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sense of logotherapy is a work with meaning, value [8].
V. Frankl noted repeatedly in his writings that there
is no situation in life, which would not be understood and
could be productively used, including a critical situation.
Focus on the ability to manage positive emotions and the
ability to accept positively any situation in life, finding
new meanings in many respects may be the determining
factor in the field of psycho-logical help to people experi-
encing critical situations.
Another existential direction, highly effective when
dealing with psychological trauma, is the existential-hu-
manistic approach, created by I. Yalom, R. May and J.
Byudzhental. I. Yalom considers the meaning of trau-
matic experiences in terms of “existential givens,” such as
“death”, “freedom,” “isolation,” “futility,” which are basic
immutable conditions of human existence. In a situation of
existential givens, these injuries appear as real objects of
experience and traumatic disorders are reactions to these
semantic relations. Working with the trauma, according to
Yalom, is aimed to the adoption of the givens of human life
- the fact of adoption of the limbs of life, finding freedom
and ability to make life choices, making his loneliness and
overcoming isolation, as well as finding life meaning.
According to D. Byudzhental, the source of traumatic
reaction is not the traumatic situation, but the negative
sense, which takes the situation for the victim. Opening
and creat-ing new meanings occur as a result of an inter-
nal investigation by a subjective experience. Work with a
sense of existential approach is to work with deep internal
subjective experience. The probability of success to over-
come difficult situations depends on how active, enterpris-
ing the man is, as he assesses the situation, sees him in it,
as well as clear are way out in his mind from this situa-
tion.
However, despite its importance and fundamental na-
ture, these provisions dealing with the problem of over-
coming difficult life situations, as well as experimental
data on the cogni-tive mechanisms (understanding) coping
are very few in number and expanded to a greater extent
on the level of theoretical views and have a lack of practi-
cal development and applica-tion of that also determined
the choice of topic of this article. Therefore, in our opin-
ion, the study of human intellectual resources that can mo-
bilized to adapt to rapidly changing condi-tions of life, is
relevant to modern psychology.
We believe that the study of the experience of surviv-
ing traumatic situations only in the context of the elimina-
tion of symptoms of stress disorders or enhance adaptive
capacity severely limits human understanding of the con-
sequences of experiencing “negative” experi-ence. Having
managed to survive “successfully” an extreme situation
and found a new sense of life, a man does not only get rid
of negative emotional experiences, but also discovers the
opportunity to realize himself in something that was not
previously available. Having gone through difficult life
situations, a person can gain experience and understand-
ing that life’s cir-cumstances are serious, not only as pain
but also as enlightenment: it allows to discover the highest
spiritual values – caring, love, compassion, help to look at
life in new ways. Then this awareness can play a motiva-
tional role in overcoming grief. Therefore, the expansion
of un-derstanding of the mental functioning mechanisms
in a state of crisis requires further study the value-sense
sphere of the individual experiencing the traumatic event.
Bibliography:
[1] Tumanova E.N. Help the adolescent life in a crisis situa-
tion. Saratov, 2002.
[2] Nartova-Bochaver S.K., “Coping behavior” in the con-
cepts of individual psychology // Psychological. journal. 5
(1997), P. 20-30.
[3] Granovskaya R.M., Nikolskaya I.M., Psychological de-
fense in children. St. Peters-burg. “It”, 2003.
[4] Sibgatullina I.F., Apakova L.V., Zaitseva, L.D., Features
of coping behavior in the implementation of the intellectual
activity of the subjects of high school // Applied Psychol-
ogy. 5-6 (2002), P. 105-107.
[5] Kryukova T.L., Saporovskaya M.V., Kuftyak E.V. Psy-
chology of the family: life’s dif-ficulties, and a condomini-
um with them. St. Petersburg. “Speech”, 2005.
[6] Magomed-Emin M.S. Extreme psychology. Moscow Psy-
choanalytic Association, 2006.
[7] Leontiev D.A. Psychology of meaning: the nature, struc-
ture and dynamics of sense of reality. 2nd, rev. ed. Mos-
cow: Smysl, 2003.
[8] Frankl V. Man’s Search for Meaning: Collection: Trans.
from English. And therein. / Total. Ed. LY Gozman and
DA Leontief, vst.st. DA Leontiev. Moscow: Progress Pub-
lishers, 1990.

