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A MODERN ANECDOTE:
THE PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH
I.I. Disakaeva
Literary anecdotes and the term itself (from Greek anecdotes — "unreleased", "unpublished") date back to Byzantine history. Later, through Italian culture, where anecdotes gained a new meaning, with their content having become closer to related genres (fablio - a story, fable), and through the French literary tradition, anecdotes came to Russian elite culture, and spread in a narrow circle of educated people and remained very popular until the middle of the 19th century. At that time, it was a moral story about events or incidents in the life of historical personalities [It was raining non stop when the Prince of Prussia was staying in St.Petersburg. The Emperor expressed his regrets for this. "At least the Prince will not say that he was dryly received by Your Majesty", noted Naryshkin; A beginning pianist once asked Rakhmaninov: "Maestro, is it true that you have to be born a pianist?" — "It is true as I stand before you, my dear lady. You cannot play the piano without being born."].
The establishment of the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union, which served as the strongest incentive for the development of this unique phenomenon, should be considered the time of the shaping and mass spread of anecdotes as a genre of urban folklore and primarily a piece of spoken language [4, p. 143]. Despite being extremely popular among urban intellectuals, the genre of anecdote was silently banned until the mid-1980s. The situation changed radically in the years of perestroika, when anecdotes suddenly became one of the most socially significant genres of folklore. That time was marked with a very important change in the form of the existence of the genre — anecdotes began to operate and be distributed in printed form. Thanks to weaker censorship, anecdotes were published in newspapers and magazines. Thin thematic collections of anecdotes were extremely popular. In the 2000s, the Internet and periodicals have finally become the main medium of existence of the modern anecdote. The existence of the genre in oral form has faded into the background — nowadays anecdotes are not told, but read.
Before turning to describing the specific linguistic features of anecdotes as a text used in the implementation of the speech genre of telling an anecdote, let us note that it is only possible if three linguistic layers of anecdote are distinguished. These are a “metatext” introduction and the text of an anecdote itself (where we can identify two linguistic layers: the “author's” text and the speech of characters). The need for a “metatext” introduction (i.e., a phrase such as “Have you heard the anecdote about ...?” or “By the way, do you know the anecdote ... ?”, etc.) is an important attribute of telling an anecdote which distinguishes this speech genre from the genre of joke (indeed, no joke is introduced by a “metatext” introduction, such as “I'm going to tell a joke” or “Let me make a joke”). In Russian anecdotes, the author's text has a number of characteristics. It almost always uses the present tense of verbs (and, under certain circumstances, the past tense of perfect verbs in a resultant sense). This feature is due to anecdotes being closely connected to people’s theater: by using the so-called “present artistic”, a narrator presents the
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action as if it is taking place before the spectators’ eyes. A typical beginning of an anecdote is a sentence beginning with a present tense verb, followed by the subject and then all secondary members of the sentence (“Anka gets married ...”, “The walkers come to Lenin ...”). In anecdotes, it is absolutely impossible for the “author’s text” to contain introductions such as “Once upon a time there lived ...”, “A friend of mine,” “One day ....”, etc. This is no accident: like characters of folk theater, characters of anecdotes do not need introduction, their number is limited, and it is assumed that they are well-known to all native speakers and representatives of this culture. At the same time, regardless of the length of the text, the resolution of an anecdote should always be brief, unexpected and often paradoxical, which usually makes it funny. The resolution is always preceded by the main pause, which divides the text into two unequal parts. The pause means the turning point in the semantic discovery of an anecdote. This is the stereotype of composition of anecdotes as a genre: two parts, asymmetry of the introduction and resolution, and a necessary structural-semantic pause before the final. For example, “Vovochka wished to become President... and so he did”.
The key meaningful motif of an anecdote is parody; this is its main function as a genre [3, p.165]. Therefore events taking place in modern urban anecdotes are not merely fictitious but intentionally humorous and ironic. All events in urban anecdotes occur to stereotypical parody character types only. Anecdotes with completely individual or random personalities are extremely rare. The character of an anecdote is not Chapayev, Lenin, Lieutenant Rzhevsky or Stirlitz as historical personalities or literary and cinematic characters, but their anti-cultural parodies with typological folklore characteristics of traditional characters. Let us review some of the characters of modern anecdotes.
