LEADER 03271cam a2200409Ia 4500001 106561 005 20240621154205.0 008 050621s2003 xx rb 000 0 eng d 028 52 3122731 |bUMI 035 (OCoLC)ocm61124805 035 106561 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 PN56.H55 |bR686 2003 100 1 Rovner, Adam, |d1970- 245 10 Comedy of terrors : |bhumor and truth in Holocaust fiction and film / |cAdam Rovner. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2003. 300 vi, 295 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 2003. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-295). 520 This dissertation investigates the complex relationship between humor and truth-telling in Holocaust fiction and film. My research draws parallels between the rhetoric of deception and the rhetoric of humor, and accounts for the convergence of these narrative strategies in disparate Holocaust texts. Much of the Western philosophic tradition has considered both deception and humor to be harmful, irrational, and irresponsible. However, humor and deception have frequently been represented as ethically ambiguous within Holocaust literature and cinema. A survey of the primary philosophical objections to humor and deception highlights the clash between the ethics and aesthetics of Holocaust representation. My research targets: (1) the ways lying and laughter are imagined as ethical responses within the texts, as well as (2) the ways these two aspects may complicate an ethical encounter with the Holocaust as it is apprehended by works of the imagination.Narrative expressions of humor have a particular power to destabilize our conceptions of appropriate ethical responses to extreme experience. The issues my work explores are illustrated by analyses of texts in English (Martin Amis's Time's Arrow, Alan Isler's The Prince of West End Avenue, & Leslie Epstein's King of the Jews), Hebrew (Yoram Kaniuk's Adam Resurrected & A. B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani), and Yiddish (Rachmil Bryks's A Cat in the Ghetto ). Recent popular films (Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful and Peter Kassovitz's Jakob the Liar) are also considered in detail. The goal of this project is to suggest if and on what grounds humor may be viewed as a rational and ethical response to the Holocaust. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2004. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. 650 0 Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures. 650 0 Humor in literature. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765345581&sid=1&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib106561/3122731.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 C0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hPN56.H55 |iR686 2003 852 |bwww 852 0 |bebook