Reflective Laughter: Aspects of Humour in Russian Culture by Lesley s> Milne (review)

Abstract

I24 SEER, 84, I, 2006 valuable insight into how Iazykov'scontemporariesperceived and evaluated his work. The critic skilfully strings together the comments of Iazykov's admirers, such as P. Pletnev, with comments of those who judged the poet's poems negatively, such as N. Polevoi. Readers are reminded of Iazykov's immense popularity during his lifetime, when his poems were praised and memorized,just as they were also criticizedand dismissed. In the third chapter, Rassadin analyses lazykov's use of the word 'genius', which appears frequently in his poetry. For Iazykov this word had many meanings, some of them diametrically opposed to one another. Sometimes 'genius', as it appears in the poem 'Poet svoboden' (I822), is a traditional image symbolizing creative freedom, but more often it is a criterion for the poet's uniqueness and is not considered a gift, but a goal toward which the poet should strive. Inthefourthandfifthchapters,Rassadininvestigatestheproblematicnature of the Pushkin-Iazykovrelationship.ChapterfiveconsidersPushkin'sallusions to Iazykovin Evgenii Onegin. Chapterfourisperhapsthe most interestingin the book because of the very original approach and well-grounded standpoint Rassadin adopts. He claims that Iazykov perceived himself as poet who '[rejected]imitation and literarydecorum, exploringhis own truesignificance independently and equallywith [Pushkin]'(p. 129), which explains Iazykov's cold attitudetowardsPushkin. The book'sappendixisdividedinto threepartshighlightingthreeparticular issuesthat arisein Iazykov'sbiographyand work.Partone describesthe life of the poet's favouritesister,Ekaterinalazykova, thus expanding our knowledge of Iazykov'sprivatelife. In part two Rassadinemploys intertextualanalysisto argue that Iazykov could really be the prototype for Goncharov's Oblomov. In the thirdpart, Rassadin investigatesthe roots of one of the main themes in Iazykov'spoetry love for Mother Russia. Poslednii izpushkinskoi pleiadyis written in a simple yet elegant style and is a great read not only for specialistswho want to discoverfor themselvesa littleknown page in Russianliterature,but also for those who have a more general interestin nineteenth-centuryRussian culture. Department ofModern Languages andCultural Studies I. SHILOVA University ofAlberta, Canada Milne, Lesley (ed.). Reflective Laughter. Aspectsof Humourin RussianCulture. Anthem Russian and Slavonic Studies. Anthem Press, London, 2004. Xii + 222 Pp. Notes. Ci8.99 (paperback). CREATING and perceiving humour is a difficultbusiness;providing a critical analysis of humour is potentially even more hazardous. Nevertheless, in Reflective LaughterLesley Milne and her co-contributors have succeeded magnificently in providing an insight into the role played by humour in the formation of Russian culture and counter-cultureover the past two hundred years. This study brings together a collection of sixteen articles which deal with variousmanifestationsof humourbeginning in I830 with Pushkin's'The Covetous Knight' and culminating in an account of humour and satire on REVIEWS I25 post-Soviet television. Mirroring itsbroadhistorical focus,thecollectiontakes a similarlyinclusiveapproachto the varioustypesof humorouspracticein Russianculture:whilst remainingpredominantly literaryin terms of its references,it alsoincludesexamplestakenfromjournals,musicalcomedy, film and anecdotes.Furthermore, as Milne says in her own article,it is rewarding to examineany aspectof a givencultureboth 'fromoutside'as foreignspecialists areobligedto do and 'frominside'as nativescholarsare able to do. With sevenof the sixteenarticlesin this collectionwrittenby scholarsworkingin Russia,Reflective Laughter showshow successfully views fromthesetwocomplementary perspectives canbemarried together. The engaging tone of the collection is establishedearly with Efim Kurganov's analysis'Gogolasa Narrator ofAnecdotes'. Througha comparisonof Gogol'withZhukovskii and Odoevskii,Kurganovmakespersuasive claimsfortheformer'sstatusas an anecdotenarrator who bothimprovised witheaseandreliedonestablished tradition. Thesebiographical observations arethenwoveninto a specifically literaryanalysisas Gogol'is comparedto Khlestiakov in TheGovernment Inspector in termsof the two men'srespective abilitiesto believein theirnonsensical fantasies.In 'Antony Pogorelskii and A. K. Tolstoi:The OriginsofKuzmaPrutkov', MariettaTourianmanagesa similarly engagingsynthesis ofbiography andliterary criticism asshemakesa convincing case for the influence of Pogorelskiiand his parodic and epigrammatic artuponhisnephewTolstoi'simmortalcreation,thefictional publisher Prutkov. The collectionmovesinto the twentiethcenturywithEdytheC. Haber's revealing examination oftheevidenceofwomen'shumourtobefoundinthe workofNadezhdaAleksandrovna Teffi.Invoking theexerciseofauthority as keytothepracticeofhumour,HaberlikensTeffi's styletothatofJaneAusten and, in the process,provokesnotableinterestin the widercanon of this unusualwriter.Milne'scentralarticleconsiders threedifferent typesofcomic hero as exemplifiedin the workof writerssuchas Bulgakov,Zoshchenko, Iskander andPelevin.Thejoker(Bulgakov's Wolandor Pelevin'sTatarskii), the rogue(Ilfand Petrov'sBenderor Iskander's Sandro)and the innocent (Zoshchenko's protagonists orVoinovich's Chonkin)represent heroeswhose behaviour displays different responses to thegivensituation in society.Milne makesa convincingcase for each of these typesand, in so doing, draws informativeparallelsbetween charactersfrom distincthistoricalperiods. Indeed,thetypeofilluminating cross-referencing evidentinMilne'sarticleis emblematic of theachievement of thecollectionasa whole.Reinforcing the needforhistorical cross-referencing, in 'Escaping thePast?Re-reading Soviet...