1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910794163003321

Titolo

Laughter after : humor and the Holocaust / / edited by David Slucki, Gabriel N. Finder and Avinoam Patt

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Detroit, Michigan : , : Wayne State University Press, , [2020]

©2020

ISBN

0-8143-4479-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (359 pages)

Disciplina

809.93358

Soggetti

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Humor

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: To tell jokes after Auschwitz is barbaric, isn't it? / David Slucki, Gabriel N. Finder, and Avinoam Patt -- Aftermath -- Hitler hanging on the tree: Humor and violence in Soviet Yiddish folklore of World War II / Anna Shternshis -- Too soon? Yiddish humor and the Holocaust in postwar Poland / Marc Caplan -- Is it still funny? Lin Jaldati and Yiddish satire before and after the Holocaust / David Shneer -- I.B. Singer's art of ghost writing in Enemies, A Love Story / Jan Schwarz -- "A ring of fire": Humor and the Holocaust / Stephen J. Whitfield.

Sommario/riassunto

"Laughter After: Humor and the Holocaust argues that humor performs political, cultural, and social functions in the wake of horror. Co-editors David Slucki, Gabriel N. Finder, and Avinoam Patt have assembled an impressive list of contributors who examine what is at stake in deploying humor in representing the Holocaust. Namely, what are the boundaries? Clearly, there have been comedy and laughter in the decades since. However, the extent to which humor can be ethically deployed in representing and discussing the Holocaust is not as clear. This book comes at an important moment in the trajectory of Holocaust memory. As the generation of survivors continues to dwindle, there is great concern among scholars and community leaders about how



memories and lessons of the Holocaust will be passed to future generations. Without survivors to tell their stories, to serve as constant reminders of what they experienced, how will future generations understand and relate to the Shoah? Laughter After is divided into two sections: "Aftermath" and "Breaking Taboos." The contributors to this volume examine case studies from World War II to the present day in considering and reconsidering what role humor can play in the rehabilitation of survivors, of Jews and of the world more broadly. More recently, humor has been used to investigate the role that Holocaust memory plays in contemporary societies, while challenging memorial conventions around the Holocaust and helping shape the way we think about the past. In a world in which Holocaust memory is ubiquitous, even if the Holocaust itself is inadequately understood, it is perhaps not surprising that humor that invokes the Holocaust has become part of the memorial landscape. This book seeks to uncover how and why such humor is deployed, and what the factors are that shape its production and reception. Laughter After will appeal to a number of audiences--from students and scholars of Jewish and Holocaust studies to academics and general readers with an interest in media and performance studies." --Publisher's description.