THE LAUGHTER OF SATYRS AND COMEDIANS AS ANTHROPODESTRUCTIVE AND ANTHROPOSAVING WORLD RELATION IN THE BORDERLINE SITUATION:PART I
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/fd2025.03.190Keywords:
anthropodestructive laughter, anthroposaving laughter, satyrs, comedians, attitude toward the world (world relation), borderline situationAbstract
The content of the article is closely related to the works of V. G. Tabachkovsky and N. A. Ivanova-Georgiyevska on the topic of the saving functions of laughter as a life-affirming worldview and the destructive possibilities of a life-denying worldview. The relevance and novelty of the research lies in establishing the existence of anthropo-destructive laughter and its features, different from anthropo-saving laughter or simply laughter; in identifying the conditions under which it will be precisely determined when and in which cases laughter is anthropodestructive and when anthroposaving; and how exactly the constructive and destructive features of both life-affirming and life-denying laughter and worldview are presented on the example of the jesting poetry of satyrs and comedians present in ancient Greek songs and dramas, the difficulty of which lies in determining the quality of their initial laughter. Accordingly, the purpose of the work is showing of the origins, essence and initial purpose of the laughter of satyrs and the first comedians as human-destructive and human-saving worldview, or rather, world relation as attitude toward the world, that is realized in the crisis or borderline situation, with indicating the facets not only of laughter and the perception of the situation, but also the facets of the choice of how to relate to and to shape the behavior to the circumstances that have arisen. As a result of the research, it was discovered that bitter laughter is embodied in the maliciously mocking sardonic laughter of satyrs in dithyrambic songs, satyr dramas, tragedies, the essence of which is reduced to the initial sacrificial songs, where the heroes of the mockery were victims in honor of a particular ancient Greek deity, and then this type of action turned into a drama that was supposed to cause pity in the audience through the mockery of the heroes. In contrast, benign laughter is manifested in comedies, which, as it turned out, originally represented a humorous struggle against injustice. It was also revealed the origin of the word 'comedy', the essence of comedians singing, and telling about the first singers who eventually overcame their offenders by punishing them with laughter. Therefore, the borderline situation of meeting unfavorable circumstances, where one person becomes a victim, forces this one to make a choice between the anthropodestructive worldview and attitude toward the world (world relation) with crying because of his fate, alternatively, the anthroposaving worldview and world relation with the benign laughter as a form of resistance. In another instance, it forces a person observing someone's plight from the sidelines to make a choice between making an evil mockery of someone who has found themselves in a crisis situation with the aim of destruction, or helping that human get out of difficulties through life-affirming laughter for victory over pessimism and ill-wishers.
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