Study On Russian Jokes From Carnival Theory

Carnival theory was.advanded by the famous Russian literary theorist Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin(1895—1975).According to Bakhtin,during the century-long development of the medieval carnival,a set of special language forms and symbols was evolved-an extremely rich language feature that expressed the unique yet complex carnival experience of the people.We find here a characteristic and peculiar logic of the "inside out",or the "turnabout",of a continual top-to-bottom shift of numerous parodies and travesties,humiliations,profanations,comic crowning and uncrownings.This language feature gives expression to a unified carnival sense of the world,and it cannot be translated in any full or adequate way into a verbal language,but it is amenable to a certain transposition into a language of artistic images;that is,it can be transposed into the language of literature.The transposition of carnival(in the sense of the sum total of all diverse festivities,rituals and forms of a carnival type)into the language of literature is called the carnivalizaton of literature.Carnivalization is an extraordinarily flexible form of artistic discovery of new and as yet unseen things.Modern Russian joke is a kind of folk discourse genre and a form of folk humorous culture.Analyzing its generic characteristics,we simultaneously uncover in it elements of carnivalization.Here we have the characteristic accessories of a carnival complex:guffaw and tragedy,clowns and scandal scenes,etc.The most important thing here is that the carnival sense of world thoroughly permeates the semantic structure,image characteristic,plot scene,language and other aspects of the joke.It plays a decisive role in genre construction,image building and punchline composition.Modern Russian joke is a profoundly carnivalized genre.Our topic is "Study on Russian Jokes from Carnival Theory".Its theoretical value lies in the fact that by using carnival theory and analyzing the carnival characteristics of the image,content and language in jokes,as well as the main carnival techniques,we can reveal the construction rules and essential characteristics of modern Russian jokes.Meanwhile,the analysis of joke genre can deepen our understanding of carnival theory and expand the application space of this theory in our practical field.The practical value of the research is that it can help us to achieve a full understanding of the value and function of jokes.It is helpful for individuals to adjust their psychological state,optimize interpersonal relations and express their inner discourse by making use of jokes,which is almost the only remaining form of folk laughter culture.It will help us to better understand the humorous characteristics of the Russian nation.The innovation of this paper lies in that this study is the first attempt to systematically explain Russian jokes with carnival theory.There are some previous materials which have mentioned the carnival factor in jokes,but they are by no means specialised work.We have attempted a research on the carnivalization of jokes from the aspects of characters,plot and language,which will expand the application of carnival theory in the joke genre and deepen the understanding of the genre.Jokes are like carnival squares,where people from various positions find themselves in familiar contact with one another.The main characters in jokes are fools,clowns and strangers,and they make up a sort of carnival collective which,to a certain extent,seems itself outside the normal order of ordinary life.Their behavior and their relationship with one another become unusual,eccentric,and scandalous.They encompass and unite within themselves as members of an antithesis:top-bottom,praise-abuse,affirmation-repudiation,tragic-comic,and so forth.The joke is permeated with the logic of the carnival world:free and familiar contact,carnivalistic mesalliances,scandal scenes,profanation,and so on.This is a special instance of the carnival category of eccentricity,the violation of the usual and the generally accepted,life drawn out of its usual rut.And around these central figures,all of life is carnivalized and turned into a"world inside out":traditional plot situations radically change their meaning,there develops a dynamic carnivalistic play of sharp contrasts,unexpected shifts and changes.Everything is built on the extreme inappropriateness and scandalous nature of all that occurs.Everything is full of sharp carnivalistic contrasts,mesalliances,ambivalence,debasing,and decrownings.At their base lies a profound carnivalistic sense of the world,which gives meaning to and unites all the seemingly absurd and unexpected things in these scenes and creates their artistic truth.All the things that are disunified and distant are brought together at the one single spatial and temporal"point",showing the carnival freedom and carnival's artistic conception of space and time.The semantic structure of the genre has the dual nature,with mutual excitement between the literal meaning and the implied meaning.Various language styles,territorial and social dialects,professional jargons are presented in jokes.The elements of speech that are considered inappropriate,undignified,and unacceptable in daily life,are widely used in jokes,and they are "organic" parts of the joke world and are often the key factors in the formation of humor.In short,the joke is a virtual,free and unusual world,where carnivalization is present simultaneously with great external visibility,and with the enormous depth of a carnival sense of the world.It is a carnival square,free and unrestricted,full of ambivalent laughter,blasphemy,the profanation of everything sacred,full of debasing and obscenities,familiar contact with everyone and everything.Thus a second life,a second world of folk culture is constructed.It is to a certain extent a parody of the official life,a "world inside out."...