ABSURDIST NARRATIVE OF DANIIL KHARMS

Saule Zh. Bralina, Vyacheslav V. Shilke
Academician E.A. Buketov Karaganda State University
28, Universitetskaya st., Karaganda, Kazakhstan, 100028

This article is dedicated to the research of the creative work of Daniil Kharms (Yuvachev): he was a writer
of the first half of XX century and is supposed to be the founder of the Russian absurdism. To achieve the goal
of our research we analyze in this article the writer`s absurd narratives, reveal their fictitious nature, their on-
nections to the folklore, its genre system and poetic structure. Besides, this article comprises questions of the
absurd literature, of its worldview basis and its relations to the existentialism philosophy. Special attention is
paid to the Russian absurdism as a specific phenomenon in literature.
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Famous Russian writer Daniil Kharms (1905-1942)
now became an object of close attention for readers and
researchers. And the reason for it is not only the tragic fate
of the writer, oblivion in which for a long time his works
had been submerged, but his surprisingly modern “voice”,
direct connection between his works and the newest mod-
ernist literature.
We can say without exaggeration that Daniil Kharms
“took a glance” at the future: he had become the founder
of a new direction in literature, the Russian absurdism, and
at the same time the founder of such new genre as absurd
narrative, which was to appear in the Russian and Euro-
pean literature only many decades after.
What made possible this “foreseeing” phenomenon of
Daniil Kharms? And what is the nature of it? We will try
to answer these questions at least partially.
It is common notion that under the term absurd litera-
ture is understood to be a direction in the European litera-
ture, which appeared in the beginning of the XX century
and among its representatives we can name A. Camus, J.-
P. Sartr, F. Kafka, S. Beckett and others. The ideological
basis of the absurd literature allows us to connect it with
the existentialism philosophy, which also takes its origin
in the beginning of the XX century. Its emergence was the
symbol of the humankind`s spiritual crisis at the given his-
tory stage, which found its reflection in the feeling of lost
world entity and the futility of existing in it. Therefore the
specific features of the existentialism philosophy became
revealed in the actualization of the absurd that is the term
of the intellectual tradition.
The problem of absurd had been worked over long
before the emergence of existentialism in the works of an-
tique and medieval philosophers. This fact is made pos-
sible to talk about certain interpretation tradition of such
notion as absurd. According to this tradition absurd has
three meanings: absurd is a complex of world negative
characteristics, absence of logic and meaning and some-
thing that is beyond the reach of reason. Each epoch ac-
centuated one of this notion`s sides [1]. As we can see the
problem of absurd is by no means new. However, the XX
century as a breaking point in the history of humanity was
exactly the period to sharpen this problem ultimately and
then the specific philosophy school appeared that is school
of existentialism, which took absurd as the main object of
research.
Therefore, in order to be able to research absurd litera-
ture we have to understand clearly the central philosophi-
cal category of this literature, which is category of absurd,
its emergence and realization in the fiction. To solve the
problem it is necessary, in its turn, to clarify the notion of
absurd, which even now is still one of the most compli-
cated and “diffuse” notions in the science of literature.
The most complete explanation of the notion “ab-
surd” we can find in the “New Encyclopedia of philoso-
phy”: “Absurd (from Latin word absurdus – preposterous)
is a border, the inner and the other part of meaning, its
transmuted form. The rise to the problem of absurd was
given during trying to distinguish between right and wrong
reasoning, which had great importance for rhetorical and
legal discourse. For the antique philosophy absurd is a
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EDUCATION and SCIENCE without borders
symptom and messenger of the false reasoning: the truth
is the embodiment of the meaning, but falsity is one of the
meaningless. For the XX century philosophy absurdity of
life is the ontological fact. Absurd became the characteris-
tics of being and not only of some scope of reasoning and
utterances.
The problem of absurd was transferred from the
sphere of logic and gnoseology to the sphere of ontology
by L. Shestov, A. Bergson, G. Zimmel, T. Lessing, but it
was thought over in the first place by A. Camus. His essay
“The myth of Sisyphus” (with subtitle “Essay on absurd”)
he based on the absurdity of existence, but this absurdity
does not demand to be avoided neither by the way of hope,
or that of suicide. Absurd is to found in the feeling of bore-
dom, when a person feels alienation of the world, in the
disgust, anxiety, perplexity, in anonymous existence and
in the feeling of desperation” [2].
Close attention to the problem of absurd was reflected
in the way the question was stated and in the attempt to
solve it in the creative work of some European writers and
this fact allowed to call the created literature “literature of
absurd”, and their newborn direction “absurdism”. Writers
who we can call absurdists depicted shattered world and
meaningless of the human existence and this fact allows
us to speak about genetic connection between literature of
absurd and philosophy of absurd.
Russian absurdism, which came into being simultane-
ously with the European one, was included in the sphere
of research of literature science comparatively not so long
ago because of the certain ideological reasons. However,
in spite of the fact that its artistic purposes do not coin-
cide with the ideological ones Russian absurdism can
be estimated as a great stratum of the Russian literature.
