The intertextual Jewish joke at the turn of the twentieth century and the poetics of a national renewal
-
Tsafi Sebba-Elran
Dr Tsafi Sebba-Elran is a Hebrew Literature and Folklore lecturer, a member of the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at The University of Haifa. She has also taught at Indiana University. She is the author of: In Search of New Memories: The Aggadic Anthologies and their Role in the Configuration of the Modern Hebrew Canon (Yad Ben-Zvi Research Institute,
Sebba-Elran 2017 ). Her research interests and publication topics include: the formation of cultural memory in Israel, the contribution of the national anthologies (including the humoristic anthologies) to the construction of modern Jewish identities, and the social as well as the epistemological changes those anthologies reflect.
Abstract
The article examines the role of the intertextual Jewish joke at the turn of the twentieth century, in its historical and cultural contexts. The case studies would be Alter Druyanow’s popular anthology, Sefer Habediha Vehahiddud (The Book of Jokes and Witticisms, Frankfurt 1922), and his archived, unpublished collection of sexual jokes. The frequent use of quotations from sacred Jewish texts, characteristic of these collections, is discussed in light of the distinction between sub-genres of the intertextual joke: the allusive joke, the parodic joke, and the satiric joke. While most reflect the folklorist’s ambition to bridge the gap between Hebrew as a holy language and Yiddish as a Jewish vernacular, a deeper examination of the jokes may discover Druyanow’s subversive motivations as a national activist as well. Druyanow and his contemporaries engaged the biblical and rabbinical sources freely, as vessels capable of sanctifying the secular subject matter of the Jewish national revival. Moreover, the unpublished collection exposes satirical elements embodied in the intertextual Jewish joke of the time, potentially threatening the traditional Jewish worldview.
About the author
Dr Tsafi Sebba-Elran is a Hebrew Literature and Folklore lecturer, a member of the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at The University of Haifa. She has also taught at Indiana University. She is the author of: In Search of New Memories: The Aggadic Anthologies and their Role in the Configuration of the Modern Hebrew Canon (Yad Ben-Zvi Research Institute, Sebba-Elran 2017). Her research interests and publication topics include: the formation of cultural memory in Israel, the contribution of the national anthologies (including the humoristic anthologies) to the construction of modern Jewish identities, and the social as well as the epistemological changes those anthologies reflect.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Prof. Haya Bar-Itzhak, Prof. Elliott Oring and Prof. Dan Ben-Amos who read early drafts of this essay, and gave valuable comments. This research was supported by the ISRAEL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (grant No. 386/16).
References
Abrams, Meyer H. 1971. Natural supernaturalism: Tradition and revolution in Romantic literature. New York: Norton.Suche in Google Scholar
Ha’am, Ahad. 1947 [1891]. Bein kodesh lehol [Between the sacred and the secular]. In Kol kitvei Ahad Ha’am [Ahad Ha’am writings], 73–74. Tel Aviv: Dvir and Hotsa’ah ivrit.Suche in Google Scholar
Alexander, David. 1985. Leizan hachazer vehashalit [The jester and the king: Political satire in Israel (a temporary summary) 1948–1984]. Tel Aviv: Sifriat Poalim.Suche in Google Scholar
Alexander, Tamar. 1981. Hademut veha’ir [The literary character and the city: Humoristic Judeo-Spanish stories]. Pe’amim 7. 64–82.Suche in Google Scholar
Alliker Rabb, Melinda. 2008. The secret life of satire. In Ruben Quintero (ed.), A companion to satire, 568–584. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.10.1002/9780470996959.ch30Suche in Google Scholar
Babcock-Abrahams, Barbara. 1975. A tolerated margin of mess: The trickster and his tales reconsidered. Journal of the Folklore Institute 11(3). 147–186.10.2307/3813932Suche in Google Scholar
Bar-Itzhak, Haya. 2010. Pioneers of Jewish ethnography and folkloristics in Eastern Europe. Ljubljana: Scientific research center of the Slovenian academy of sciences and art.10.3986/9789612541743Suche in Google Scholar
Bar-Itzhak, Haya. 2013. Hershele Ostropoler. In Raphael Patai & Haya Bar-Itzhak (eds.), Encyclopedia of Jewish folklore and traditions (1), 236–237. London and New York: M. E. Sharpe.Suche in Google Scholar
Bartal, Israel. 2007. Kozak vebedue’i [Cossack and Bedouin: Land and people in Jewish nationalism]. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.Suche in Google Scholar
Ben-Amos, Dan. 1973. The “myth” of Jewish humor. Western Folklore 32. 112–131.10.2307/1498323Suche in Google Scholar
Ben-Porat, Ziva. 1980. Haparodia kebikoret babikoret ha’ivrit [Parody as literary criticism]. In Nurit Govrin (ed.), Peles – mehkarim bebikoret hasifrut haivrit, 231–258. Tel Aviv: Katz research institute for Hebrew literature, Tel Aviv University.Suche in Google Scholar
