Gender and Laughter: Comic Affirmation and Subversion in Traditional and Modern Media. (Amsterdamer Beitrage zur Neueren Germanistik)

393 Pages·2009·2.56 MB·English

by  Gaby Pailer

Gender and Laughter
Comic Affirmation and Subversion
in Traditional and Modern Media
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Herausgegeben von
Norbert Otto Eke
Martha B. Helfer
Gerhard P. Knapp
Gerd Labroisse
Gender and Laughter
Comic Affirmation and Subversion
in Traditional and Modern Media
Edited by
Gaby Pailer, Andreas Böhn,
Stefan Horlacher, and Ulrich Scheck
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2009
Die 1972 gegründete Reihe erscheint seit 1977 in zwangloser Folge in der
Form von Thema-Bänden mit jeweils verantwortlichem Herausgeber.
Reihen-Herausgeber:
Prof. Dr. Norbert Otto Eke
Universität Paderborn
Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften, Warburger Str. 100, D - 33098 Paderborn,
Deutschland, E-Mail: [email protected]
Prof. Dr. Martha B. Helfer
Rutgers University
172 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]
Prof. Dr. Gerhard P. Knapp
University of Utah
Dept. of Languages & Literature, 255 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm. 1400
Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
E-Mail: [email protected]
Prof. Dr. Gerd Labroisse
Sylter Str. 13A, 14199 Berlin, Deutschland
Tel./Fax: [phone] E-Mail: [email protected]
Cover Image: watercolour by Charlotte Litzenburger
All titles in the Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik
(from 1999 onwards) are available online: See www.rodopi.nl
Electronic access is included in print subscriptions.
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 978-90-420-2672-8
E-Book ISBN: 978-90-420-2673-5
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2009
Printed in The Netherlands
Table of Contents
Gaby Pailer:Introduction 7
I.Gender – Laughter – Media:Theoretical Crossings 15
Stefan Horlacher:A Short Introduction to Theories
of Humour, the Comic, and Laughter 17
Andreas Böhn:Subversions of Gender Identities through
Laughter and the Comic? 49
II.Gender B(l)ending:The Comic Impact of Cross-Dressing
and Body Alteration 65
Jessica Hamann:“Kiss a white Galathea, she will laugh and
blush”: Laughter, Blush, and Gender Roles in Gottfried
Keller’s Novella Cycle A Formula for Love. The Epigram(1881) 67
Beth Pentney:“A comic turn, turned serious”: Humour,
Body Modification, and the Natural in Fay Weldon’s
The Life and Loves of a She Devil 81
Raluca Cernahoschi:“From now on, I am Carmen”:
Imagining Cross-Dressing as Comic Protest in the Life and
Work of Romanian-German Author Franz Hodjak 93
Ulrich Scheck:Where No Woman Has Gone Before: Humour
and Gender Crossing in Star Trek’s Voyagerand Enterprise 103
Markus Hallensleben:“To be educated is to become a
Harlequin”: Cross-Skinning as Carnivalesque Hybridity in
Michel Serres, Hannah Höch’s Dada, and Orlan’s Body Art 119
III.Cross-Cultural Encounters:Race,Gender,and the Comic 139
Gaby Pailer:Multi-Layered Conflicts with the Norm: Gender
and Cultural Diversity in Two Comedies of the German
Enlightenment 141
Sabine Wilke:Indigenous Laughter: The Voice of the Other in
Tales from the “South Seas” 155
Gabrijela Mecky Zaragoza:Subverting the Pantragic Heroine:
Nestroy against Hebbel 169
Jakub Kazecki:Black and White in Coloror Black Victory?