When talking about Russian absurdism in the first place is
meant the creative work of the literary and theatrical group
OBERIU (Union of the Real Art) (in Russian – ОБЭРИУ),
among representatives of which we can name A. Vveden-
skyi, K. Vaginov, E. Bahterev, N. Zabolotzkyi, D. Kharms
and others.
The basic OBERIU principles of poetics, which are
stated in their manifest, are destruction of the objects and
actions, their randomization (reduction to the chaos), il-
logic nature of images, grotesqueness of the worldview,
paradoxicality and eccentricity. With the help of the men-
tioned principles Russian absurdists transmit their vision
of the world. The world for them is shattered and devoid
of inner links, a human being cannot get to know it, he or
she is helpless in the face of its disharmony.
The convincing evidence which proves the existence
of contact points between Russian and European litera-
ture of absurd is the fact that the philosophical basis of the
Russian and European absurdists artistic work is common.
However, it is not right to set the sign “equal” between
them. Russian absurdism does not have only points of con-
tact with the European one, but also several differences.
The explanation for it can be found, in the first place in, the
difference between philosophical and artistic traditions.
Russian absurdism is perfectly autonomous direction.
It was evolving independently, without sustaining the in-
fluence of the European literature of absurd and, in some
EDUCATION and SCIENCE without borders
sense, even antedating it (absurdist plays of V. VVeden-
skyi and D. Kharms were created earlier than plays of
E. Ionesco and S. Beckett). This autonomity also excludes
the influence of the existentialism philosophical notions on
the Russian absurdism.
It means that there were sources of Russian absurdism
which lay deeper. In the case of the Daniil Kharms literary
heritage these sources we think to trace in the folklore. It is
possible to say that Russian avant-garde in the face of fu-
turists and modernists in the beginning of XX century con-
stituted literary environment, context, by which Kharms
was influenced, but the genetic connection of his creative
works can be without doubt traced to the folklore.
This connection is obvious. We can find on the level of
form as well as on the level of content. In essence Kharms
creates special form narration in which absurd plot appears
as a story or occasion told by someone, and this form in
contemporary theory of literature coincides with the narra-
tive [3], and in the case of oral culture with folklore.
In fact in the absurdist narrative of Daniil Kharms we
can find artistic features of many folklore genres: fairy tale
(everyday, cumulative), anecdote, fable, farce, popular
theater, genres of children folklore. The fact that the author
used the genres of popular fiction as well as popular poetry
genres shows the great role the folklore tradition played in
his creative work.
It was namely folklore and its connection with an oral
narrator and a listener, with its tendency to the entertaining
and fantastic forms, to depiction of the comic and absurd-
ity of the routine life was the real basis for the Russian
absurdists helping them to achieve their artistic purpose.
In the stories of Daniil Kharms the thought of the
world absurdity is in most cases is vested in the form of
cumulative fable, which is the chain of different forms of
accumulation, addition, conjunction, conglomeration, in-
creasing and strengthening and all this is cut short by a
jolly catastrophe. There is no variety of bright events in
the plot of a cumulative fable. For the basis it has a trifling
event which brings tragic consequences and here is the
comic point of the fable.
From this point of view the classic examples of the
Russian cumulative fables are fables “Kolobok”, “Ter-
emok”, “The giant turnip” and so on: “An old man planted
a turnip. The old man started to pull the turnip out of the
ground. He pulled and pulled, but couldn’t pull it out. So
he called the old woman over. The old woman took hold
of the old man, the old man took hold of the turnip, they
pulled and pulled, but couldn’t pull it out. So the old wom-
an called the granddaughter over. The granddaughter
took hold of the old woman, the old woman took hold of the
old man, the old man took hold of the turnip, they pulled
and pulled, but couldn’t pull it out. So the granddaughter
called the dog over. The dog took hold of the granddaugh-
ter, the granddaughter took hold of the old woman, the old
woman took hold of the old man, the old man took hold of
the turnip, they pulled and pulled – and finally pulled out
the turnip!” [4].
As we can see the main interest in the cumulative fable
is not one of meaning but of the bright, colorful, repeated
word. But the situation is another in the case of literature
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of absurd, where the cumulation principle becomes an ar-
tistic method with completely different aims of view.
The story of Kharms “Fapple”, which title has the
mistake in it on purpose, is organized according to the fol-
lowing cumulative structure:
“Once upon a time there was a man and his name was
Semenov. Once he went for a walk and lost his handker-
chief. Semenov started to search the handkerchief and lost
his hat. He started to search the hat and lost his jacket. He
started to search the jacket and lost the boots.
