How did Aleksandr Pushkin use parody and irony in his writing?

Aleksandr Pushkin was a master parodist who utilized irony and parody as essential tools to explore philosophical themes and literary conventions. His approach was deeply playful and experimental, often involving the adoption of conflicting masks and personae. He frequently wrote with irony, and at times, even employed irony at his own irony, demonstrating a sophisticated awareness of the limitations and virtues of various ideas.1

His use of these techniques manifested in several ways:

• Mock-Epics: Pushkin wrote erotic and sacrilegious works such as Gavriiliada and Ruslan and Ludmila, which parodied epic, folk tale, and romance traditions.1
• Literary Deconstruction: In Eugene Onegin, he engaged in myriad self-conscious self-parodies and clever digressions, shifting through a dazzling array of tones. Similarly, Povesti pokoynogo Ivana Petrovicha Belkina (Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin) consists of five narratives, each serving as a parody of a received plot.1
• Formal Play: In works like Domik v Kolomne, he used plot merely as an excuse to parody literary forms and conventions.1

Through these methods, Pushkin challenged social and literary clichés, ultimately establishing himself as a "philosophical fox" who used wit and form to examine the complexities of human existence.1