The serious work of humor in postcolonial literature

Abstract

This dissertation examines the role of humor in contemporary South Asian and African postcolonial literature, arguing that humor opens new spaces for historically marginalized individuals to be heard. I argue that in addition to its unique capacities to question and rebel against colonial authority, humor helps those who deploy it to resist victimhood and enact a psychological rebellion against the circumstances of colonialism and its legacies, and facilitates a sense of community through laughter among both those who deploy it and those who enjoy it as audience members. I establish a theoretical framework based in the work of Aristotle, Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud and Mikhail Bakhtin, then analyze four modes of humor-satire, irony, black humor, and the grotesque-as they are incorporated in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow (Kenya, 2007); Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things (India, 1997); Bapsi Sidhwa's Cracking India (Pakistan; first published in 1988 as Ice-Candy Man); Manjula Padmanabhan's play Harvest (India, 1997); Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger (India, 2008); Indra Sinha's Animal's People (India, 2008) and Ousmane Sembène's Xala (Senegal, 1973). By reading these literary narratives within a unifying framework of "humor," even as I pay close attention to the differences between them-differences such as their geographical locations, the political situations they engage, the specific cultural codes with which they play, and their unique incorporations of particular humorous modes-I contend that humor ultimately performs very significant work in postcolonial literature, opening many destabilizing and subversive possibilities that more ostensibly serious forms of writing do not share. Professor Claire Fox, Professor Marie Kruger, Professor Mary Lou Emery, and Professor Anny Curtius. My family's support has been a tremendous help through this process, and I have especially appreciated the love, balance and perspective Peter, Ben, and Noah have provided. I am also deeply grateful for the help and encouragement I have received from friends, including Bridget, Amy, and Katherine, whose generosity has carried me through.

Satire and subversion in Medieval allegories: “Reynard the Fox” and the Maqamat al-Hamadhani

“…One of the defining characteristics of political and social satire is its subversive nature. Satire aims to disrupt the established order by questioning and undermining authority (Holoch, 2012).…”

Mini Devils: Dynamics of Power in a Community of Laughter

“…They implore literary critics to engage with laughter and humour by going beyond the equation of humour with light-hearted entertainment. Adele Marian Holoch's (2012) The Serious Work of Humour in Postcolonial Literature identifies satire and irony as important modes of humour. She shows how literary humour "opens new spaces for historically marginalized individuals to be heard" (Holoch 2012, p.1).…”

Humor, Gender, and Sex(uality) in Text and Film: Incredible Shrinking Men from Mark Twain to Lorrie Moore

“…Therefore, it is a very useful strategy for problematizing authority and attacking despotic attitudes: Arnold's shrinking man seems ridiculous when he shouts orders at his wife from the balcony of a dollhouse. In the case of parody, through both imitating and laughing at something, it criticizes the status quo and offers us a new understanding of reality (Holoch, 2012). Through his depiction of Adam and Eve, Twain parodies the established genders, making us lose faith in a stable gender essence.…”