– Well, – said Semenov, – this way I can lose every-
thing. I should better go home.
Semenov went home and got lost.
– No, – said Semenov, – I should better sit and rest.
Semenov sat upon a stone and fell asleep” [5].
As we can see there is cumulation in the story which
is represented by meaningless, reasonless aggregation of
losses of more and more valuable things and the result is
the loss of home.
In his story “Losses” Kharms used method of accentu-
ating stringing, which is built upon the principle of grow-
ing or on the principle of lessening: “Andrey Andreevich
Myasov bought a wick on the market and brought it home”
[5]. Further we see chain of losses of bought things and be-
sides these things are important for the story hero. He loses
one by one his wick, newspaper, kefir, Poltava sausage,
French roll and pince-nez. In the story “Blue notebook N
10” the absence of its hero is made clear by the negation
of the presence of the body parts and the “importance” of
these parts grows steadily bigger: “There was a red-haired
man and he had no eyes and ears. He had no hair and
therefore he was called red-haired only conventionally.
He could not speak for he had no mouth. He also had no
nose. He even did not have arms and legs. He also did not
have stomach, he did not have back, he did not have spine,
and he had no entrails. There was nothing! It is not con-
ceivable whome is this story about. It is better for us not to
speak about him further” [5].
One still brighter example of the accentuating string-
ing is already mentioned story “Fapple”, in which things
got lost by the hero are clearly differ from each other in
respect to the size and value: handkerchief, hat, jacket,
boots [5].
The examples mentioned make us believe that the
cumulative effect in the Kharms narrative was not meant
to fulfill emotional and entertaining functions of popular
fables. On the contrary using unmotivated agglomeration
of objects and actions Kharms is trying to convey the idea
about shattered and chaotic state of the surrounding world
and its absurdity.
Together with the multiple repetitions as a method to
organize the texts of Daniil Kharms it is necessary to state
that the writer`s creative work was also influenced by folk-
lore genres, such as popular everyday fable and popular
anecdotes. In other words the texts of Daniil Kharms are
close to the folklore text and it is not only because of the
common methods, but also because of the common genre
features. This closeness can be seen in the composition as
well as in the type of hero.
First point which brings together stories by Daniil
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Kharms and Russian everyday fables is various forms of
fiction. There are many strange, unusual and preposterous
things in the everyday fable. Its characteristics are “illogi-
cality of the unusual”. Absurd situations make the comic
effect of the everyday fable. All this we can find not only
in the works of Daniil Kharns but in whole “literature of
absurd”.
In most cases there is something unusual and strange
in the center of the stories of Daniil Kharms. The story
“Father and daughter” is significant in this respect:
“Natasha had two sweets. Then she ate one of the
sweets and one sweet remained. Natasha placed the sweet
on the table in front of her and started crying.
Suddenly she has a look and on the table in front of
her there lie two sweets again.
Natasha ate one sweet and again started crying.
Natasha cries and keeps one eye on the table to see
whether a second sweet will appear. But a second sweet
did not appear.
Natasha stopped crying and started to sing. She sang
and sang away, and suddenly died.
Natasha’s father arrived, took Natasha and carried
her to the house manager.
– Here – says Natasha’s father – will you witness the
death?
The house manager blew on his stamp and applied it
to Natasha’s forehead.
– Thank you – said Natasha’s father and carried Na-
tasha off to the cemetery.
But at the cemetery was the watchman Matvei; he al-
ways sat by the gate and didn’t let anyone into the ceme-
tery, so that the dead had to be buried right on the street.
The father buried Natasha on the street, removed his
cap, placed it on the spot where he had interred Natasha
and went off home.
He arrived home and Natasha was already sitting
there. How come? It’s very simple: she climbed out from
under the earth and ran back home.
What a thing! The father was so taken aback that he
collapsed and died.
Natasha called the house manager, saying to him: -
Will you witness a death?
The house manager blew on his stamp and applied it
to a sheet of paper and then on the same sheet of paper he
wrote: ‘This certifies that so and so has actually died.’
Natasha took the piece of paper and carried it off to
the cemetery for burial. But the watchman Matvei tells Na-
tasha: – I’m not letting you in on any account.
Natasha says: – I just want to bury this piece of palm-
er.
And the watchman says: – Don’t even ask. Natasha
interred the piece of paper on the street, placed her socks
on the spot where she had interred the piece of paper and
went off home.
She gets home and the father is already sitting there
at home and is already playing against himself on a mini-
ature billiard table with little metal balls.
Natasha was surprised but said nothing and went off
to her room to grow up.
