Humour and Irony as research objects and as parts of everyday discourse in Russia

Abstract

The paper addresses the issues of humour and irony research by Russian scholars and the functioning of humour and irony in everyday interaction. The aim of the paper is twofold: firstly, it presents an overview of humour and irony research in modern Russian linguistics, anthropology, ethics and literary studies. Secondly, it describes functioning of humour and irony in Russian everyday spoken, written and computer-mediated modes of discourse to demonstrate the variety of their forms and conveyed social implications. There is no single perspective that underlies existing approaches to non-bona fide forms of communication. In the Soviet Union, the use of humour and irony was largely controlled by the state. Therefore, there was a strong ideological influence on the research of non-bona fide genres and the choice of empirical data: researchers focused only on the “good examples” of humour taken from classic literary works. Also there was a strong tradition to use the terms humour, the comic, laughter, irony and satire as near synonyms, so sometimes it is not easy to draw a borderline between humorous and ironic discourses. In the past decades spontaneous non-bona fide forms of discourse have attracted researchers’ attention. Among a variety of genres canned jokes (or anecdotes) is the most popular humorous genre. Instances of humour and irony can be found not only in written texts, but also in spoken and computer-mediated modes of discourse, and in all modes humorous and ironic utterances are used to convey social implications or challenge existing social norms.