Inciting Laughter: The Development of 'Jewish Humor' in 19th-Century German Culture

Abstract

Chase, Jefferson. Inciting Laughter: The Development of `Jewish in 19th Century German Culture. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000. 330 pp. We do not have to wait for punch line. On very first page Jefferson S. Chase gives us both main theme and main argument of his new book about Judenwitz: Laughter-- and its absence- not only reveal but enact distinctions of sameness and difference, selfhood and otherness, membership and exclusion. This book examines one particular such constellation: association of Jewishness and destructive, satiric laughter in nineteenth century Germany (1). The project is ambitious and exciting. For although Jewishness of nineteenth century German-Jewish humorists in question here has received much scholarly attention, relation of their of both its genesis and significance, to development of German national identity has not been rigorously conceptualized. This is just what Chase seeks to do. He begins with a general discussion of role of laughter in process of identity formation. Here Chase's main point is that because humor, and especially satire, entails a mastery of cultural codes and elicits involuntary acknowledgment (i.e., laughter), it has a special appeal to marginalized groups. When German Jews-Moritz Saphir, Ludwig Borne Heinrich Heine-used to gain entry into German culture, what Chase calls the self-appointed mainstream reacted defensively and created deprecatory, exclusionist stereotype, Judenwitz. Instead of creating openings in German culture, satirical arrows of German-Jewish humorists led to erection of a racist buffer. Germans began to define themselves in contrast to that Jewish writers attempted to use as a vehicle for integration. Chase's own figure is less linear. According to him, emergent German public sphere produced a circle, an unfortunate one: In a vicious circle, very mode of discourse that was most attractive for Saphir, Borne and Heine turned out to be precisely that which provoked extreme unease and hostility among all those nations anxious in face of change (17). Yet Chase's position on Judenwitz is not as saturnine as this quotation suggests. Elsewhere he emphasizes other, equally important side of Judenwitz: it offered its bearer as a mode of authorship (18). These legitimate possibilities include positive self-definition and resistance to anti-Semitism. And so, in laying down his approach, Chase writes that he will consider Judenwitz as a pejorative stereotype that marginalized a perceived minority form of speech and that he [...] will treat it as an authorial strategy, applying its complex of ideas to interpretations of various texts and showing how three writers in question used satiric to create an alternative mode of authorship (3). The results are as mixed as agenda. Inciting Laughter consists of an introductory chapter on humor theory, three large chapters on Saphir, Borne and Heine, respectively, and an appendix that contains miscellaneous translations of their writings. Chase's style is generally lucid. But clarity of Chase's thought is not as consistent. For example, introduction provides a useful survey of cultural theory about as well as an intelligent discussion of its applicability to very particular context of German-Jewish culture. It concludes, however, with a strange, strained attempt to set up a dichotomy between Witz and Humor in early nineteenth century Germany. Chase's goal is to explain development of his key term, or rather, to explain why anti-Semites spoke of Judenwitz and not Judenhumor. The move is strange because Chase's title announces book is about humor. And it is strained because Chase's assertion, that Witz was regarded as vulgar while Humor could be an elevated discourse, will alienate anyone familiar with, say, Friedrich Schlegel's philosophical enthusiasm for Witz. …