Humour in songs by Bulat Okudzhava and Jacek Kaczmarski: a functional analysis

The paper examines the functions of bards' songs humour in Russia and Poland. The authors analyse songs and poems of two outstanding authors: Bulat Okudzhava and Jacek Kaczmarski with explicit humour (irony, oxymoron and satire) and use structural, content and functional analysis methods. In the second half of the 20th century bard's song in Russia and Poland was a medium for self-expression and widely used humour and irony at critical tools and understandable call for social changes. Taking this phenomenon as a starting point, the authors conduct the analysis focused on socio-cultural mechanisms of mutual understanding and discover the connecting effect of humour for the audience. The authors argue that laughter of bard's songs destroys hierarchical social structures and barriers between people and leads to intellectual and emotional unity. Moreover, the paper makes explicit two dominant functions of humour in the songs and poems by Okudzhava and Kaczmarski – the integrating and differentiating. The first one strengthens the aspirations of both poets to bring mutual understanding between their listeners and fosters social unity. The second function is differentiation, it serves as a way of separating and opposing those groups that have developed a different world view based on other values. Both functions of humour in bards' songs shape the worldview, strengthen reflection and questioning the social order around.