The comic in Sergey Dovlatov's prose (a folklorist's view)

The article addresses the folklore component of the comic in Sergey Dovlatov’s prose, the results of its study by literary scholars, and the underrealized potential of the folkloristic approach to the problem. Researchers agree that the folklore origin of the comic in Dovlatov’s works is manifested primarily through the writer’s referring to a folk anecdote and “marginal” folklore characters (losers, tricksters, lazy people, etc.). The additions elaborated upon in the article include Dovlatov’s use of paremias and aphorisms, and their narrativization in the laughing and half-serious-half-laughing modes; the analysis of the ethnocultural concepts behind the paremias playing the key role for Dovlatov (‘fate’, ‘wealth - poverty’, ‘laziness’, etc.); identifying the role of repetitions (in the form of an ascending or descending gradation) both on the verbal and motivational levels; establishing the principles of selecting poetonyms and their function in creating a laughing effect. These provisions are illustrated in the article by the microplot of a story “A Foreign Woman” (“Inostranka”) (the story of Arkadiy Lerner’s enrichment after emigrating to the USA).