Bermant, Chaim. 1986. What’s the joke? A study of Jewish humour through the ages. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Suche in Google Scholar
Biale, David. 2011. Not in the heavens: The tradition of Jewish secular thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400836642Suche in Google Scholar
Bialik, Haim Nachman. 1935 [1927]. Al kodesh vehol balashon [The sacred and the secular in language]. In Dvarim shebe-alpeh 2, 128–130. Tel Aviv: Dvir.Suche in Google Scholar
Bronner, Simon J. 2013. Dialect stories, Jewish-American. In Raphael Patai & Haya Bar-Itzhak (eds.), Encyclopedia of Jewish folklore and traditions (1), 125–127. London and New York: M. E. Sharpe.Suche in Google Scholar
Cooper, David John. 2012. Religion and humor. University of California thesis.Suche in Google Scholar
Davidson, Israel. 1966 [1907]. Parody in Jewish literature. New York: AMS Press.10.7312/davi92246Suche in Google Scholar
Davies, Christie. 1990a. Ethnic humor around the world. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Davies, Christie. 1990b. An explanation of Jewish jokes about Jewish women. Humor 3. 363–378.10.1515/humr.1990.3.4.363Suche in Google Scholar
De-Certeau, Michel. 1988. The practice of everyday life, translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Detweiler, Robert. 1974. The Jesus jokes: Religious humor in the age of excess. Cross Currents 24. 55–74.Suche in Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary. 1968. The social control of cognition: Some factors in ‘joke perception’. Man 3(3). 361–376. New series.10.2307/2798875Suche in Google Scholar
Druyanow, Alter. 1922. Sefer habediha vehahiddud [The book of jokes and Witticisms]. Frankfurt: Omanut.Suche in Google Scholar
Druyanow, Alter. 1935–1938. Sefer habediha vehahiddud [The book of jokes and witticism]. vol. 1–3. Tel Aviv: The author’s publishing and Dvir.Suche in Google Scholar
Druyanow, Alter. 1943 [1911]. Ehad dugma larabim [One, modeling for the many]. Ketavim nivharim [Selected essays], vol. 1, 265–269. Tel Aviv: Brit rishonim.Suche in Google Scholar
Druyanow, Alter. 1943 [1912]. Mekadshei hashem [Sanctifiers of His Name]. Ketavim nivharim [Selected essays], 1, 352–353. Tel Aviv: Brit rishonim.Suche in Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile. 2001 [1912]. The elementary forms of religious life, translated by Carol Cosman. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. Diglossia. Word 15. 325–340.10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702Suche in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua H. 1971. Sociolinguistics – A brief introduction. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua H. 1972. Language and nationalism: Two integrative essays, 37–85. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar
Geybels, Hans & Walter Van Herck (eds.). 2011. Humour and religion, challenges and ambiguities. London and New York: Continuum.Suche in Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles Francis. 1977. The view from language. Athens: University of Georgia Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hutcheon, Linda. 1985. A Theory of parody: The teaching of twentieth-century art forms. London: Methuen.Suche in Google Scholar
Hyers, Conrad M. 1969a. The comic profanation of the sacred. In Conrad Hyers (ed.), Holy laughter: Essays on religion in the comic perspective, 9–27. New York: The Seabury Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hyers, Conrad M. 1969b. The dialectic of the sacred and the comic. In Conrad Hyers (ed.), Holy laughter: Essays on religion in the comic perspective, 208–240. New York: The Seabury Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Isaacs, Abram Samuel. 1972 [1922]. Stories from the Rabbis. New York: B. Blom.Suche in Google Scholar
Katz, Jacob. 1979. Leumiut yehudit [Jewish nationalism]. Jerusalem: Hasifria hazionit.Suche in Google Scholar
Kiel, Mark W. 1991. A twice lost legacy: Ideology, culture and the pursuit of Jewish folklore in Russia until Stalinization (1930–1931). Jewish Theological Seminary of America dissertation.Suche in Google Scholar
Kushelevsky, Rella. 2010. Sigufim vepitu’im: Hasipur ha’ivry beashkenaz [Penalty and temptation, Ms Parma 2295]. Jerusalem: Magnes.Suche in Google Scholar
Landmann, Salcia. 1962. On Jewish humor. The Jewish Journal of Sociology 4. 193–204.Suche in Google Scholar
Marzolph, Ulrich. 2000. The Qoran and jocular literature. Arabica 47. 478–487.10.1163/157005800774230308Suche in Google Scholar
Miron, Dan. 2010. Acharit davar [epilogue]. In Sholem Aleichem, Sipurei tohu [Tales of the void], Selected, translated and annotated by Dan Miron, 219–297. Jerusalem: Keter.Suche in Google Scholar
Nash, Walter. 1986. The language of humour: Style and technique in comic discourse. New York: Longman.Suche in Google Scholar
Norrick, Neal R. 1989. Intertextuality in humor. Humor 2(2). 117–139.10.1515/humr.1989.2.2.117Suche in Google Scholar
Noy, Dov. 1962. Hakayemet bedichat am Yehudit? [Is there a typical Jewish joke?]. Mahanayim 67. 48–56.Suche in Google Scholar
