Crying and laughing as the pillars of criticism of Switzerland in the play Twenty Thousand Pages by Lukas Bärfuss
Abstract
The focus of this article is the little-explored play Twenty Thousand Pages by the Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss. The criticism of Swiss society is presented under the focus of the emo-tional manifestations of laughter and crying. The focus is on two main protagonists, Wüthrich and Tony. One weeps constantly in his hiding place over the negative attitude of Swiss society to its behavior during World War II. The other tries to make the serious allegations public through an amusing TV show. The following research questions are examined in this regard: Are the main characters Wüthrich and Tony to be understood as complementary oppositions, each of which can be equated with crying and laughing? For the same reason, have their efforts to criticize Swiss cop-ing with the past concerning the atrocities of the Second World War failed? What position does society take regarding these two individuals, and what role do crying and laughter play in this?
Keywords:
laughter, crying, Twenty Thousand Pages, Lukas Bärfuss, empathy, criticism of SwitzerlandReferences
References
Bärfuss, Lukas. “Zwanzigtausend Seiten.” In Bärfuss, Lukas. Malaga, Parzifal, Zwanzigtausend Seiten. Stücke, 124–206. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2012. Google Scholar
Brázda, Radim. “Odo Marquard, Humor, Vernunft und Lachen.” Pro-Fil 16 (Brno: Masarykova univerzita 2015), no. 2: 51–68. Google Scholar
Die Schweiz, der Nationalsozialismus und der Zweite Weltkrieg: Schlussbericht, edited by Jean-François Bergier and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and Saul Friedländer and Harold James, Zürich 2002. https://www.research-gate.net/publication/278749844_Die_Schweiz_der_Nationalsozialis-mus_und_der_Zweite_Weltkrieg_Schlussbericht Google Scholar
Empathie und Erzählung, edited by Claudia Breger and Fritz Breithaupt. Freiburg i. Br/Berlin/Wien: Romach Litterae, 2010. Google Scholar
Duden. Deutsches Universalwörterbuch. Eigth edition, Berlin: Duden Verlag, 2015. Google Scholar
Fischer, Joachim. Helmut Plessner: Lachen und Weinen. Eine Untersuchung nach den Grenzen des menschlichen Verhaltens. In Hauptwerke der Emoti-onssoziologie, edited by Konstanze Senge and Rainer Schützeichel, 274–279. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2013. Google Scholar
Handlungsmuster der Gegenwart. Beiträge zum Werk von Lukas Bärfuss, edited by Gunreben, Marie and Marx, Friedhelm. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017. Google Scholar
Hentschel, Ingrid. “Spielen mit der Performanz. Transformationen des Komischen im Gegenwarttheater.” Maske und Kothurn 54 (2005), no. 4: 214–226. Google Scholar
Lüneborg, Margreth and Töpper Claudia. Gezielte Werteverletzungen-Ca-stingshows und Werteempfinden. https://www.bpb.de/apuz/33554/ge-zielte-grenzverletzungen-castingshows-und-werteempfinden. Google Scholar
Mazenauer, Beat. Elend ist keine Stilfrage. https://nachtkritik.de/in-dex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6546:zwanzigtausend-seiten-ua-lars-ole-walburgs-inszenierung-von-lukas-baerfuss-neuem-stueck-am-schauspielhaus-zuerich-fragt-wieviel-verantwortung-wir-fuer-die-vergangenheit-tragen-wollen&catid=38:die-nachtkri-tik&Itemid=40. Google Scholar
Plessner, Helmut. Lachen und Weinen. Eine Untersuchung der Grenzen menschlichen Verhaltens. München: Leo Lehnen/Francke 1950. Rasini, Vallori. “Menschlicher Ausdruck und Grenzverwirklichung. Lachen und Weinen.” In Expressivität und Stil. Helmuth Plessners Sinnes- und Aus-drucksphilosophie, edited by Bruno Accarino and Matthias Schlossberger, Internationales Jahrbuch für Philosophische Anthropologie, 1 (Berlin: Akademie 2008): 199–208. Google Scholar
Steiger, Claudio. Geschichte ohne Schüler. https://www.nzz.ch/ge-schichte_ohne_schueler-1.14771452. Google Scholar
Letnansky, Lisa. Wozu das ganze Spektakel? https://www.nahaufnah-men.ch/2012/02/04/lukas-barfuss-zwanzigtausend-seiten-schiffbau-box-zurich/. Google Scholar
Tanja, Thomas. “‘Mensch, burnen musst Du!’ Castingshows als Werkstatt des neoliberalen Subjekts.” Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie 12 (2004), no. 1/2: 191–208. Google Scholar
Statistics
Abstract views: 118PDF downloads: 99
Similar Articles
- Joanna Waronska, Laughter in the comedies of the Skamander environment. Functions and types , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Wolfgang Sréter, Learn to laugh without crying , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Andrew C. ROUSE, The Words ‘Laughter’ and ‘Laugh’ in a selection of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 6 (2021): AFFECTS 2 - CONTEMPORARY CULTURE OF EMOTIONS. TRANSFER. TRANSLATION. RECEPTION
- Katarzyna Lukas, Representations of fear and anxiety as an element of cultural criticism in Thomas Hettche’s novel "Pfaueninsel" (2014) , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 8 (2023): Anxiety and fear in contemporary German-language, Polish and Irish literature
- Hans-Christian Stillmark, About the forbidden laughter , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Markus EBERHARTER, Alexander Batowski's Criticism of the Polish Translation of Friedrich Schiller's Poem, Die Ideale , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 2 (2017)
- Paul Martin Langner, Reasons to laugh. Approaching factors for a deconstructivist explanatory model of laughter in pre-modern times , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 6 (2021): AFFECTS 2 - CONTEMPORARY CULTURE OF EMOTIONS. TRANSFER. TRANSLATION. RECEPTION
- Joanna Frużyńska, The bitter tears of unbearable children in the Polish version or the crying theme in the translations of Heinrich Hoffmann’s Struwwelpeter , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Małgorzata GERBER, How the Helvetians Discovered Waldenburg: The Reception of Joanna Bator in Switzerland , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 2 (2017)
- Szymon Gębuś, New "milestone" in the canon of contemporary comics research [Review of:] Stephan Packard, Andrea Rauscher, Véronique Sina, Jan-Noël Thon, Lukas R.A. Wilde, Janina Wildfeuer. Comicanalyse. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler Verlag, 2019, 228 pp. , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 7 (2022)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
