Institute of Sociology NASU

Irony and self-irony as markers of cultural identity

stmm. 2024 (3): 183-202

Full text: https://stmm.in.ua/archive/ukr/2024-3/13.pdf

RAISA SHULGA, Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Leading Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology of Culture and Mass Communications, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

rashulga@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5302-3669

Global shifts that take place in all levels of social life, both in Ukraine and in the world, the transience of events, which acquires a routine character, encourage comprehension and rethinking of the meaning of factors that affirm, testify to the rootedness of a person and community in existence, structure social ties, determine the emotional level of a person's attitude to the world around him, to himself. One of these factors is, of course, humor in all its manifestations. The ethnic, national nature of humor, its deep-rooted cultural contextuality opens up the possibility of understanding the ways in which the identity of representatives of different nations is formed. Studies of the manifestations of humor, and specifically its variety, irony, in various spheres of life, give reason to consider it as an important marker of national identity. The article shows the influence of many factors – natural, climatic, historical, cultural, social, etc. on the peculiarities of the functioning of irony in different regions of the world. There are also different meaningful, ethical, communicative, etc., the weightiness of irony in different cultures.

Keywords: humor and irony; ethno-national nature of humor and irony; cultural contexts of humor and irony; markers of national identity; irony and self-irony

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Received 08.03.2024