She grew and grew and within four years she had be-
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EDUCATION and SCIENCE without borders
come a grown-up young lady. But Natasha’s father had
become aged and bent. But they will both remember how
they had taken each other for dead and so they will fall on
the divan and just laugh.
And their neighbors, as soon as they hear this laugh-
ter, immediately put on their coats and go off to the cin-
ema. And one day they went off like that and never came
back again. Seemingly, they were run over by a car” [5].
It is important to underline that Daniil Kharms, just
like the narrator of the everyday fables, does not try to
make fiction seem plausible. On the contrary the reader
must understand that the events depicted are sheer fiction
and not a story from real life. This pragmatic purpose is
achieved by showing usual people (the narrator himself
and his neighbors) in the absurd situation of everyday rou-
tine.
In the Russian everyday fables we often can see forms
of hyperbolization in the depiction of something and these
forms have special ideological and artistic function. Meth-
od of hyperboles is not a stranger even to the narrative of
Kharms. For example, in the story “What do they sell in
shops these days” a blow inflicted with a unnatural big cu-
cumber became the cause of death of a personage: “Then
Tikakeev snatched out of the bag the biggest cucumber
and hit Koratygin in the head. Koratygin grabbed his head
with his arms, fell and died. Such big cucumbers they sell
in shops these days!” [5].
Talking about the influence of separate fable plots on
Daniil Kharms`s creative work we have to give first place
to the fables about fools. The character of the main hero
of such fabels completely coincides with the characters of
Kharms personages. Common feature of their personage is
“fabulous foolishness that is accentuated and underlined.
For him it is something like a profession, that is to act fool-
ish and to get into funny and preposterous situations” [6].
This type of personage has special position: he seems to
be “not of this world”, beyond real connections with the
surrounding world.
In fables about fools we see the most characteristic
feature of the everyday fiction, it means its eccentricity.
Eccentricity is understood as “strangeness”, “oddity”. All
actions of the fool-hero and his behavior is unusual and
fantastically odd, they are the inner nature of this hero and
indicate his special and unusual consciousness, his relation
to the surrounding world.
The personage of Daniil Kharms is a modification of
this folklore fabulous type. He sees the world in his own
way. His eccentric behavior is nothing else but conscious
escape from the borders of routine and normal stream of
life. Often what is obvious for the fool-hero is not obvious
and vice versa: “Bobrov was walking along the road and
thinking: why does soup become not tasty if they put sand
into it” [5], “Now everyone knows how it is dangerous to
swallow the stones” [5], “I welcome the idea of Shuev. Let
us drink vinegar” [5].
Further research of the absurdist narrative of Da-
niil Kharms leads us to the conclusion that there is close
connection between his texts and another folklore genre,
namely, with the popular anecdote. In the creative work of
Kharms the most famous are his literary anecdotes. In the
EDUCATION and SCIENCE without borders
literary anecdote the comic effect is achieved by the nar-
ration about a funny, unusual situation in the life of some
famous writer. Here we can see, as well as in the popular
anecdote, something resembling to plausibility which of-
ten proves to be wrong and this is the source of the comic
impression.
In the “Anecdotes from Pushkin`s life” every conse-
quent anecdote is the next step, which leads far from any
biographical form of the real image of the poet, it is a step
from the reality to absurdity:
“Pushkin was a poet and kept writing something.
Once Zhukovskyi saw him write and exclaimed: “I should
bet you are scribbler!”Since then Puskin grew to like Zhu-
kovskiy very much and called him in a friendly was Zhu-
kov”.
“Pushkin had four sons and all of them were idiots.
One of them could not even sit on a chair and kept fall-
ing. But even Pushkin himself sat on a chair pretty bad.
Sometimes it was really funny: they sit at the table; at one
end of the table Pushkin keeps falling from the chair, and
at the other end the same does his son. Absolutely ridicu-
lous!” [5].
Special place in the creative work of Daniil Kharms
take his works for children. There is a paradox as to the
emergence of Kharms works for children and this paradox
consists in the fact that the writer himself did not have any
children and thought of them only as a source of irritation,
bringing a mess in the work but he became a classic of
literature for children.
Artistic world of the Kharms works for children dif-
fers perceivably from ones of the other writers who wrote
for children. In reality he creates new direction in the lit-
erature for children, which we can call paradoxical and
playing literature. This term is conventional, but it reveals
methods which gave birth to the artistic world in the works
of the writer.
In the first place it is paradox or, in other words, some-
thing what contradicts the common sense and seems to be
impossible and unexpected. Secondly, it is playing with
the reader, direct dialog with him in the language which he
over and above understands. Due to the fact that the writer
turns to the folklore tradition and uses such material as
grotesque, paradox, fiction, humor a child gets in the world
completely different from the real one. Works of Kharms
are devoid of edification, the writer`s goal is to surprise, to
impress children`s imagination, make children to develop
lateral thinking and creativity. A child by reading books of
Kharms gets into the fabulous atmosphere of the feast and
in the center of extraordinary events.
