Abstract
Burlesque as a literary device can serve for satirical purpose, but its main function is revealed in the provocation of carnivalesque ambivalence. Unlike satire, where an author remains serious, carnival laughter captures everyone, including its provocateur. This is exuberant laughter that affirms the joyful fact of very human existence. The use of burlesque in Ukrainian literature does not refer to a certain epoch, but forms a continuous and powerful tradition. In the middle of the 1980s, with the liberalization of Ukrainian society, literature steadily turned away from a purely utilitarian role, and burlesque returned, as a device of free and unrepressed laughter. The “Bu-Ba-Bu” literary group, Yuri Vynnychuk, Les Poderviansky, Mukhailo Brynykh most actively elaborate burlesque in their writings, either in a carnival context, or as a device of satire. Thus, the burlesque tradition is quite visible and influential in contemporary Ukrainian literature.
Highlights
Burlesque as a literary device can serve for satirical purpose, but its main function is revealed in the provocation of carnivalesque ambivalence
Ukrainian literature for centuries possessed a quite diverse tradition of carnival burlesque, humour and satire, though severe control of the Soviet regime considerably narrowed the scope of literary laughter to a few permitted forms
Overt and overtly directed satire is welcome, because it can be used as another tool of ideological struggle; yet light popular humour is permitted, as it is almost harmless in the locality of its critique
Summary
Burlesque as a literary device can serve for satirical purpose, but its main function is revealed in the provocation of carnivalesque ambivalence. Ukrainian literature for centuries possessed a quite diverse tradition of carnival burlesque, humour and satire, though severe control of the Soviet regime considerably narrowed the scope of literary laughter to a few permitted forms.
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