“Fun” 1920–1930s: On the question of the key word of the era

Sadova Tatiana S., 
Doctor of Philology, 
Professor of the Russian Language Department
St. Petersburg State University

e-mail: tatsad_90@mail.ru

Luk’yanova Lyudmila V.,
Candidate of Philology, Docent,
Head of the Russian Language Department
St. Petersburg State Forest Technical University named after S.M. Kirov

e-mail: lykianovaludmila@mail.ru

The article substantiates the possibility of interpreting the word ‘fun’ as a key word of the 1920–30th era, despite the complexity and, in many ways, tragedy of this time. The famous statement of I. Stalin that “life has become more fun,” at first glance, brings an openly ironic connotation to the word ‘fun’ as a word-sign of the era under consideration. It is proposed to consider this issue retrospectively, summing up the evidence of different genres of texts and the verbal reflection of a creative personality at his time. It is argued that ‘fun’, in the modern sense ‘‘cheerful, causing laughter and fun’, is a meaningfully deeper word that preserves the most ancient meanings, which today manifest themselves primarily in cultural, folklore texts of the Slavic area. Studies by ethnolinguists and language historians note the syncretism of the semantics of words with the common Slavic root vesel-, which includes a complex of meanings (‘renewal’, ‘youth’, ‘birth’, ‘holiday’, ‘fire’, etc.), which are realized to one degree or another in various texts, especially in poetic texts. In the context of the problem under consideration, the book by M. Zoshchenko and N. Radlov “Fun Projects” (1928) was chosen as an illustrative example; cultural and semantic associations associated with its title and content are analyzed.

Keywords: keyword of the era, cultural semantics, syncretic meaning of the word, poetic reflection, fun life

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