Helke Sander and the Meaning of Laughter

Abstract

All of Helke Sander's work as writer, critic, filmmaker and activist is concerned with women's outlooks on life; and her films' innovative discursive structures, informed by a distinct feminist stance, are the focus of much scholarly research.1 What has been a focus only in passing is Sander's use of irony and especially humor, with one exception: Ruth Perlmutter has seriously studied irony, humor and the grotesque in The Trouble with Love (1984)2 and thus set the stage for further discussions of Sander's laughter. My article will expand on Perlmutter's commendable work on one of Sander's films and further discuss the use of humor and irony in the film Die Deutschen und ihre Mdnner (1989) as well as one of Sander's written texts, Die Geschichten der drei Damen K. (1987).3 In my discussion, I intend to show how Sander's use of different discourses, meta-character, and descriptions of heterosexual relationships produce funny, ironic, even grotesque situations. Frequently, laughter emerges as a result of Sander's critical accounts of human relationships, power, and gender roles. In Sander's Geschichten der drei Damen K. and in her later film Die Deutschen und ihre Mdnner, this laughter, although serious, can be witty, even outright funny. In Der Beginn aller Schrecken ist Liebe it is tragicomic, painful and full of anguish. But before I begin to talk about Sander's particular use of laughter, let me explain laughter's relationship to humor, irony and pain. Laughter can be lighthearted, humorous, or painful. In Sander's texts it is rarely the first and frequently the latter. As a feminist filmmaker and writer, her intent is to call