.09.2021). (In Russ.)
9. Zhukovskii, V.A. Stikhotvoreniya [Poems]. Leningrad, Sovyetskii pisatel' Publ., 1956, 848 p. (In Russ.)
10. “Izbornik” (Sbornik proizvedenii literatury Drevnei Rusi) [“Selection” (Anthology of Old Russian Literature)]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura Publ., 1969, 800 p. (In Russ.)
11. Kant, I. Kritika sposobnosti suzhdeniya [Critique of Judgement]. Available at: https://fil.wikireading.ru/23600 (date of access: 05.09.2021). (In Russ.)
12. Shevyrev, S.P. “Teoriya smeshnogo, s primeneniem k russkoi komedii” [“The Theory of the Ridiculous as Applied to Russian Comedy”]. Moskvityanin, no. 1, 1851, pp. 106–120; no. 3, pp. 373–385. (In Russ.)
13. Shevyrev, S.P. Polnoye sobranie literaturno-kriticheskikh trudov [Complete Critical Works]: in 7 vols. St Petersburg, Rostok Publ., 2022. Vol. 4, book 1, 562 p. (In Russ.)

Download text