The Comic Effect of Displacement in the Film Noirs et
blancs en couleur(1976) by Jean-Jacques Annaud 187
6
Karin Lornsen:The City as Stage of Transgression:
Performance, Picaresque Reminiscences, and Linguistic
Incongruity in Emine S. Özdamar’s The Bridge of the
Golden Horn 201
IV.Gender,Genre,and the Comic:Literature,Radio,Television,
and Cinema 219
Andreas Seidler:Moral Ideal and Physical Desire: Gender
Roles, Sex, and Comic Elements in the Rococo Tales of
Christoph Martin Wieland 221
Birte Giesler:Social Satire, Literary Parody, and Gender
Critique in French and German Fairy Tales of the
Enlightenment: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friederike
Helene Unger 233
Ellie Kennedy:“But I’m a Lady!” Undoing Gender Bending
in Contemporary British Radio Comedy 251
Peter Stear:Mockumentalism: Re-Casting the Void in
Contemporary British TV Comedy 269
Christine Mielke:Couples and Friends: Comic Strategies
and Social Structures in German and American Comedy Series 285
Frank Degler:Affirmative Humour in Bully Herbig’s Parody
of Star Wars/Star Trek: (T)Raumschiff Surprise 297
V.Comic Strategies:Gender and Laughter in Literature,Theory,
Communication,and Art 313
Susanne Bach:May I Laugh about Women’s Lib? or:
The Difficult Relationship of Humour and Feminism in
Margaret Atwood, Caryl Churchill, and Helen Fielding 315
Stefan Börnchen:Aletheia as Striptease: Gendered Allegories
of Truth in Heidegger, Gorgias, and Barthes 329
Volker Helbig:Judith Butler and the Problem of Adequacy,
or: The Epistemological Dimension of Laughter 347
Caroline L.Rieger:Comparing Same-Gender and
Opposite-Gender Conversations: a Laughing Matter? 355
Oliver C.Speck:The Joy of Anti-Art: Subversion through
Humour in Dada 371
List of Contributors 383
Gaby Pailer
Introduction
“Subversions of Gender Identities through Laughter and the Comic in
Literature, Theatre, and Modern Media: Chances and Limits” was the rather
stern heading of what was to become a pleasurable three-year collaborative
research programme. Dealing with the crossroads of gender, laughter, and
media from a multitude of theoretical and practical perspectives, researchers
involved would soon label it more succinctly the “Gender – Laughter – Media”
project. This volume documents the refined results of the respective series of
workshops and final conference held in Germany and Canada from the spring
of 2004 to the fall of 2006.
The point of departure was the observation of a remarkable intersection
between gender theories and theories of laughter, the comic, and comedy: in
both areas the question of physicality for shaping or expressing identity is a
major issue, and in both fields critics claim the subversive potential of bodily
acts towards a cultural norm. Yet the results presented in both fields are very
different, and the overlap has only rarely been considered in groundbreaking
research. Therefore the research programme aimed to address both the over-
lapping issues and differing results by focusing on a wide range of traditional
and modern media in western societies of the last 250 years. Among other
issues literature deals with the shaping of gender identity through ‘intertext-
uality’, or ‘citational’acts; visual media transform this procedure into scenic
presentations, or ‘performative’acts. If we look at the intersections with theories
of gender and laughter, crucial questions arise, for example: How can gender
identities, their performance and perception, be influenced and shaped by
comic genres and strategies? What impact does the communicative function of
laughter have on the traditional binary view of gender roles in textual and
visual media? Which possibilities and limitations in changing heterosexual
norms does one encounter in various comic paradigms?
A brief glance at the theoretical backgrounds concerned – gender, laughter,
and media – will help to understand their interrelatedness as conceived in this
volume. As to the first aspect, the most widely addressed theorist is Judith
Butler, who considers gender identities to be primarily performative, that is,
constituted by the recognition, creation, and performance of differing interpret-
ations of the body and physicality. She seeks to expose the heterosexual norm
that governs everyday perceptions of gender, and to open new possibilities for
imagining gender beyond the dominant paradigms. Referencing Jacques
Lacan, she claims that the construction of identity is driven by the imitation or
8
citation of the symbolic order; conversely, as the symbolic originates from indi-
vidual citational acts, a subversion of the heterosexual norm is possible by cit-
ing the law differently “in order to reiterate and co-opt its power” (Butler,
Bodies14) employing satirical, parodistic, and ironic practices. Another theorist,
who questions the concept of ‘nature’ and the primordial binary sexual cat-
egories as naturally given, is Donna Haraway. With her works about contemporary
constructions of bodies and genders in the context of bio-medicine she also
refers to the aspect of construction in research itself and claims that the same
as scholars in the humanities and arts, scientists should be aware that they are
producing ‘narratives’ rather than finding the truth about human ‘nature’
(Haraway, Primate Visions). Yet, in general, gender theorists do not tend to see
the claims of comedy and laughter as a major opportunity of subversion. Of
course, studies on several genres in different national cultures have analysed
various comic models (for example the following monographs and essay col-
lections: Little; Lowe; Sochen; Finney; Rowe; Hengen; Walker; Chirico;
Uecker), but most of the existing studies tend to set aside the positive impact of
laughter for understanding physicality and social relations. When it comes to
gender issues, the basic claim of “subversive laughter” through comedy (cf.
