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ON THE ETHNIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER IN THE
LITERATURE OF THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
Khaitov Khamza Akhmadovich
Professor of the Bukhara State Pedagogical Institute
Doctor of Philology.
Temirbulat Aula
Al-Farobiy nomidagi Qozoqiston davlat
Milliy universiteti professori, Filologiya fanlari doktori.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15494134
Abstract. This article presents scientific and theoretical considerations, literary views,
interpretations, classifications, and analyses of the ethnic development of the psychology of laughter
in the literature of the peoples of the world.
Keywords: Hippocrates, "The Madness of Democritus", man, anecdote, philosophy of
laughter, theory of laughter, medieval laughter, comparison, scale, logic, political era, field, praise,
etc.
Works written according to the criteria of art must meet a number of requirements. The
success of the work will be ensured only if the author, in covering various situations, can turn readers
not only into witnesses of events, but also into participants in them. This is related to poetic skill.
From this point of view, the appropriate use of humorous devices in a work of art requires
high skill from the creator.
Laughter is a person's unique attitude to events. This view is formed by the existing reality
and its unique aspects[1].
Mikhail Bakhtin notes that "François Rabelais himself developed the theory of folk laughter,
mainly in the preface to the fourth book of his novel, The Old and the New, dedicated to
Hippocrates."[2]. At that time, the role of Hippocrates as a theorist of laughter was very large. At the
same time, they relied on his medical treatises on the importance of the cheerful, cheerful mood of
doctors and patients in the fight against diseases. This is the correspondence of Hippocrates about the
“madness of Democritus”, which was attached to the “Hippocrates Collection”, expressed in his
laughter. In the Hippocratic Romance, Democritus’ laughter has a philosophical, world-
contemplating nature, and all religious and philosophical reflections on human life and the gods, the
afterlife, are aesthetically expressed as its theme. Hippocrates bases laughter in this as a holistic
worldview, as a specific spiritual attitude of a mature and awakened person. The teachings of the
“Hippocrates Romance” about the healing power of laughter and the philosophy of laughter as a
course were especially recognized and taught at the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier. According to
Abu Ali Ibn Sina; "The moment a patient laughs, he is one hundred percent in the state of a healthy
person"[3].
A member of this faculty, the famous physician Laurent Joubert, published a special treatise
on laughter in 1560 under the characteristic title. The great philosopher Aristotle, the teacher of the
great Greek conqueror Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), has a famous formula: "Of all living
creatures, only man is capable of laughing."[4].
This formula was very popular during the time of Francois Rabelais, and it is considered the
most spiritual privilege of man, unattainable in comparison with other creatures. Laughter is a gift
from God to man, given in connection with the power of man over the whole universe, his mind and
soul, a quality that no other creature has.
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According to Aristotle, a child begins to laugh on the fortieth day after birth. Only from that
moment does he become a man for the first time. Rabelais and his contemporaries also knew Pliny's
statement that only one person in the world began to laugh from birth - Zoroaster. This was accepted
as a sign of his divine wisdom. Finally, the third source of the Renaissance philosophy of laughter is
Lucian, especially his image of Menippus laughing in the afterlife. Lucian's Menippus, or Journey to
the Underworld, which was popular at this time, represented the reflection of folk laughter in written
literature. This work had a significant influence on Francois Rabelais, namely the episode of
Epistemon's stay in the underworld ("Pantagruel"). His "Conversations in the Underworld" also
serves as the first steps in the entry of folk laughter into written literature. Here are some
characteristic passages from this last part. "Menippus Diogenes advises; if you have laughed enough
at what is happening on earth, go to us (i.e., to the afterlife), where you can find even more reasons to
laugh; on earth some doubts prevented you from laughing, for example: "Who knows what will
happen after the grave?" "Look, as I laughed, you laugh without ceasing and without hesitation."[5].
These are the three most famous ancient sources of the Renaissance philosophy of laughter.
They not only reveal Joubert's treatises, but also humanist and literary reflections on laughter,
its meaning and significance. All three sources define laughter as universal, world-contemplating,
healing and revitalizing, and essentially connected with the ultimate philosophical questions, namely,
the questions of "the order of life and death" that Montaigne himself pondered.
