Ryan-Hayes "Contemp Russian Satire"

Satire is understood as a manner of writing, a mode rather than a genre. 1

Zoschenko innovations with skaz broke new ground in satiric characterization and pointed out the contradictions and the excesses of the NEP period. 2

One of the problems with determining Satire in the contemporary period is that the Russian and Soviet critics often conflate satire and humor and a distinction is seldom made. 3

Another problem is that the same critics tend to see it in a low status. The problem is that satire tends, unlike most other literature forms finds it objects ouside of art - society, politics, moral life of the culture. 3

Western critics often de-emphasize the didactic while the Russian used it as a standard by which to measure it. 3

One of the most prevalent ways in which satire is used is the paradying of genre conventions.4

It is also important to understand that parody and satire are not the same thing although they are also often conflated. 4

Parody is best also seen as a mode, not a genre. Parody aids satire often supporting the mockery and criticism, but doesn't have to - it is not subordinate to satire. 4

An important difference bewteeen satire and parody is that satire aims at exterior targets - politics, social mores, cultural institutions. 4

Parody refers to another artistic construct. 4

Satire aims at the exposure of or the improvement of a faulty set of parameters in life.

Parody is an aesthetic phenomenon. 5

Parody must be immatative and refer to another specific author or work and put the words or thtoughts to a new purpose. 5

According to the formalists Shklovsky and Tynanov Parody is the laying bare of the conventions of the cliches and the conventions and serves as a great evolutionary force in literature. 5

Bakhtin wrote that the parody involved two voices where the second is trying to discredit the first. It must be paired. 6

Gary Saul Morson wrote that it doesn't have to involve humor. 7

The belief that parody need be mockery, derision, or ridicule has been discredited and it need not even criticise the original by some critics. The need to modernize or reply to something is perhaps even stemming from admiration. 7 Others continue that true parody should have some sort of criticism, but sympathy or even love takes the sting out of it for the reader. 7

Satire doesn't question the moral ad ethical norms against which the target is measured. Instead, genre norms and individual texts are recast through parody so as to satirize social, political or moral aspects of contemporary culture. 8

In order to be effective, the reader must be able to decode the reference and understand with whom he is to agree. 8

Satiric tone can be gentle and mocking (Horatian) or caustic and harsh (Juvenalian).9