E. Kurganov's book is devoted to a theoretical study of the genre of anecdote - a literary genre on the verge of folklore and “high” literature, popular among readers of various social strata. As appendices, the book contains handwritten and little-known collections of jokes from the 19th century. ContentsFROM THE AUTHOR (6).I. Anecdote as a genre (7).II. Anecdote and fairy tale (10).III. Anecdote, fairy tale and fable (13). IV. Anecdote and fable: past and present (16).V. Anecdote and sense of context (19).VI. Anecdote in conversation. Anecdote as a non-humorous genre (25).VIII. Genre of intersecting contexts (29).IX. Law of pointe shoes (30).X. The law of pointe shoes and the splitting of metaphor (34).XI. Pointe and the intersection of parallels (38).XII. Pointe in anecdote and fable (39).XIII. Pointe in an anecdote and short story (42).XIV. The law of pointe shoes and the structure of literary text (45).XV. The problem of points of view. The multi-component structure of an anecdote (46).XVI. Principles of classification of anecdote (51).XVII. On the seriality of an anecdote (53).XVIII. Building an anecdotal epic. Memory problem (56).XIX. Anecdotal epic and its structural integrity (58).XX. On the fluidity of an anecdote (59).XXI. Anecdote and historical prose (61).XXII. On the cultural and aesthetic function of an anecdote (65).XXIII. Anecdote and induction technique (67).XXIV. Anecdote as a rhetorical genre (69). TEXTS A complete and detailed collection of genuine historical, curious, funny and moralizing anecdotes of amusing jesters Balakirev, D'Acosta, Pedrillo and Kulkovsky, part 2 (75). Nestor Kukolnik. Jokes (94).Funny sayings, ridiculous jokes or homemade witticisms (118).