“Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century
This paper is a tribute to Belarusian folklorist and ethnographer Uladzimir Sysou (1951-1997) whose extensive legacy includes collecting 139 jokes during his field research in southern Belarus in 1995. Due to his untimely death, these jokes and other folklore items remain unpublished and have, to my...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies
2018-06-01
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| Series: | The European Journal of Humour Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.europeanjournalofhumour.org/index.php/ejhr/article/view/225 |
| _version_ | 1818870248265220096 |
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| author | Anastasiya Fiadotava |
| author_facet | Anastasiya Fiadotava |
| author_sort | Anastasiya Fiadotava |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper is a tribute to Belarusian folklorist and ethnographer Uladzimir Sysou (1951-1997) whose extensive legacy includes collecting 139 jokes during his field research in southern Belarus in 1995. Due to his untimely death, these jokes and other folklore items remain unpublished and have, to my knowledge, not been noticed by folklorists. Half of the collected jokes focus on family relations, mostly the relationship between husband and wife. One of the most popular topics of these jokes is adultery. The joke texts show an ambiguous attitude of people towards it. While committing adultery is considered improper, not a lot of effort is made to conceal it. If (or rather, when) a case of adultery comes to light, it does not lead to any serious problems for either spouse in jokes. When studying these jokes, it is curious to place them in historical context and compare them to earlier, Soviet-era jokes about adultery. This study discusses why jokes about adultery in Sysou’s collection differed both quantitatively and qualitatively from adultery jokes found in Soviet collections. The study shows that the high prevalence of jokes on the subject in Sysou’s collection and the liberal attitude towards adultery manifested in them result largely from the decrease in self- and state censorship in Belarus in the early 1990s, set against a backdrop of value pluralisation triggered by the collapse of the USSR. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T12:04:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-698fb907c22444aa99cbea50aa595e29 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2307-700X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T12:04:00Z |
| publishDate | 2018-06-01 |
| publisher | Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The European Journal of Humour Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-698fb907c22444aa99cbea50aa595e292022-12-21T20:22:24ZengCracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language StudiesThe European Journal of Humour Research2307-700X2018-06-0162233910.7592/EJHR2018.6.2.225.fiadotava171“Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st centuryAnastasiya Fiadotava0University of TartuThis paper is a tribute to Belarusian folklorist and ethnographer Uladzimir Sysou (1951-1997) whose extensive legacy includes collecting 139 jokes during his field research in southern Belarus in 1995. Due to his untimely death, these jokes and other folklore items remain unpublished and have, to my knowledge, not been noticed by folklorists. Half of the collected jokes focus on family relations, mostly the relationship between husband and wife. One of the most popular topics of these jokes is adultery. The joke texts show an ambiguous attitude of people towards it. While committing adultery is considered improper, not a lot of effort is made to conceal it. If (or rather, when) a case of adultery comes to light, it does not lead to any serious problems for either spouse in jokes. When studying these jokes, it is curious to place them in historical context and compare them to earlier, Soviet-era jokes about adultery. This study discusses why jokes about adultery in Sysou’s collection differed both quantitatively and qualitatively from adultery jokes found in Soviet collections. The study shows that the high prevalence of jokes on the subject in Sysou’s collection and the liberal attitude towards adultery manifested in them result largely from the decrease in self- and state censorship in Belarus in the early 1990s, set against a backdrop of value pluralisation triggered by the collapse of the USSR.https://www.europeanjournalofhumour.org/index.php/ejhr/article/view/225family, humour, jokes, adultery, post-soviet joke collection |
| spellingShingle | Anastasiya Fiadotava “Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century The European Journal of Humour Research family, humour, jokes, adultery, post-soviet joke collection |
| title | “Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century |
| title_full | “Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century |
| title_fullStr | “Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century |
| title_short | “Who sharpens the knives in my house?” Belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century |
| title_sort | who sharpens the knives in my house belarusian jokes about adultery at the turn of the 21st century |
| topic | family, humour, jokes, adultery, post-soviet joke collection |
| url | https://www.europeanjournalofhumour.org/index.php/ejhr/article/view/225 |
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