In the Middle Ages, all the richest folk laughter culture lived and developed outside the
official circles of higher ideology and literature. However, it was precisely because of this informal
existence that the culture of laughter was distinguished by extreme radicalism, freedom and ruthless
vigilance. The Middle Ages did not allow laughter in the official spheres of life and ideology, but on
the other hand, gave it special privileges for freedom and impunity. In the square, on weekends, on
holidays, folk laughter took root and developed. And literature was able to use these privileges
widely and deeply. During the Renaissance, laughter, in its most radical, universal, so to speak,
world-encompassing, and at the same time most joyful form, once in history, for fifty to sixty years
(at different times in different countries), penetrated into great literature and high ideology along with
the popular ("vulgar") language to play a significant role in the creation of works such as Boccaccio's
novel "The Decameron" in world literature.
Francois Rabelais, Cervantes' novels, Shakespeare's dramas and comedies made a great
contribution to the penetration of folk humor into works of art. The boundaries between official and
unofficial literature of this period were partly due to the fact that in the most important spheres of
ideology the lines of separation of languages - Latin and vernacular - were drawn. The transition of
literature and ideology as a separate direction into popular languages was supposed to sweep away
these boundaries for a while, or at least weaken them.
A number of other factors associated with the collapse of the feudal-theocratic system in the
Middle Ages, as well as the methods of official management, contributed to the fact that they
interfered with folk laughter and became part of the blood of works of art. The culture of folk
laughter, formed and protected over the centuries in informal forms of folk applied art - in
spectacular and oral forms, as well as in informal everyday life, was able to rise to the highest peaks
of literature and ideology in order to fertilize them. The literature of the Renaissance included a
thousand-year-old informal folk laughter. The thousand-year-old laughter not only fertilized this
literature, but was itself fertilized by it. It was combined with the most advanced ideology of the era,
humanistic knowledge, and high literary technique.
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In the person of François Rabelais, the word and mask of medieval humor (in the sense of
forming a whole personality), folk festivals, carnival forms of entertainment, the mockery and parody
of the democratic clergy, speech and gesture were combined with the humanistic ideas of literature.
Medieval humor was to change significantly in this new combination and at this new stage of
its development. Its universality, radicalism, freedom, alertness and materialism moved from the
stage of almost spontaneous existence to a state of artistic consciousness and purposefulness. In other
words, medieval humor at the Renaissance stage of its development became an expression of the new
free and critical historical consciousness of the era.
In the masterpieces of Eastern literature, laughter is recognized as the second nature of man.
Under the influence of these reasons, in the early centuries a tradition of tolerance (relative
tolerance, of course) towards the culture of folk laughter was formed. This tradition continued to live,
but was increasingly subjected to new restrictions. We emphasize once again that the Renaissance
theory of laughter (as well as the ancient sources we have described) is characterized by the
recognition of a positive, revitalizing, creative meaning behind laughter. This sharply distinguishes it
from later theories and philosophies of laughter. The ancient tradition we have described was of great
importance for the theory and laughter of the Renaissance, and the literary tradition of laughter
brought it into the mainstream of humanistic ideas. The same artistic practice of laughter of the
Renaissance is determined, first of all, by the traditions of the folk culture of laughter of the Middle
Ages. However, here, during the Renaissance, these traditions did not just continue, but entered a
completely new and higher stage of their existence. Laughter had the foundations of historicity
throughout its thousand-year development in the conditions of the Middle Ages.
As we have already said, in the Middle Ages, laughter was outside the threshold of all formal
spheres of ideology, of all formal, rigid forms of life and communication. Laughter was squeezed out
of the palace cult, the feudal-state level, the rules of public etiquette and all genres of high ideology.
Formally, medieval culture is distinguished by a one-sided seriousness of tone. The content of
medieval ideology is characterized by its asceticism, gloomy providence, the leading role in it of such
categories as sin, salvation, suffering, and the nature of the feudal system sanctified by this ideology,
intimidation with extremely sharp forms of oppression and tyranny, determined this exception.
Seriousness was affirmed as the only form of expression of truth, goodness, and all that is
important. Fear, reverence, humility, etc. - such were the tones and shades of this seriousness. The
state system of the rulers-kings led to the need to legalize the noise, laughter and humor that were
forcibly excluded from rituals and ceremonies, and created the basis for the emergence of genres
based on laughter in fiction. Later, along with the canonical forms of medieval culture, parallel forms
of a purely comic nature were created.
