?
Юмор как стратегия популяризации медицинского знания (кейс-стади)
The article examines the phenomenon of humor as an effective strategy for popularizing scientific knowledge in general and medical knowledge in particular. The aim of the study is to establish mechanisms for adapting medical phenomena to the extralinguistic and linguistic features of popular science works on medical topics in English. It is noted that the use of humor as a medicine popularization strategy not only helps establish rapport with the reader and improve understanding of medical phenomena but also relieves the psycho-emotional tension caused by topics related to human health. In Adam Kay’s work “Kay’s Anatomy: A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide to the Human Body,” written primarily for modern teenagers, humor as a strategy for popularizing medicine is implemented through the following stylistic devices: metaphors, similes and analogies, puns, in-text references, false definitions, personification, neologisms, literalization of an idiom or metaphor, understatement, change of register, malapropism, allusion or cultural reference, anticlimax, and hyperbole. The study concludes that the choice of most of these tools is driven by cognitive, pragmatic, and cultural factors. Furthermore, the use of humor as a strategy for popularizing medical knowledge makes complex topics more accessible to modern adolescents, thanks to the author’s awareness of such humorous phenomena as post- and meta-irony, absurdity, sarcasm, and “roasting.” Finally, the findings can serve as a basis for developing recommendations for writing popularization texts with humorous elements.