Oring, Elliott. 1981. Israeli humor: The content and structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah. Albany: State University of New York Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Oring, Elliott. 2003. Engaging humor. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Oring, Elliott. 2016. Joking asides: The theory, analysis, and aesthetics of humor. Logan: Utah University Press.10.7330/9781607324928Suche in Google Scholar
Pinto-Abecasis, Nina. 2014. Hatavas, hamegohats vehazi ha’iesha [The Peacock, the Ironed Man and the Half-Woman: Nicknames, humor and folklore in the day-to-day speech of Tetuan’s haketia-speaking Jews]. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Suche in Google Scholar
Raskin, Victor. 1985. Semantic mechanisms of humor. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.10.1007/978-94-009-6472-3Suche in Google Scholar
Redfern, Walter. 1984. Puns. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Suche in Google Scholar
Riffaterre, Michael. 1974. The poetic functions of intertextual humor. Romantic Review 65. 278–293.Suche in Google Scholar
Rosen, Ralph M. 2012. Efficacy and meaning in ancient and modern political satire: Aristophanes, Lenny Bruce, and Jon Stewart. Social Research 79(1). 1–32. Politics and Comedy.10.1353/sor.2012.0022Suche in Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Franz. 1956. Humor in Early Islam. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Sadan, Dov. 1950. Ke’arat zimukim [Raisin bowl]. Tel Aviv: M. Newman.Suche in Google Scholar
Sadan, Dov. 1953. Ke’arat egozim [Nut bowl]. Tel Aviv: M. Newman.Suche in Google Scholar
Scarborough, Connie L. 2010. Laughter and the comedic in a religious text: The example of the Cantigas de Sauta Maria. In Albrecht Classen (ed.), Laughter in the middle ages and early modern times, 281–294. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110245486.281Suche in Google Scholar
Schwarzbaum, Haim. 1962. Leizanim amamiyim mefursamim beyisrael [Famous jesters in Israel]. Mahanaim 67. 57–63.Suche in Google Scholar
Sebba-Elran, Tsafi. 2017. The canonization and censorship of the modern Jewish joke in Alter Druyanow’s ‘Book of Jokes and Witticisms’ (1922). Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 16(2). 118–137.10.1080/14725886.2016.1211345Suche in Google Scholar
Shahoor, S.Y. 1913. Habedihot be’agadat hazal vehashpa’atah hahinuchit [The rabbinic joke and its educational influence]. Hahinuch 3(4). 268–278.Suche in Google Scholar
Shait, Heddy. 2014. A postmodern reading of Brenner’s last story: Mehathala as parodic homage. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 13(2). 249–263.10.1080/14725886.2014.918717Suche in Google Scholar
Sherzer, Joel. 1985. Puns and Jokes. In Teun A. Van Dijk (ed.), Handbook of discourse analysis, vol. 3, 213–221. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Stora-Sandor, Judith. 1991. The stylistic metamorphosis of jewish humor. Humor 4(2). 211–222.10.1515/humr.1991.4.2.211Suche in Google Scholar
Tevayov, Israel Haim. 1923 [1908]. Haharifut vehahidud shebatanach [The jokes and the jests of the Bible]. Kitvei I. H. Tevayov[Tevayov’s writings], 54–72. Jerusalem and Berlin: Moriyah and Dvir.Suche in Google Scholar
Tevayov, Israel Haim. 1923 [1918]. Hahidud bemidrash hachtuvim [The jests of the rabbis]. Kitvei I. H. Tevayov [Tevayov’s writings], 89–110. Jerusalem and Berlin: Moriyah and Dvir.Suche in Google Scholar
Tsakona, Villy. 2011. Humour, religion and politics in greek cartoons: Symbiosis or conflict?. In Hans Geybels & Walter Van Herck (eds.), Humour and religion, challenges and ambiguities, 248–267. London and New York: Continuum.Suche in Google Scholar
Wisse, Ruth R. 1971. The schlemiel as modern hero. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Lexical priming in humorous satirical newspaper headlines
- The intertextual Jewish joke at the turn of the twentieth century and the poetics of a national renewal
- Humorous sublimation of a dying Cuban writer in Reinaldo Arenas’ The Color of Summer
- The influence of performance expectations and personality on audience ratings of humor
- Book Reviews
- Alain Vaillant: La civilisation du rire
- Elisabeth Cheauré Regine Nohejl: Humour and Laughter in History: Transcultural Perspectives
- Book Review
- Elliott Oring: Joking asides: The theory, analysis, and aesthetics of humor
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Lexical priming in humorous satirical newspaper headlines
- The intertextual Jewish joke at the turn of the twentieth century and the poetics of a national renewal
- Humorous sublimation of a dying Cuban writer in Reinaldo Arenas’ The Color of Summer
- The influence of performance expectations and personality on audience ratings of humor
- Book Reviews
- Alain Vaillant: La civilisation du rire
- Elisabeth Cheauré Regine Nohejl: Humour and Laughter in History: Transcultural Perspectives
- Book Review
- Elliott Oring: Joking asides: The theory, analysis, and aesthetics of humor
