THE BOUNDARIES OF FUNNINESS: PROVOCATION AS TRANSGRESSION (ON THE MATERIALS OF MUSICAL-DRAMATIC ART)

Abstract

In paper the boundaries of funniness in musical-dramatic art are researched. Musical performance goes out from the semiotic space of the original genre into a field of meanings and signs, which are unstabled, opened, containing and suggesting many interpretations, including ironic ones. It is argued in contemporary aesthetics, on the one hand, that the art cannot exist without a discourse interpreting it. On the other hand, there is a demand to avoid the interpretation, which at the same time legitimizes the aesthetic effect and castrates an object of art. Provocation is used for solving the problems of observing the object of art in a new way and understanding of modern reality, and it’s not complete without irony and self-irony. Wit, irony, comicalness are transformed as fitting into the style of the absurd and deconstructing the border between the funny and serious. The purpose of such provocations is to introduce the viewer into a position of uncertainty and aesthetic shock. Such stupor inevitably orients the spectator to a meeting with an object of art and allows for a new understanding of oneself. The paper considers organicity of the elements of laughter culture and comic devices for the music and drama theater is considered.