LAUGHTER AND CULTURE (SEMIOTIC ASPECT)

Abstract

An attempt is being made to consider laughter as a sociocultural phenomenon and to determine the place of laughter in culture. Culture is viewed from a semiotic point of view as a sign system. The culture is always repressive. Repressiveness of culture is determined by the repressiveness of the sign. A sign requires recognition, the ability to read, interpret it. The definition establishes rules and conventions. In a signified space, we constantly feel limitations, pressure, and lack of freedom.Laughter is existing «on the edge» of culture. At the same time, laughter is socially, historically and culturally determined. It is problematic to attribute laughter to pre-symbolic communication means, tribal memory, which links a person’s behavior with that of his ancestors.In the process of social evolution, laughter takes on a sign. Laughter refers to the symbolic and symbolic sphere of human activity and is a purely human property. «Homo ridens» provides for «Animal symbolicum». From a semiotic point of view, laughter is seen as a phenomenon that arises as a result of a violation of the established order of signification, the loss by a sign of its significance, or its acquisition of a new, unexpected value and meaning. The concept of M. M. Bakhtin’s carnival is considered as a theory of the reciprocity of sign and non-sign, chaos and orderliness. The carnival reveals the conventions of the sign, the conventions of culture as a whole. Laughter exposes culture as a sign system, as a system of conventions. Laughter can be seen as a kind of reaction to the repression of culture, as a moment of liberation from the repression of culture. But a person living in society cannot go beyond culture. While criticizing culture, laughter strengthens culture. Laughter can also be repressive, especially in relation to who they laugh at. Laughter emerges as a universal socio-cultural phenomenon, through the lens of which one can trace the dialectic of the natural, social, cultural, as well as individual, collective and social in human life.