In pursuit of collective laughter

: Bergson, Bakhtin, and contemporary conceptions of the comic

Abstract

The state of contemporary comedy has been catapulted into a culture war, with one side arguing for the danger of mockery whilst the other regards any mention of political correctness an infringement of their free speech. The aim of this thesis is to offer an analysis of frameworks for assessing the relative harms and benefits of comedy in light of this contemporary debate. The thesis offers an in-depth analysis of two seminal studies within the field of humour, Henri Bergson’s Laughter and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque and the grotesque, originated as ‘carnival’ in Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics and further developed in Rabelais and His World. The concepts elaborated in these theories are used to consider recent prescriptive and restrictive measures taken against celebrated instances of film and TV comedy. These measures are looked at through Bergson’s and Bakhtin’s conception of the physical form, and the relation of this to a laughing collective. Furthermore, it explores how the historical disappearance of the ‘body politic’ eventually structured a framework of politics around bodily identity which has reached the zenith in contemporary culture. The concept of policing comedy and the notion of laughter as a social corrective concludes the research as the question arises as to why restrictions of the comic exist in a contemporary culture which lauds its freedom and diversity. This thesis thus does two things: firstly, critically reconstructs Bergson’s and Bakhtin’s positions, and secondly, develops an analysis of comedy in contemporary culture which argues for a return to Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque in order for humour to not only survive contemporary culture, but also provide contemporary culture with a regenerative power to fully establish and appreciate a diverse society.

Date of Award	22 Mar 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Alex Clayton (Supervisor) & Pete Falconer (Supervisor)