On the Characters’ Typology in Russian Film Comedy

Abstract

The author of this paper proposes to use the characters’ typology, suggested by the Russian psychologist V.I. Garbuzov, which is based on human instincts, for the analysis of characters in Russian film comedies. She emphasizes that defining the type of a character can shed light on the type of a correlated storyline. The author notes that despite the ages-old interest in characters’ typology, this issue is yet relevant for the theory of cinema.
The problem of the characters’ typology is far from exhausted, and today there is a clear need to search for new methods of systematizing movie characters by type. The author notes its practical importance for scriptwriters since, having decided upon the psychological type, they will be able to elaborate the most organic arches for their heroes. And the problem of the character’s natural existence in the given circumstances is still a major focus of film critics’ attention and is extremely relevant for contemporary Russian cinema.
The typology proposed by the author includes 7 character types: the egophilic one (based on the instinct of self-preservation), the genophilic one (based on the instinct of procreation), the altruistic one (based on the eponymous instinct), the research one (on the instinct of investigation), the dominant type (on the instinct of dominance), the libertophilic one (on the instinct of freedom) and the dignitophilic one (on the instinct of preserving human dignity). This typology reveals the leading intrinsic motive of the hero, his basic need, it determines the type of his reaction, and also sheds light on the possible development of story lines. The researcher emphasizes the relationship between the character and the plot and illustrates it with some characters of well-known Soviet and modern Russian film comedies. She notes that characters often form dyads, according to the type of their interaction.
Thus, the dignitophilic type is often embroiled in conflict with the libertophilic one, and the latter with the genophilic one, etc. The author assumes that the use of this characters’ typology can be an effective tool for screenwriters, especially at the stage of plotting story lines in a screenplay.