‘TOUCHED’ BY HUMOUR IN LIFE: CHARACTERS IN JOHN MCGAHERN’S FICTION
Abstract
In John McGahern’s stories, stories bring to life characters in both comic and tragic instances, and their whole existence comes under the spotlight, as the writer uses mild, ironic or sarcastic touches. In between automatisms and mobility often directed at dogmatism or mental stereotypes displayed by characters, clergymen, workers, teachers, writers or family members display their ignorance, occasional (lack of) manners, boredom or elevation, often imitating what seems to be ‘decent’ in terms of taste. This paper explores how class, gender and false pretences are ridiculed and exposed in both novels and short stories, and how laughter moves from a classical Kantian play instance to a Freudian-supported analysis of condensation and ambiguity as vehicles employed by a realist creator. The narrative often alternates between family roles and poles of power, visible and invisible laughter, as natural and changing (or hybrid) as human nature.
Keywords:
John McGahern, narrative, humour, laughterReferences
References
Chafe, W. The Importance of Not Being Earnest: The Feeling Behind Laughter and Humor, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam / Philadeplhia 2007, https://doi.org/10.1075/ceb.3. Google Scholar
Hurtley, J., Gonzáles, R., Praga, I., Aliaga, E., Ireland in Writing: Interviews with Writers and Academics, Rodopi, Amsterdam-Atlanta, GA 1998. Google Scholar
Freud, S. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious [Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten], James Strachey (tr.), Penguin, New York 1974 [1905]. Google Scholar
Collinge, L. and Vernadakis, E. “John McGahern - b. 1934”, Journal of the Short Story in English [Online], 41 | Autumn 2003, <http://jsse.revues.org/314>, [accessed 13.06.2013]. Google Scholar
Doljanin, Ž. and Doyle, M., eds., John McGahern: Authority and Vision, Manchester University Press. 2017. DOI:10.7228/manchester/9781526100566.001.0001 Google Scholar
Kant, I., Critique of Judgement. New York: Cosimo. 2007. Google Scholar
Lee, H., Readings and Conversations: John McGahern. https://lannan.org/images/lit/john-mcgahern-040407-trans-read.pdf, [accessed 10.05.2013]. Google Scholar
Maher, E., John McGahern: From the Local to the Universal, The Leffey Press, Dublin, 2003. Google Scholar
Malcolm, C. A. and Malcolm, D., eds., A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story. Malden MA and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 2008, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304770.ch7 Google Scholar
McCarthy, D. John McGahern and the Art of Memory, Peter Lang, Oxford and Bern. 2010, https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0042-0 Google Scholar
McGahern, J., Love of the World: Essays, Faber and Faber, London 2009. Google Scholar
McGahern, J., Memoir, London: Faber and Faber, London 2006. Google Scholar
McGahern, J., The Collected Stories. London: Faber and Faber. 1993. Google Scholar
McGahern, J., The Pornographer, Faber and Faber, London, 1979. Google Scholar
Morgan, A. “Understanding the Imperfect in John McGahern’s First and Last Novels”, in González-Arias, M. L., National Identities and Imperfections in Contemporary Irish Literature: Unbecoming Irishness, Palgrave Macmillan: London. 2017, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47630-2_4 Google Scholar
Morreall, J. Taking Laughter Seriously, Albany NY: State University of New York Press. 1983. Google Scholar
Morreall, J., ed. The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor, Albany NY: State University of New York Press. 1987. Google Scholar
Morreall, J. Humor Works, Amherst: Human Resource Development Press. 1997. Google Scholar
Morreall, J. Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor, Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 2009, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444307795. Google Scholar
Mullen, R., Bargroff A., Mullen J., eds., John McGahern, Critical Essays, Peter Lang, Bern, 2014, https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0606-4. Google Scholar
Pailer, G., Böhn, A., Horlacher, S., Scheck, U., Gender and Laughter: Comic Affirmation and Subversion in Traditional and Modern Media, Amsterdam & New York, Rodopi. 2009, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789042026735. Google Scholar
Robinson, R., John McGahern and Modernism, Bloomsbury Academic, London / New York / Oxford / New Delhi / Sydney, 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781472544117.0006 Google Scholar
Sampson, D., Young John McGahern: Becoming a Novelist, Oxford University Press, New York, 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781472544117.0006 Google Scholar
Shovlin, F., Touchstones: John McGahern’s Classical Style, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2016. Google Scholar
Shaftesbury. “Sensus Communis: An Essay on the Freedom and Wit of Humour” [London 1709], reprinted in Lawrence Klein (ed.), vol. I, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinion, Times [London 1711], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803284.008 Google Scholar
Taylor, J., Laughter, Literature, Violence, 1840-1930, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-11413-8. Google Scholar
van der Zeel, S., John McGahern and the Imagination of Tradition, Cork University Press, Cork, 2015. Google Scholar
van der Zeel, S., “John McGahern: Nightlines”, in A Companian of the British and Irish Short Story, C. A. Malcolm, D. Malcolm (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444304770.ch43 Google Scholar
Statistics
Abstract views: 131PDF downloads: 168
Similar Articles
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- Hans-Christian Stillmark, About the forbidden laughter , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Jolanta Pacyniak, Narrative structures of threat in "1000 Coils of Fear" ("1000 Serpentinen Angst") by Olivia Wenzel , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 8 (2023): Anxiety and fear in contemporary German-language, Polish and Irish literature
- Tobiasz Janikowski, "Will my tears change anything?” Manifestations of sadness in German music of the 18th century , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Jan Trna, Crying and laughing as the pillars of criticism of Switzerland in the play Twenty Thousand Pages by Lukas Bärfuss , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 5 (2020)
- Brigitta Helbig-Mischewski, “Ich komme aus Polen”: Migrant Literature as Coming Out– Wir Strebermigranten by Emilia Smechowski in the Context of Polish Migrant Prose in Germany , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 4 (2019)
- Ewa Górska, Dorota Sośnicka, ‘Refugees’ nightmares’: Motives of escape and anxiety in Gertrud Leutenegger’s novel "Späte Gäste" (2020) , Transfer. Reception Studies: Vol. 8 (2023): Anxiety and fear in contemporary German-language, Polish and Irish literature
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
