Power-Hungry Characters in Serbian Comedy

Abstract

Every literary work is a complex work of art that aspires to originality, authenticity and individuality. As a subtype of drama, comedy affects the process of shaping its actants with its attributes and conventions. Our research is based on a review of the comedies written by the Serbian writers and the unification of literary-theoretical hypothesis about power-hungry characters. The common theme of the analyzed comedies is power as the key to the transformation of comic characters and the reason for their abandonment of normal life. Power and authority lead  characters to act immorally and unreasonably, and unsuccessful attempts to achieve their goal at any cost often bring their lives to the brink of meaninglessness, and make their actions tragicomic. As an outspoken opponent of bureaucrats and people who hide behind the authority and power for the sake of personal gain, Serbian writers found inspiration in the generally present human deformations. Therefore, it is completely normal and natural for the police to be corrupt and semi-literate in their comedies, just as it is completely natural and normal for voters to be bribed before the parliamentary elections, and for private and personal life to become an arena of political struggle for the sake of small goals. The reason for choosing their comedies was affected by the fact that the humor is alive, present, and popular even today as it was during their lifetime. Healthy and eternally young laughter, colorful characters, comic portrayal of human and social flaws (petty-bourgeois mentality, selfishness, love of power, false morals, flattery, snobbery) are the features of their literary works that make them contemporary at any time.