Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article deals with representing the Holocaust through a humorous lens. After discussing the pros and the cons of using humour in different works since the 1990s to represent such a tragedy as the Holocaust, in the second section, we will present the author that our case study focuses on, Cătălin Mihuleac, and his novel Deborah. The other sections attempt to answer three main research questions: How does Mihuleac use humour in Deborah to depict the tragedy of the Jews in Romania, particularly the deportation to Transnistria? How can humour theories be applied to analyse this novel? What insights does this novel provide regarding Holocaust-themed humour in literature? The third section explains what happened in Romania during the Holocaust and why its memory is still difficult at present, since many Romanians refuse to understand that their nation was involved in such atrocious crimes. The fourth section is a synthesis of the humour theories that we will engage with. The last section brings examples of how Mihuleac approaches the various theories of humour and what kind of effects it has on the readers. We will eventually ask whether this way of narrating the story is efficient or not.
Authors: Arleen Ionescu, Florina Andercău
Institution: West University of Timişoara
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7166555434