Article

Name: Mechanisms of Humor in a Short Form of Internet Poetry (“Poroshok”)

Authors: Maksim A. Krongauz

National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The article describes the mechanisms of humor in small poetic genres that appeared on the Internet in the 2000s and were named pirozhok and poroshok. These are quatrains written in iambic tetrameter. There are no rhymes in pirozhok, but in poroshok the last line, truncated to 2 syllables, rhymes with the second. Poroshok as a genre arose on the basis of a pirozhok. Truncating the last line in poroshok causes it to be placed in a special position. The fourth line alone or together with the third line constitutes an ending unexpected for readers, which, by analogy with a joke, can be called pointe. This pointe not only violates the reader's expectations, but comes into conflict with the beginning of the poem and, in essence, cancels it, that is, forces one to return to the previous text and rethink it. Such a pointe is proposed to be called retrospective.

Keywords:

Bibliography:

Brief literary encyclopedia. In 9 vols. Moscow, 1962–1978. (in Russ.)

Dymarsky M. Ya. Mezhdu zhanrom i tvorchestvom, ili K stanovleniyu pirozhkovogo myshleniya yazykovoi lichnosti [Between genre and creativity, or Toward the formation of a pirozhok-like thinking of a linguistic personality]. In: Zhanry rechi: Sbornik nauchnykh statei. Pamyati K. F. Sedova [Speech Genres: Collection of scientific articles. In memory of K. F. Sedov]. Saratov, Moscow, 2012, vol. 8, pp. 385–390. (in Russ.)

Gutorenko L. S. Yumoristicheskaya poeziya v russkoyazychnom virtual’nom prostranstve. Predposylki vozniknoveniya i sovremennoe sostoyanie [Humorous poetry in the Russian-speaking virtual space. Prerequisites for the emergence and current state]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, 2017, no. 10 (6), pt. 3, pp. 92–96. (in Russ.)

Kovshova M. L. Pretsedentnye onimy v russkoi setevoi mikropoezii, ili O diskursivnoi mnogosloinosti pirozhkov [Precedent onyms in Russian network micropoetry, or about the discursive layering of pirozhki]. In: Varakina G. V., Dobrovolskaya V. E., Mikhailova S. I. (comp.). Interdisciplinary research in the humanities: collection of materials of the international scientific conference “Interdisciplinary research in the humanities” (April 13–14, 2023, Moscow). Moscow, RSU named after A. N. Kosygina (Technology. Design. Art), 2023, pp. 144–148. (in Russ.)

Krongauz M. A. Тext reinterpretation and the motif of transformation in a short form of Internet poetry (“poroshok”). Slovo.ru: Baltiiskii aktsent, 2019, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 109–126. (in Russ.)

Kurganov E. “U nas byla i est’ ustnaya literatura…” [“We had and have oral literature ...”]. In: Russian literary anecdote of the late 18th – early 19th century. Moscow, 1990, pp. 3–6. (in Russ.)

Kurganov E. Anekdot kak zhanr russkoi slovesnosti [Anecdote as a genre of Russian literature]. Moscow, 2014, 260 p. (in Russ.)

Kvyatkovsky A. P. Dictionary of poetic terms. Ed. by S. M. Bondi. Moscow, 1940, 240 р. (in Russ.)

Kvyatkovsky A. P. Dictionary of poetic. Moscow, 1966, 376 p. (in Russ.)

Lendvai E. Comparative Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication: A Handbook for Russian Studies Students. Pecs. 2011. (in Russ.) URL: http:// janus.ttk.pte.hu/tamop/tananyagok/komparativ_pragmatika/ii_1____.html

Lendvai E. Pragmalingvisticheskie mekhanizmy sovremennogo russkogo anekdota [Pragmalinguistic mechanisms of a modern Russian joke]. PhD Thesis. Moscow, 2001, 36 p. (in Russ.)

Literary encyclopedia. In 11 vols. Moscow, 1929–1939. (in Russ.)

Neklyudov S. Yu. Posle fol’klora [After folklore]. Zhivaya starina [Living Antiquity], 1995. no. 1, pp. 2–4. (in Russ.)

Petrenko S. N. O spetsifike porozhdeniya novykh zhanrov internet-fol’klora: stishki-poroshki [On the specifics of the generation of new genres of Internet folklore: poems poroshki]. Izvestiya VGPU, 2014, no. 2, pp. 193–197. (in Russ.)

Petrenko S. N. Pirozhki and poroshki: setevaya poeziya mezhdu fol’klorom i literaturoi [Pirozhki and poroshki: network poetry between folklore and literature]. Izvestiya VGPU, 2014, no. 2, pp. 129–134. (in Russ.)

Petrenko S. N. Zhanrovye modeli postfol'klora v russkoi postmodernistskoi literature poslednei chetverti XX – nachala XXI veka [Genre models of post-folklore in Russian post-modern literature of the last quarter of the 20th – beginning of the 21st century]. PhD Thesis. Volgograd, 2017, 25 p. (in Russ.)

Sakhanenko V. (ed. and comp.). Nepoeziya: izbrannye pirozhki [None-Poetry: selected pirozhki]. Minsk, 2009, 480 p. (in Russ.)

Shchukina K. A. Pretsedentnye fenomeny v pirozhkakh i poroshkakh – novykh zhanrakh sovremennoi internet-poezii [Case Studies in Pirozhki and Poroshki – New Genres of Modern Internet Poetry]. Mir russkogo slova [World of Russian Word], 2015, no. 4, pp. 49–54. (in Russ.)

Shchurina Yu. V. Klassifikatsiya komicheskikh rechevykh zhanrov kommunikativnogo prostranstva Interneta [Classification of comic speech genres of the communicative space of the Internet]. Izvestiya VGPU, 2014, no. 2 (87), pp. 39–43. (in Russ.)

Shmeleva E. Ya. Komu pirozhok? Smekhovaya kul’tura i Internet [Who needs a pirozhok? Laughter culture and the Internet]. In: Carnival in language and communication. Moscow, 2016, pp. 324–344. (in Russ.)

Vendler Z. Illocutionary suicide. In: MacKay A. F., Merrill D. D. (eds.). Issues in the philosophy of language. New Haven, Yale Uni. Press, 1976, pp. 135–145.

Zholkovsky A. “Agu”. Zametki o pirozhkakh i poroshkakh [“Agu!” Notes on “pirozhki” and “poroshki”]. Letn’aya shkola po russkoi literature [Summer School on Russian Litterature], 2017, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 84–90. (in Russ.)