Literary Resistance: Jewish Humor as a Defense Mechanism (Routledge Focus on Literature)

Literary Resistance: Jewish Humor as a Defense Mechanism examines how Jewish humor has functioned as a vital survival strategy and coping mechanism throughout 4,000 years of Jewish history, with particular emphasis on the Holocaust and its literary aftermath.Drawing on foundational theories by Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud, the book explores the four classic humor theories (Relief and Release, Superiority, Incongruity, and Relational and Group Humor) while defining the distinctive characteristics of Jewish humor: its self-deprecating nature, its primary audience of Jews themselves, and its remarkable capacity to transform tears into laughter. Part I traces examples of Jewish humor from biblical times through the pre-Holocaust era before focusing intensively on how Holocaust survivors including Charlotte Delbo, Edith Bruck, Viktor Frankl, Primo Levi, Jorge Semprún, and Elie Wiesel employed humor as a defense mechanism in the most extreme circumstances imaginable.Part II shifts to lite