The head of state. Anecdotes about government leaders have a rather long history. The first person of the state becomes a character of anecdotes almost automatically: this person is widely known, his or her activity is always publicized, and it is rather risky to fight against him using other methods. None of the Soviet leaders avoided falling into anecdotes. Lenin is presented as a short, guttural man who has a nice habit of hooking his fingers into his waistcoat and saying "my friend" [One day Lenin received a telegram from the countryside reading "Schworks are starving". — Lenin did not understand and asked, "Who?" — "Schworks. It is a new designation for school workers". "What a disgrace to use such a disgusting word for teacher!", resented Lenin. A week later a new telegram arrived, "Teachers are starving". — "You see, that's more like it!", Lenin was delighted.]. The image of Stalin split into two in the popular mind. In prewar anecdotes he is a monster, a hopelessly negative character. In the post-war anecdotes, he is a hero like Peter the Great: strict but fair. Khrushchev is a rustic dreamer in anecdotes. Brezhnev is an old loonie.
Vovochka. According to Alexandra Arkhipova, a modern researcher of urban folklore, anecdotes about Vovochka owe their popularity to stories about Lenin’s childhood1. In fact, Vovochka is a disguised Lenin. The first pieces of the cycle appeared immediately after the revolution. However, at that time, the charismatic boy was somewhat different— a kind of Russian scout, a cheerful
1 Vovochka is a diminutive form of the name Vladimir - Translator's note.
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pioneer. In recent decades, Vovochka has been increasingly associated with Vladimir Putin. [The teacher is rebuking Vovochka: "Vovochka, why are you late again?" — "Well, Maria Ivanovna, you said yourself that it’s never too late to learn!"].
Chukchi. With the advent of Soviet power, ethnic groups were dramatically mixed, and anecdotes appeared about them. The Chukchi ethnic group became the most popular character. The Chukchi appears to us as a credulous and barbarous person who speaks Russian poorly and is prone to primitive infantile reflection. [Once, Chukchi was asked: "How often do you bathe?" — "However, once every six months". — "So rarely? Don't you feel yourself dirty?" — "However,
I do for the first two months and then the dirt falls off by itself'.]. By the way, many countries have their own Chukchi.
"New Russian”. Experts believe that “new Russian” appeared as a continuation of the theme of general's wife, which was very popular after the Second World War. General's wife was depicted as an uneducated provincial woman with unprecedented wealth “fallen” on her along with her husband's ranks. [The general's wife visits a doctor and says, "Doctor, my ears hurt." — "Sit down, let us have a look", the doctor says. "You are probably the General's wife, aren't you?" — "Yes. But how did you guess? By me furs?" — "No, by your ears".]. But if making fun of the general’s wife was done leniently, the crime bosses were mocked in a completely different way. The antagonist of a “new Russian” was a puny old man driving a Zaporozhets car. The anecdotes began to play an important role as a social psychotherapist. It could only be in a folklore text that a bandit is made a fool of, being defeated by the people's wit. Nowadays, anecdotes about “new Russians” are told by those who have never seen a man in a crimson jacket and a gold chain around his buffed-up neck. Sooner or later, this character will vanish. It is still unclear who is going to replace him. Perhaps, this will be ministers, governors or other officials [A high official who has struck two people at a crosswalk asks the judge, "What are the consequences?" — "Well, the one who smashed the windscreen with his head may get five years for the attempted terrorist attack against an official, and the one who flew into the bushes may get as many as eight years, for attempting to escape from the crime scene"].
The triad: an American, a Frenchman and a Russian. The historical prototype of the triad is the Yalta Conference in 1945. Today, the historical basis for anecdotes of this type is not very noticeable, and the characters of the American and the Englishman are interchangeable. However, becoming a character of the triad requires very simple and yet very common stereotypes, such as that the French are great lovers, the Germans are punctual, the Americans are keen on money, etc. The structure made of three ethnic groups is extremely stable. The only things that change are the countries and stereotypes. For example, in recent decades the image of a Japanese man who is depicted as an electronic man or robot has appeared.
Thus, anecdotes are a unique, highly developed and productive phenomenon in Russian national culture that have their own nomination and own typological characteristics: stereotypes of the form, content and communicative purpose. The anecdote is a special genre of spoken language generated by the
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elitist culture of intellectuals, supported by traditional culture and grown into mass manifestation of modern urban folklore in Russia.
References
1. Андреева, О., Тарасевич, Г. Десять главных героев анекдотов// [Электронный ресурс], режим доступа: http://expert.ru/russian reporter/2008/28/geroi anekdotov/, свободный.
2. Архипова, А. С. Анекдот и его прототип: генезис текста и формирование жанра. Дис. ... канд. Филологич. наук. - М., 2004.
3. Белоусов, А. Вовочка // Анти-мир русской культуры. Язык, фольклор, литература / Сост. Н. Богомолов. М.: Ладомир, 1996.
The report is prepared under the guidance of Professor M.V. Yagodkin,
PhD Philology
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