concept
Mock-Treatise (genre convention)
mock-treatise
also: густой трактат, traktat
A stock comic form of the Russian satirical press: a pompous, numbered, footnoted pseudo-scholarly "treatise" applied to a trivial subject, mimicking the tone of official reports, legal codes, or academic monographs for parodic effect.
Reading notes
- A Fishy Business §1 A WEIGHTY TREATISE ON A LIQUID QUESTION
The whole piece parodies the pompous scholarly "treatise" (traktat) genre beloved of Russian officialdom and the press: numbered paragraphs, footnoted "Notes," a solemn division into parts -- all deployed on the utterly trivial subject of fishing. The pun in the subtitle ("liquid question" plays on both water and drink) sets the mock-serious tone sustained throughout.
- A Fishy Business §2 progressive article
"Передовая статья" (leading/progressive article) was the standard term for a newspaper's front-page editorial; Chekhov borrows the label ironically for a squib about fishing, mocking the self-important tone of contemporary journalism.
Mentioned in 0 works (0 mentions)
No recorded mentions yet.