Romanian humour in a nutshell (original) (raw)
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Romanian humour in a nutshell (co-autor)
Romanian Humour, 2020
Without disregarding the contribution of different research areas (philosophy, aesthetics, literary studies, anthropology, etc.) to the multifaceted aspects of humour, this chapter offers a bird's eye view on pragmatic approaches to Romanian humour.
Throughout the centuries, jokes have accompanied people’s lives, being part of the fabric of civilisation. Constituting themselves as social practices (with a strong social impact on people’s everyday life), jokes were (and still are) an expression of people’s joy of life in happy times and a means of escaping the harsh reality in difficult times. Our paper has in view the latter context that triggers humour, analysing a set of jokes that used to be (more or less secretely) told during the communist regime in Romania. They are culture-specific jokes, highlighting the absurdities of Romania’s political situation under the communist government, laughing at Ceauşescu (the Romanian communist dictator), his family and staff and, at the same time, making (bitter) fun of the disastrous Romanian people`s life which was triggered by the strict communist laws and fixed ideas. Thus, for the purpose of our study, we have referred to: a) jokes that reflect the Romanian people`s frustrations in everyday life; b) jokes that reflect people’s attitude of disgust against their leader; c) jokes that reflect people’s bitter disappointment and hopelessness;d) jokes that make fun of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu and their staff; d) jokes that make fun of the communist regime; e) jokes that underline the (radical) solutions people dreamt of for solving their problems. The jokes about communism represent a way in which the Romanians tried to overcome the difficulties of the times, remaining united as a nation, as the humour in this case played upon the dichotomy solidarity/exclusion: people laughed together (solidarity) at Ceauşescu and his regime (exclusion). In communist times, joking about the social and political situation in the country was one of the few manners in which people could distinguish/separate themselves from the grotesque image and absurd ideas of their leader. The paper tries to depict the manner in which these jokes (which appeared as a result of the people’s need to express their true feelings about the communists and their leaders) managed to ensure the Romanians’ spiritual survival in a rigid regime which neither appreciated nor encouraged humour. Through the pragma-linguistic and stylistic annalysis offered we intend to render the real meaning of these jokes in their cultural and social context, as well as their influence in interpersonal relationships.
he Discourse on Humour in the Romanian Press between 1948-1965
Slovo
Once the official proclamation of the Romanian People's Republic takes place, on the 30 th of December 1947, the process of imposing new cultural values on society gradually permeates all areas of Romanian social life. Humour also becomes part of this process of transforming the social and cultural life, often regarded as a powerful weapon with which to attack 'old' bourgeois mentalities. According to Hans Speier, the official type of humour promoted by an authoritarian regime is political humour, which contributes to maintain the existent social order, or plays its part in changing it-all depending on those holding the reins over massmedia. 1 Taking the Soviet Union as a model, the Romanian new regime imposes an official kind of humour, created through mass-media: the press, the radio, literature, cinematography, and television. This paper analyses the Romanian discourse on humour, reflected in the press,
Linguistically speaking, the concept of humor, which seems to be vast for people, has specific dimensions by which it is generated including: puns, irony, sarcasm, wittiness, and contrastive utterances in relation to the speakers of those utterances. It is about how the extra linguistics elements dominate the situation and the delivery of humor. The researchers of the present paper intend to show how the selected literary extract can be subjected to a linguistic pragmatic analysis and then be explained by applying the incongruity theory of humor by Kant (1790) in order to show the ways or the mechanisms that lead to the flouting, infringing and the violation of Gricean maxims can consequently lead to the creation of humor. Despite the fact that the present paper is qualitative in nature, some tables are provided by the researchers in order to reach into a better, deeper and more understandable analysis. Investigating the ways Gricean maxims are flouted, infringed and violated to create humor, and showing how the imperfect use of language sometimes create unintentional humor are the researchers' aims of this paper.
Intertextual irony and humour in Romanian postmodern literature
Humour and Culture 5: Romanian Humour, ed. by M.V. Constantinescu, S. Măda, and R. Săftoiu Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, Kraków 2020
The present chapter investigates the relationship between intertextual irony and humour in literary fiction. Two representative Romanian postmodern texts are analysed, namely Mircea Horia Simionescu's Onomasticon [Dicționarul onomastic], and The General Bibliography [Bibliografia generală], which are included in the tetralogy The Well Tempered Wise Guy [Ingeniosul bine temperat]. Taking into account the most influential theories of verbal humour, as well as the pragmatic theories of verbal irony, the chapter illustrates how the writer can create humorous and ironical effects by exploiting the common knowledge and cultural encyclopaedia of the reader. The chapter also highlights the complex functions of irony and humour during the totalitarian communist regime, when literature had not only aesthetic purposes, but developed elaborated forms of subversive opposition and criticism against ideological and political constraints.
The European Journal of Humour Research, 2015
Book review: Zolczer, P., Litovkina, T., Barta, A., Puskas, A. (eds.) Humour in Contemporary Societies. Eruditio – Educatio 2014/3. Volume 9. 144 pp.