Means of Creating the Comic in B. Brecht's Novel "The Business Affairs of MR Julius Caesar"

Abstract

In the article, the author makes an attempt to identify the laughter types and to give them a literary characteristic, as well as to determine the means used for their creation in order to explain the artistic nature of the comic, being a peculiarity of this work of the outstanding German writer. The research is based on the original text and its Ukrainian translation. The theoretical considerations rely on the analysis of existing in modern literary studies statements regarding the artistic features of B. Brecht's work, in particular regarding the properties of his laughter, which is often outlined by researchers as an artistic trope that performs the function of expressing the artwork idea. The author of the article substantiates and illustrates her reflections with relevant quotations from the text of the novel. Since the laughter in this work actually has an ideological basis, the peculiarities of the embodiment of the work idea with the help of artistic figures, which in their essence are varieties of the comic, are paid a special attention to. B. Brecht builds the ideological background of the novel by means of characters’ remarks and thoughts, action, plot, as well as at the level of artistic images, the descriptions of nature in particular. Despite the incompleteness of this novel, its idea is clearly outlined by B. Brecht. It is developed with the help of various laughter types - from hidden irony and humour to grotesque and caustic satire and, according to researchers, sometimes to sarcasm and sardonic laughter. The author of the article proves the evolving nature of laughter in B. Brecht's novel "The Business Affairs of Mr Julius Caesar" and also makes an assumption: under the condition of this work completeness, laughter would have undergone new alterations and transformations and, at the end of the story, it would have potentially reached its apogee. On the plot level it would coincide with the moment of the final debunking of the myths about Caesar, in whose image one can read a satire on the mercantile, corrupt world and dirty politics drenched in money. Another peculiarity of the ideological background of this satirical novel is the fact that despite the tragic nature of any war (the novel deals with various wars waged by the Romans), B. Brecht finds artistic means to ridicule even the war and everything occurring around it. He also completely destroys created by historiography myths about great conquests and great conquerors, nullifying the pathos in which the narratives of historiographical sources about Rome and its rulers are shrouded. He shows in particular the conquerors’ baseness and at the same time does not deviate from the comic register of his story.