The author gives to his reader full creative freedom
and the possibility to get into the situations impossible in
the reality. Routine and usual human life is made poetic
by the author, a child participates in a jolly game, during
which it becomes aware of unlikeness and paradoxical
novelty of the world created by Kharms. Such world we
can see in his story for children “About the dog Bububu”:
“Once upon a time lived one very clever dog. Her
name was Bububu. She was so clever that she even could
paint. One day she painted a picture. No one could say
what was painted on the picture. Tiny-Mouse came run-
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ning, looked at the picture, smelled the frame and said:
– No, I do not know what is on this picture. May be, it
is cheese, pi-pi-pi! And, may be, it is a candle, py-py-py?
Then came the rooster Erofey. He stood on his toes,
looked at the picture and said:
– No, I do not know what is on this picture. May be, it
is millet porridge, ku-ka-re-ku! And, may be, it is wooden
tub, re-ku-ka-re! <...>” [5].
As we can see the most important feature of artistic
world of Kharms`s works for children is its “distortion”
and “topsy-turvy form”. The writer in his creative work
does not recreate an objective picture and does not reflect
the real world, he rather ruins it. Breaking real world in
components the author creates a “new” world, a “new” re-
ality. Parts of the “old” world can now be used for odd con-
structions and be ranged in the most unreal consequence.
In all this we see again an element of child`s play. Be-
cause of it all these experiments with the reality is so close
to the child`s consciousness, which gets to know itself and
the surrounding world with the help of play. In the idea
to redo the world, to change the places of its parts and to
see what is the result we can spot childish behavior of the
writer himself. It is worth mentioning that the presence of
the “childish” tone in the aesthetics of the Russian absurd-
ists explains their ability to write for children as well as to
understand children’s creative work.
Basing on the mentioned features of the artistic world
of Kharms`s works for children it is more concise to use
notion “anti-world” instead of “artistic world” for it. In fact
the struggle of the author to break connections between
artistic world and real one, which is reflected in the para-
doxicality of depicted situations and images, gives as a re-
sult emergence of certain anti-world, turned upside-down
twin of the real world. Anti-world of Kharms`s works
for children is like a mirror reflection of our usual world,
however, not just a common reflection, but such reflection,
which contradicts the routine human life.
The anti-world of Kharms is built on the ground of
antithesis: things that do not happen in reality are consid-
ered in the borders of the anti-world completely normal. In
folklore genre of “tall tale” coincides with such narrative
discourse. Therefore “tall tale” character of the writer`s
stories is the most remarkable features of anti-world in his
stories for children on the whole. Presence of fantasy, in
its turn, for a reading child means that he left behind the
borders of the real world and into another one still unex-
plored.
For example, in the children`s story “Firstly and sec-
ondly” the fantastic atmosphere is created basing on the
description of unreal features of the personages: a man
“as high as a pail”, a man “so long you cannot see where
his legs end”; unreal place of the action – painted picture:
“Volodya drew a house, and in the window of this house hi
drew a man with black beard, near the house he drew a tree
and far away he drew a forest. Then he drew a bush near
the house and began to think what else could he draw. Vo-
lodya took a pencil and drew a hare. “Ei-ei-ei! – suddenly
cried out from the window of the house black-bearded
manikin. – Where is this hare here from? I will shoot him
with the gun!”; implausible features of human character:
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/ volume 4
“I am not, – told Fedor Fedorovich Kolpakov, – afraid of
anything!” etc. [5].
Still, it is not only fiction, play and humor we can dis-
cern among the “construction materials”, which Kharms
chose for creation of the artistic anti-world. The roots of
Kharms`s anti-world are in the market, carnival folklore
culture, which finds its quintessence in the “balagan” (farce
show) and it is Russian national theater, scenic action with
specific peculiarities.
In farce show special attention was paid to the ex-
otic and unheard-of spectacle. The public saw giants and
dwarfs, mermaids and satyrs, animals with several heads
etc. Culture of farce show meant different mystifications,
odd spectacles and all this was in harmony with the com-
mon notion of the market folklore culture with its charac-
teristic tendency to make the surrounding reality absurd.
The public was affected with the methods of unexpected-
ness, redundancy and shocking. All mentioned facts gives
reason to perceive farce show as real anti-world, which is
created with the help of destruction of accepted in the soci-
ety forms and of bringing chaos in the world order.
