Bharatamuni’s hāsya in Nāṭya Śāstra and Bergson’s Laughter: A comparative study of the aesthetics of the comic

Abstract

AbstractThe paper elucidates the “paradox of comedy”—a perpetual philosophical concern regarding the nature of theatrical/stage comedy—through a cross-cultural comparison between Bharatamuni’s (circa 500 A.D.) and Henri Bergson’s (1859–1941) theorization of the comic and thereupon, fathoms the Indian comic tradition in the canon of comedy studies. Bharata’s hāsya in Nāṭya Śāstra and Bergson’s Laughter become tenable for a comparative aesthetic study as they approach the stagecraft of the comic socio-aesthetically. The comic paradox implies the tension in the nature of comedy, which on one hand has to arouse emotion in the audience and simultaneously, has to detach them from the emotion for the comic manifestation. This is further elaborated through: the personal and social nature of the comic; the absence and presence of feeling; the degrees of the comic paradox through detachment and indifference; the identification and isolation of the character; the aim of the comedy. The authors argue for Bergson’s position of the comic as an ‘outward’ and Bharata’s as an ‘inward-outward’ operation. The study also includes an appendix, which validates Bergson’s approach to laughter as the earliest attempt to dedicate an elaborate study on the nature of the comic.