Laughter in Oral Histories of Displacement: “One Goes on a Mission to Solve Their Problems”

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough analyses of the use of humor and laughter in oral history have started to appear in oral history literature, the topic is still very under-researched. This paper builds on Kate Moore’s study of humor and laughter, exploring the use of unilateral laughter in eleven oral histories of exiled Cuban internationalist healthcare professionals. My work deepens our knowledge both on the role that laughter lays for interviewees who are navigating memories of their own life histories and on the history of the Cuban global universal healthcare system. By exploring the use of laughter, I shed light on the relevance of focusing on unconscious reactions in oral history narratives in order to understand better the emotions linked to narrated memories. My narrators’ stories of displacement also touch on what Neal Norrick has called the “humorous dual perspective” that allows interviewees to distance themselves from their past while simultaneously embracing and reflecting upon it. Additionally, I assert that another key factor to be taken into consideration when analyzing narrators’ use of laughter and this humorous dual perspective is the participants’ degree of acculturation.