The Artistic Means for Presenting Comic in the Balkar Drama: Comediography of Jagafar Tokumaev

Abstract

The article investigates the arsenal of artistic devices used by the well-known Balkar playwright and comedy dramatist J. Tokumaev. The principal means of comic recreations are exaggeration and grotesque as well as unmasking (self-unmasking, unmasking of each other) as a way of comedy character creating. Various items and devices reinforcing the effect of “seriousness”, facilitating the disclosure of the nature of the comedy actor are used as an additional working means for satirical (humorous) processing of life material. The role of linguistic resources (comic allegory, “poetics of names and surnames», interpretations of Russian expressions, stylistic conflict of different registers of the Balkar language, “play on words” with various (opposite) semantic meanings, etc.) in expressing the ethnic characteristics of humor and its national fl avour is defined. In conclusion, the playwright’s skill to use the traditional artistic means along with the national language forms for the comic display of reality is indicated.