SUMMARY:

This essay is a contribution to the discussion forum “Mainstream Narratives of Soviet History and the Laughter of Surprise,” framed as responses by literary scholars, historians, and political scientists to Sheila Fitzpatrick’s essay “Soviet History as Black Comedy.” Anne Lounsbery offers her under-standing of genres as sorting mechanisms that determine how we produce and consume texts. She concludes that while comedy can at times function as a supercilious distancing ritual, it can also imply an acknowledgment of suffering and common humanity.