Rituals based on pure laughter are, first of all, the “festas of fools” (festa stultorum, fatuorum,
follorum), celebrated in St. Petersburg by schoolchildren and lower clergy. Stephen, for the New
Year, the day of “innocent babies”, “theophany”, Ivan's Day. These holidays were initially celebrated
in churches and had a completely legal character. Then they became semi-legal, and by the end of the
Middle Ages they were completely illegal, but they existed on the streets and were considered
various forms of folk laughter. The festival of fools (fête des fous) showed its special strength and
determination precisely in France. Especially on New Year's holidays, parodic figures, various
political and religious images were created and played, through dressing up and disguises. These
foundations became the basis for the emergence of the theory of folk laughter.
In some literature, the classification of these holidays is characterized by mockery. Mikhail
Bakhtin notes that in all other ordinary religious holidays of the Middle Ages, as we mentioned in the
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introduction, laughter always played a certain more or less significant role, organizing the folklore
side of the holiday. The ancient tradition was that on Easter days the priest himself allowed various
stories and jokes, so after a long fast and depression, cheerful laughing texts were read, as if rebirth,
joyful. This laughter was called “Easter laughter”. Humor and cheerful tales of this period were
mainly devoted to material and physical life, they were carnival-type jokes.
When laughing, a person enjoys a quick release of internal tension caused by the pressure of
mental energy and the obstacles holding it back.
Ethologist K. Lorenz builds his concept in a "natural" way. In his opinion, laughter is
associated with aggression and is a human version of the so-called "ritual greetings" - forms of
behavior that soften the initial natural aggression (a similar point of view was previously expressed
by L. Noiret). A. Koestler considers laughter to be a product of "bisociation", i.e. a clash of two
differently oriented psycho-rational intentions. In the 20th century, the topic of laughter also became
the subject of philosophical reflections by G.K. Chesterton, J. Huizinga, H. Plessner, M. Eastman, M.
Grotjan, J. Bataille, J. Deleuze, V. Eco and others. In recent years, laughter has become the subject of
widespread interdisciplinary research, including M. Minsky's cognitive approach, V. Ruskin's
semantic theory of laughter, V. Fry's architectural concept, P. Derks's analysis of the internal
mechanism of humor, K. Davis's ethnolinguistic studies of laughter and humor, etc. stand out. In
Russia, laughter has become the subject of analysis by M. Bakhtin (the concept of "carnival" and
"bivalent" laughter), O. Freudenberg (the cosmogonic meaning and metaphors of laughter), V. Propp
(the general concept of ritual laughter and humor in folklore), S. Averintsev, D. Likhacheva (ancient
and Russian laughter), etc.
In addition to the “Easter laughter”, there was also a tradition of “Christmas laughter”. If
Easter laughter was mainly carried out in sermons, funny stories, anecdotes and jokes, then Christmas
laughter was expressed in funny songs. In churches, songs of a very secular content were sung,
spiritual songs were sung on secular, even street motifs. The tradition of Christmas carols flourished
especially in France. In these songs, the spiritual content was closely intertwined with secular motifs,
moments of material and bodily decay. The theme of the birth of renewal was organically combined
with the theme of the death of the old in a cheerful and reductive plan, with images of a clownish
carnival rally.
In the Middle Ages, the active participants in festive events in the public square were the
lower and middle clergy, schoolchildren, students, guild workers. But the culture of laughter in the
Middle Ages was, in essence, nationwide. The reality of laughter embraced everyone, and no one
could resist it. The vast parodic literature of the Middle Ages is directly or indirectly connected with
folk-festive forms of laughter. For medieval parodists, without exception, everything is funny,
laughter is as universal as seriousness. It is aimed at the whole world, history, the whole society,
worldview. In the history of medieval parody, and in general, in all medieval literature, school and
university holidays were of great importance. They usually coincided with holidays. According to
tradition, all the holiday privileges established for laughter, humor, material and physical life were
fully transferred to them. During the holidays, they not only took a break from the entire official
system of worldview, preschool wisdom, and school rules, but also turned them into a subject for
interesting games and jokes, giving them an artistic touch.
As in world literary studies, Uzbek literary studies also pay special attention to the processes
of artistic processing of folklore works, such as the use of genre poetic features of folklore works in
written literature with individual skill, their stylization, metaphorization, etc., typical for the creation
of folklorism.
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One aspect of this interest is related to the substantiation of the relationship between folklore
and written literature through works of art created on the basis of curiosity, mockery, folk satire, and
humor in Uzbek literature.
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