The functionality of comic techniques in the novel “The Days of Savely” by Grigory Sluzhitel

We investigate the comic as a special artistry mode, which consists in identifying at the compositional level the structural functionality of comic techniques when depicting the “inconsistency of the world order” on the example of the novel by G.M. Sluzhitel “The Days of Savely” with the help of characters playing their roles and changing role masks to show the relativity of everything in the world, except for the absoluteness of love as the most important category of eternity. We show that in the novel “The Days of Savely” various types of comic are used: direct and hidden mockery, laughter symbolism of details, stylization and fusion of various vocabulary layers, intertextual inclusions, new interpretation of precedent phenomena, etc. We substantiate the concept that the functionality of comic techniques in the work of Grigory Sluzhitel is extensive. The most important functions of the comic are: the ubiquitous images characterization; identifying the main “core” of the protagonist character and other heroes of the novel; interpretation of the events taking place in the “The Days of Savely” through the prism of the “wise child” perception – Savva cat; determining or predicting the fate of characters; expression of the author’s worldview, formulation of the work main idea; determination of the relativity of earthly life by playing various images in comparison with them. 

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