IRONIC HUMOUR IN ART SPIEGELMAN’S MAUS: A BAKHTINIAN READING AND A THEORY OF HUMOUR

JEZIK, KNJIŽEVNOST I DIJALOG (2024): 188–196

AUTHOR(S) / АУТОР(И): Amishal Modi

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DOI: 10.46793/LLD24.188M

ABSTRACT / САЖЕТАК:

Mikhail Bakhtin views the novel as the most democratic of genres containing a variety of voices none of which are subsumed within the voice of the author. Each voice has its own viewpoint and narrative prominence. While most narratives contain dialogic elements, few texts are truly polyphonic. Art Spiegelman’s 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning work of creative nonfiction Maus, which is in graphic form, offers to the reader a double consciousness and the reader is able to see the world through two different lenses: through the eyes of Vladek Spiegelman, Spiegelman’s father and the narrator of the main story, and Art Spiegelman who is the author and a character in the frame story. Maus has two central themes: the Holocaust that was directly experienced by Spiegelman’s Polish Jewish father and Art’s relationship with his father Vladek. Despite the semi-autobiographical nature of the narrative, and the constant sparring between the father and the son, Spiegelman does not place his voice between his father’s and the reader. The interest of this paper is twofold: identifying the variety of dialogues in Maus that establish its dialogic nature and unravelling the use of ironic humour to investigate the connection between dialogism and irony. The paper will ask the question: Is a dialogic narrative necessarily humorous and why?

KEYWORDS / КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ:

Bakhtin, dialogism, Art Spiegelman, irony, humour

REFERENCES / ЛИТЕРАТУРА:

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