Having for the basis all mentioned above, we can
distinguish one more equally important feature of Daniil
Kharms`s absurdist narrative that is farce-show charac-
ter. Farce-show semantics is characteristic not only of the
writer`s works for children, but also in his adult works.
However, this farce-show character is more important in
the works for children because it reflects artistic purpose of
all Russian absurdists that is to impress child`s conscious-
ness. Here is the source of the Kharms`s turning to the
farce-show tradition, which is expressed in its close atten-
tion to everything exotic and unusual.
The story “One after another” is a description of
whole range of unusual, odd and therefore funny inven-
tions. We almost have here the same culture of “cabinet
of curiosities” of the farce-show with its display of unu-
sual phenomena, but instead of exotic creatures and body
defects a reader sees inventors with the defects in their
minds. Among the useless until absurdity inventions we
find – sunthermos, which gives “light to all the world and
you can hide from it only behind thick curtains”; umbrella
“for those, who work in the field” in the form of tent on the
wheels; method to cut out fabric for a dress: “an animal is
cut in two parts. They cut neck and tail and get two jack-
ets. One of them with the choker”; method to keep your-
self warm: “breath under your blanket and the warm from
your mouth will wash your body”; method to paint horses:
“bind her forelegs and hind legs and put into the tub with
milk”; device, which is to be placed on the head, “which
helps to remove your hat automatically” etc. [5].
The fact that connection between stories of Daniil
Kharms with the farce-show art does not consist only in
modeling of funny and unusual situations is also worth
mentioning. The language used by Kharms, which tends
to the farce-show language with its use of oxymoron, alo-
gism, breaking of the old meanings of a word and forming
of new ones, agglomeration and impossible word combi-
nations, rhyme, assonance and alliteration, is also playing
an important role.
In other words, absurdist narrative of Kharms is cre-
138
EDUCATION and SCIENCE without borders
ated not only with the help of fantasy, play and humor, but
also with the help of language tools. If this world is full
of unusual phenomena they must be spoken about in unu-
sual language. Experiments in the sphere of the language
is characteristic to the Kharms`s creative work as a whole
and it is connected with the principles of poetics common
to all members of OBERIU. Deviations from the language
standards, different types of language games and rhyme
mark the text and point out that the world, which unfolds
before a reader is an unreal, buffoon world.
As the result whole stories of Daniil Kharms can be
built on the play of the narrator with only one word, which
he transforms senselessly in different ways. The example
we can name story “I forgot how do they call it”, which is
just a language game with the usual word “chicken”:
“Do you want me to tell you a story about this chukin?
No, not chukin, but chuchikin. Or not about chuchikin,
but about churikin. Phu! Not a churikin, but chikurikin.
No, not chikurikin, but churichikin! No, again wrong!
Chirikichukin? No, not Chirikichukin! Chirikrukikin? No,
again wrong! I forgot how do they call this bird. And if I
hadn`t forgotten, I would have told you a story about this
churikurkukurekin” [5].
There is no doubt that the absurd language of the
writer`s stories is connected with oral tradition that is
with sacral speech, language “nonsense”, which in folk-
lore serves as a sign of “another” world. In the works of
Kharms unusual things in language are also certain sign
of passage in another space dimension, another world, in
which everything is conversed and topsy-turvy.
The world of Daniil Kharms`s stories is an expressly
artificial construction, which is opposed to the real world.
It is specific space, where the laws of objective reality
have no force and any deviations from norm are perceived
as norm, where all events of human routine life are turned
upside-down and became “topsy-turvy”. All mentioned
facts allow us to use term anti-world for the artistic world
of Kharms`s narrative, which borders on the real world,
but does not depend on it.
As we can see, developing a new for his time literary
method, Daniil Kharms became the creator of the innova-
tive in its essence narrative that is absurist narrative. This
type of narrative has genetic connection with the Russian
oral storytelling or, in other words, folklore. Genre na-
ture of Kharms`s narrative in many points proves to re-
peat specific features of folklore genres, such as everyday
fable, anecdote, tall story and popular theater. Therefore,
to achieve the artistic effect Daniil Kharms used methods,
which were stored in folklore long before the emergence
of literary absurdism, which are as follows: illogical char-
acter, grotesque, paradox, tall tale effect, fantasy, humor,
language game etc.
Thus, the absurdist narrative of Daniil Kharms, which
successfully developed traditions of national folklore,
came in the history of world literature as a phenomenon of
Russian avant-garde of the begging of XX century.
Bibliography:
[1] Burenina O., What is absurd, or In the wake of Martin Es-
slin, Absurd and around: Collection of articles. Moscow:
EDUCATION and SCIENCE without borders №6/
/ volume 4

Languages of Slavic Culture, 2004.
