Laughter In The Trenches: Humour And Front Experience In German First World War Narratives

Kazecki

ISBN 10: 1443838993 / ISBN 13: 9781443838993

Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Laughter In The Trenches: Humour And Front Experience In German First World War Narratives
• Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1443838993
• ISBN 13: 9781443838993
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New

About this title

Synopsis

Laughter in the Trenches: Humour and Front Experience in German First World War Narratives explores the appearances and functions of humour and laughter in selected novels and short stories, based on autobiographical experiences, written by authors during the war and in the Weimar Era (1919–1933). This study focuses on popular and lesser-known works of German literature that played an important role in the socio-political life of the Weimar Republic: Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger (1920), Advance from Mons 1914 by Walter Bloem (1916), The Case of Sergeant Grischa by Arnold Zweig (1927), and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929). The author shows that these works often share surprisingly similar narrative strategies in describing humorous experiences and soldier laughter to justify direct violence and oppressive power structures, regardless of the works’ ideological assignment and their popular and critical reception. This book also examines the parodic imitations of All Quiet on the Western Front, the German text All Quiet on the Trojan Front by Emil Marius Requark (1930) and the American film So Quiet on the Canine Front by Zion Myers and Jules White (1931) as significant polemical contributions that use humoristic strategies to stress or undermine elements of the original text.

About the Author

Jakub Kazecki is Assistant Professor of German at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. His research focuses on 20th-century German literature, images of German-Polish relationships in literature, film and visual arts, and laughter and comedy in different media.