Techniques of satire : the case of Saltykov-Ščedrin

What evokes laughter? Why is something funny? As readers, we frequently pose such questions. Literary scholars more often than not, however, try to pass these questions on to their colleagues in other fields-- to philosophers, psychologists and sociologists. And yet, the comic in literature possesses its own system of rules and devices, that is to say, the poetics of the comic. Emil Draitser analyses the devices that make literary works funny. Notions of the comic and of laughter advanced by thinkers as diverse as Bergson, Freud, and Koestler provide the necessary theoretical framework for his consideration of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Draitser's book also represents the first monograph in English on this major nineteenth-century satirist Content: ""Preface "" ""Note On Citations "" ""Foreword "" ""Chapter One: Targets Of Satire "" ""1. Provincial Sketches (1856-1857) "" ""2. Innocent Tales (1857-1863), Satires In Prose (1859-1862) "" ""3. Pompadours And Pompadouresses (1863-1874) "" ""4. History Of A Town (1869-1870) "" ""5. Gentlemen Of Tashkent (1869-1872) "" ""6. The Diary Of A Provincial In St. Petersburg (1872) "" ""7. Loyal Speeches (1872-1876) "" ""8. The Golovlyovs (1875-1880) "" ""9. The Sanctuary Of Monrepos (1878-1879), The Year Around (1879), Abroad (1880-1881) "" ""10. In The Environment Of Moderation And Accuracy (1874-1880), Contemporary Idyll (1877-1883) """"11. Letters To My Auntie (1881-1882), Motley Letters (1884-1886), Fairy Tales (1869-1886), Stories Of Pošexon�E (1885), Trifles Of Life (1887), The Old Time In Pošexon�E (1887-1889) "" ""Chapter Two: The Problem Of The Comic "" ""1. Saltykov�S Fate In Literary Criticism "" ""2. The Confusion Of The Concepts “Humor� And “Satire� "" ""3. The Double Nature Of Laughter "" ""4. Defining The Concepts “Humor�, “Satire�, “Wit� And “The Comic� "" ""5. Methodology And Tasks Of This Study """"Chapter Three: Satirical Characterization: Non-Metaphoric Denigration "" ""1. Infantilization "" ""2. “Stupefication� "" ""2.1. Disruptions In The Logic Of Thought And Speech "" ""2.2. Disruptions In The Logic Of Behavior "" ""3. Physiologization "" ""3.1. Physical Appearance, Attractive And Unattractive "" ""3.2. Gluttony "" ""3.3. Scatological Effects "" ""3.4. Intoxication "" ""3.5. Sexual Pleasure "" ""Chapter Four: Satirical Characterization: Metaphoric Denigration "" ""1. The Human Being As Animal "" ""2. The Human Being As An Object """"3. The Human Being As Doll "" ""3.1. People As Dolls "" ""3.2. Dolls As People "" ""4. The Human Being As Plant "" ""Chapter Five: The Comic In Language "" ""1. Plays On The Forms Of Words And Set Phrases "" ""1.1. Neologisms "" ""1.2. The Transformation Of Set Phrases And Set Word Combinations "" ""1.3. Grammatical Rupture And Macaronics "" ""1.4. Repetition "" ""2. Plays On The Semantics Of Words And Set Phrases "" ""3. Plays On Style "" ""3.1. Stylistic Dissonance "" ""3.2. Stylization, Travesty, And Parody "" ""Chapter Six: Special Cases Of The Comic """"1. Exaggeration And The Grotesque "" ""2. Comic Names "" ""3. “Apocryphal� Appearances Of Known Literary Characters "" ""Chapter Seven: Conclusion "" ""Notes "" ""References "" ""Index Of Saltykov�S Works "" ""Name Index "" ""Subject Index ""

A Grammar of Mongsen Ao, the result of the author's fieldwork over a ten-year period, presents the first comprehensive grammatical description of a language spoken in Nagaland, north-east India. The languages of this region remain under-documented for a number of historical reasons. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the widespread cultural practice of head-hunting discouraged outsiders from entering the Naga Hills. Shortly after Indian independence in 1947, an armed rebellion by Naga separatists and a government policy of restricting access to the troubled area ensured that Nagaland remained a difficult place to conduct research. In this context, A Grammar of Mongsen Ao offers valuable new insights into the structure of a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in a linguistically little-known region of the world.

The grammatical analysis documents all the functional domains of the language and includes four glossed and translated texts, the latter being of interest to anthropologists studying folklore. Mongsen Ao is a highly agglutinating, mostly suffixing language with predominantly dependent-marking characteristics. Its grammar demonstrates a number of typologically interesting features that are described in detail in the book. Among these is an unusual case marking system in which grammatical marking is motivated by semantic and pragmatic factors, and a rich verbal morphology that produces elaborate sequences of agglutinative suffixes. Grammaticalisation processes are also discussed where relevant, thereby extending the appeal of the book to linguists with interests in grammaticalisation theory.

This book will be of value to any linguist seeking to clarify genetic relationships within the Tibeto-Burman family, and it will serve more broadly as a reference grammar for typologists interested in the typological features of a Tibeto-Burman language of north-east India.