TY - CHAP

T1 - Humour as Evaluation of Poshlost' and Cynicism in the Speech of Others

AU - Vasileva, Viktoria

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Humorous reaction to a news event demonstrates a new type of template thinking of the audience – repeated ridiculing of the same aspects of the event. This feature manifests itself in formulaic comments and is categorized by speakers of Russian as ‘poshlost'’ (similar concepts in English are ‘banality’, ‘platitude’, ‘kitsch’ and ‘vulgarity’; due to the lack of an exact lexical equivalent in English, it is customary to use the transliteration: ‘poshlost'’). The humorous demonstration of detachment from a tragic event is considered as a manifestation of cynicism. The audience is sensitive to the quality of style and cynical tone in ‘poshlyj’ statements, criticizes them, and ridicules their humour (by using humour against humour). ‘Poshlost'’ and cynicism qualify as destructive speech actions because the semantic shift that leads to humour emasculates the tragic tone of the utterance. At the same time, both poshlost' and cynicism have a great humorous power and an evaluative potential in modern Russian speech culture, which is shown in the analysis of two cases.

AB - Humorous reaction to a news event demonstrates a new type of template thinking of the audience – repeated ridiculing of the same aspects of the event. This feature manifests itself in formulaic comments and is categorized by speakers of Russian as ‘poshlost'’ (similar concepts in English are ‘banality’, ‘platitude’, ‘kitsch’ and ‘vulgarity’; due to the lack of an exact lexical equivalent in English, it is customary to use the transliteration: ‘poshlost'’). The humorous demonstration of detachment from a tragic event is considered as a manifestation of cynicism. The audience is sensitive to the quality of style and cynical tone in ‘poshlyj’ statements, criticizes them, and ridicules their humour (by using humour against humour). ‘Poshlost'’ and cynicism qualify as destructive speech actions because the semantic shift that leads to humour emasculates the tragic tone of the utterance. At the same time, both poshlost' and cynicism have a great humorous power and an evaluative potential in modern Russian speech culture, which is shown in the analysis of two cases.

KW - Humour, Media

UR - https://www.routledge.com/The-Ethics-of-Humour-in-Online-Slavic-Media-Communication/Duskaeva/p/book/9780367689117

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780367689117

BT - The Ethics of Humour in Online Slavic Media Communication

A2 - Дускаева, Лилия

PB - Taylor & Francis

ER -