[2] New encyclopedia of philosophy: 4 vol. Moscow: Thought,
2012.
[3] Contemporary foreing literary studies (West Europe coun-
tries and USA): conceptions, schools, terms. Encyclopedic
reference book. Moscow: Intrada-INION, 1999.
[4] Aphanasjev A.N. Russian popular fables: 3 Vol. Moscow:
Science, 1984.
[5] Kharms D. Daniil Kharms century. Moscow: Zebra E,
2006.
[6] Yudin Yu.E. Russian popular everyday fable. Moscow:
Academy, 1998.

THE STUDY OF FAMILY ROLE INTERACTION IN CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECT

(THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN)
Manyak G. Erznkyan, Gulnara K. Slanbekova, Gulzada B. Kapbassova, Rosa T. Alimbayeva
Academician E.A. Buketov Karaganda State University
28, Universitetskaya st., Karaganda, Kazakhstan, 100028

This article is devoted to studying of cross-cultural distinction of role functioning in family systems of
Kazakhs and Russian in the conditions of uniform polycultural space. Created by authors on the basis of inte-
grative model of system family diagnostics the program of studying of role interaction of families will promote
reation of new programs and algorithms of diagnostics, with use of the adapted, reliable diagnostic tools.
On the whole, it is a question that the structure of role functioning of Russian and Kazakh families differs on
traditional– egalitarian character degree (the Kazakh families are more traditional in sharing of family roles,
than Russian families).

In the contemporary age, all the post-Soviet states
are undergoing major reforms due to the changes in social
and economic life of the society and a value system of the
modern as well, oriented to their cultural, historical, ethnic
and linguistic origins. In this regard, the importance of the
relationship between culture and human psychology has
received public and scientific recognition, but we strongly
believe that there is a lack of a proper understanding of this
relationship and its basic mechanisms in modern society.
The family researches aimed at clarifying its profound
essence, studying regional and national peculiarities takes
an important role. This allows identifying both general
laws of its formation and development, as well as special
and singular examples. Only an integrative conceptual at-
titude towards a family as a multidimensional and dynam-
ic phenomenon, in interaction with other social formations
will provide an objective, scientifically proved evaluation
of its status and role in the modern world [1].
Features of the marital relationship in family systems
of the Kazakh and Russian are defined by specific features
of their national psyche, as well as cultural and historical
traditions of the ethnic groups studied.
This research will reveal the social and psychologi-
cal characteristics of the marital relationship in family sys-
tems of the Kazakh and Russian in a single multi-cultural
dimension. It will greatly contribute in establishing new
programs and diagnostic algorithms, using customized,
reliable diagnostic tools. In general, this will improve the
organizational aspects of giving social and psychological
support to families on the marital relationship.
The aim of the research is to study cross-cultural dif-
ferences in family functioning and family roles.
The key members (a husband, a wife and children)
of the nuclear family and their role in family structure are
considered to be the basic unit of analysis in the research.
Individuals were selected from “Family Center” “(Kara-
ganda city). As the object of the research manifested mar-
ried couples, with different married life experiences, living
in Karaganda city. The overall convenience sample con-
sisted of 40 families, subdivided into 2 groups (20 Kazakh
and 20 Russian families).
We assume that the particular role functioning in the
family due to ethno-cultural and socio-cultural character-
istics. In particular, the structure of the role functioning of
Russian and Kazakh families differ in the degree of tradi-
tionalism - egalitarianism (Kazakh families are more tra-
ditional in the distribution of family roles than the Russian
family).
The questionnaire we held served as basic diagnostic
information about the structure of family roles in Kazakh
and Russian families. It was carried out to assess general
information about family, such as the married life expe-
riences, age and social characteristics, its role structure,
availability and characteristics of external and internal
borders, the degree of emotional intimacy of the spouses
with the family, the availability and characteristics of fam-
ily rules and traditions, the way they behave in the conflict
situation, the difficulties and problems in family life. In
addition to these parameters of family system diagnostics,
the questionnaire made it possible to determine which
solutions to family problems made by spouses, that they
would like to change in their relationship.
On basis of the current classification of families on the
reference to marital life experience, all married couples in
both groups were divided into four subgroups (table 1).
The results of the questionnaire were helped us to ana-
lyze the functioning of family systems in the two groups.
On the basis of integrative model of family diagnosis we
studied the following parameters such as the family struc-
ture, the interrelation between the members of the family,
family role structure [2].
Cohesion, hierarchy, internal and external borders
were identified as the criteria for evaluating family struc-
ture. Family communication was evaluated on the basis
139
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permission.