THE COMIC AS AN AESTHETIC PHENOMENON: CONTEMPORARY THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND INTERPRETATIONS.

Abstract

The comic is one of the leading aesthetic categories, playing a significant role in literature, art, and everyday life. Its essence lies in reflecting the laughable through contradictions between form and content, the expected and the actual, the ideal and reality. The comic’s ability to evoke laughter or a smile ensures not only its entertainment value but also its critical and educational functions. The study of the comic phenomenon spans philosophical, psychological, cultural, and literary dimensions, underscoring its multifaceted nature.

Among the most common forms of the comic are traditionally humor, satire, irony, and sarcasm. Humor is characterized by a benevolent, gentle nature. It seeks to reveal the amusing aspects of ordinary life without harsh criticism or condemnation. Its primary function is entertainment and reconciliation, making it the most universal and culturally acceptable form of the comic. Satire is considered the sharpest form of the comic. It is distinctly critical and exposes social flaws, injustice, and moral degradation. Satire not only highlights violations of norms but also cultivates the recipient’s intolerance toward the object of ridicule, encouraging moral or social condemnation.

Due to its intellectual nature and critical orientation, irony approaches satire but also acts as a transitional link between satire and humor. The target of irony is typically ignorance, absurdity, or moral weakness, and it embodies restrained, distanced critique, devoid of the emotional aggression found in satire. Sarcasm, as a form of the comic, is a kind of intensified irony – a «malicious smile» that not only reveals the negative but deliberately emphasizes and sharpens it. Its hallmark is maximal emotional intensity, bringing it close to verbal aggression, although formally it remains within the bounds of the comic.

Thus, the various forms of the comic – humor, satire, irony, and sarcasm – form a conditional scale ranging from gentle jest to scathing condemnation, from sympathy to aggression, from a friendly smile to a poisonous sneer. The boundaries between them remain flexible and context-dependent, yet understanding their nature is essential for analyzing literary texts and cultural phenomena as a whole.