Jenkins) is often already questioned in titles such as A very serious thing,
women’s humor(Jochum), or That’s not funny, that’s sick(Hurst).
As for the second cornerstone of our approach, the interrelatedness of laughter,
the comic, and comedy deserves consideration. Laughter is one of the most
fascinating human functions, a non-verbal, bodily response to a conflict of per-
ception as well as a discharge or relief that acts as a satisfactory solution for the
subject who experiences such a perceptual conflict. The anthropological, physio-
logical, psychological, and social experiences of laughter and the comic play sig-
nificant roles in the relation between the ‘nature’ and the ‘culture’ of human
beings. The comic appears in the everyday world as the failure or breakdown of
an event that is met with laughter (Stierle). It can also be used deliberately, either
to smooth over differences or to exacerbate them, in order, for example, to reassert
hierarchical distinctions within groups, to exclude others, or to undermine hier-
archical relations and their presumptions. It can be an instrument of discrimina-
tion, or of ridicule and humiliation, or of celebration, appreciation, and
recognition (Greiner). To be sure, theories of laughter and the comic have a long
tradition. The causes and forms of laughter have been studied extensively from dif-
ferent points of view. Prominent theories (for example: Freud; Bergson; Bakhtin;
Plessner) have influenced more than a century of research. By contrast, the func-
tions of laughter and the comic in constructing or undermining gender identities
have only recently been considered (for example: Jochum; O’Neal; Gilbert;
Furman). And there have been team approaches such as an interdisciplinary
research programme at the University of Konstanz (Germany) which included
anthropological, psychological, and sociological perspectives (cf. Kotthof).
9
The performance aspect is what links gender and laughter to the third field
of our approach, media in their various traditional and modern forms. In litera-
ture, theatre, radio, and film, types of comedy derive from performative acts
and the intention to provoke the kind of surprise that ends in laughter. These
kinds of laughter – laughing or sympathizing with people in contrast to ridi-
culing or laughing at them – depends on the manners and kinds of comic fig-
ures presented (Jauß). Similarly, there are at least two kinds of comedy that
involve the subjugation of the body under a cultural or societal norm, implying
either the subversion or the affirmation of existing socio-cultural structures
(Greiner). In addition to the theatre as the classical medium for comedy, we
encouraged the scholars in our programme to consider other genres of literary
writing, such as, for example, the picaresque novel or verse narratives. Above
all, newer media such as film, and television were analysed for their comic
functions. It is noteworthy that media in this context are not just ‘vehicles’to
transport funny contents, but provide a specific frame for the production of the
comic itself. Physicality as a comic-producing dimension appears in literature
completely different than in a scenic presentation. Modern visual media offer a
variety of possibilities to visualize and transform different aspects of the body
such as, for example, movement or voice.
For the purposes of our project, we asked all participants to focus on the per-
formance aspects of gender and their potential power of subversion specifically
from the perspective of the comic import; conversely, laughter, or the produc-
tion and reception of comedy, satire, and irony, was intended to be analysed pri-
marily from a gender perspective. In regard to the intersection among gender
theories and theories of laughter and the comic, a leading question was how the
heterosexual norm gender theorists seek to subvert is comparable to the soci-
etal norm that is subverted or affirmed in different forms of comedy. Another
aspect concerns the gendered organization of social, political, and familial groups
and the question of how gender is marked by different forms of laughter. In
social interaction, laughter often works as an instrument of power: superiors
only rarely make fun of themselves, whereas employees tend to make them-
selves a target of laughter (Laub Coser). Gender plays a significant role in such
processes, since women and men seem to joke and laugh in very different ways
(Kotthof). Hence, the research would also ask: How do the respective partici-
pants of different groups respond to given norms, and how can these norms be
influenced by humour? Or, on another level: What implied gender bias or
acceptance of the heterosexual norm is there in theories that claim to be object-
ive in their concept of human ‘nature’? How are these normative discourses of
‘culture’versus ‘nature’employed for the fictional display of laughter? This
leads finally to the aspect of cultural diversity, with acts of joking and laughing
as means of ethnic group solidarity or rejection. One part of the research thus
reflected on the different roles of cultural history and intercultural relations.