Die Dissertation untersuchte Formen von Humor in der Ilias. Das Spektrum dieser Formen stellte sich als äußerst vielfältig heraus: Verschiedene Formen von sog. Dramatischer Ironie, von komisch bis tragisch, ironische oder komische Charakterzeichnung einzelner Figuren, Elemente von Sprachwitz, zynische Götterzeichnungen, heiter-bösartige Götterburlesken, scherzende und spottende Helden, groteske Todesfälle, ironische Anspielungen auf andere epische Traditionen und Genres und vieles mehr - all dies stand im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung.:Inhalt 1) Einleitung und Prolegomena zu einer historischen Analyse von Humor I S. 1 2) Prolegomena zu einer historischen Analyse von Humor II: Moderne Humortheorien S. 27 3) Der Zorn des Achilleus: Tragische Ironien im Kindergarten der Helden (Erster Gesang) S. 61 3.1) Exkurs: Ironien, Formelsprache, Textgenese S. 119 4) Agora und Boule: Die Volksversammlung als ironische Tragikomödie (Zweiter Gesang) S. 141 5) Thersites a-metro-epes S. 177 6) Make love not war: Paris und Helena im dritten Gesang S. 222 6.1) Exkurs: Ringkomposition und erzählte Zeit in der Ilias S. 374 7) Epi-phanien. Das zynische Wirken der Götter, oder: Warum die Welt so ist, wie sie ist S. 405 8) Die Götterburlesken der Ilias S. 436 9) Der Humor des Tötens, die Komik und die Ironie des Sterbens S. 473 10) Invektivität und Anschlusskommunikation: neikos-Reaktionen in der Ilias S. 498 11) ‚Broken Heroes‘ und der ironische Schmerz – Achilleus, Hektor und eine Frage des Charakters I S. 557 12) Die Figuren der zweiten Reihe und ihre Defizite – eine Frage des Charakters II S. 629 13) Schlussbetrachtung S. 710 14) Appendix 1: Antike Theorie und Praxis I – Platon über Humor (und Humor bei Platon) S. 730 15) Appendix 2: Antike Theorie und Praxis II – Aristoteles über Humor S. 755 17) Literaturverzeichnis S. 774

Scholarly research on comical popular theatre is rare in the Swedish context even though the genre has attracted large audiences throughout the 20th century. Nils Poppe is one of the greatest Swedish actors in the comical genre and he is famous for his playful acting style. With my Master’s dissertation I aim to shed some light on both the genre and this great actor. Another aim of this Master’s dissertation is to gain understanding of what causes the audience’s laughter experiencing Nils Poppe’s comical acting. To understand the audience response to the comical acting I need to study the communication between the actor and the beholders.   In doing this I use Bert O. States phenomenological approach, in which he divides the communication into three modes in which the beholder experiences the action. In each of these modes I then use complementary concepts and theories to analyze the audience’s laughter. My analysis starts with the Representational mode in which the focus is on the fiction of the play. Using semiotics, I discuss Poppe’s characters as a stock character related to the Commedia dell’arte character Harlequin and other clown characters, which are imbedded in the audience’s memory. With examples from a play I show why the audience laugh in different scenes.  In the next chapter, I analyze the Self-expressive mode in which the artist at stage is in focus. While experiencing the fiction of the play the audience simultaneously experiences the reality on stage. The actor is present and Poppe’s real face, body and voice is affecting the audience’s response. The final mode is the Collaborative mode in which the collaboration between the actor and beholder is analyzed. The direction of the play and how Poppe interacts with the audience is increasing the impression of presence among the audience. In his acting, Poppe breaks the theatrical conventions of the separation between fiction and reality, and in improvisations, he challenges both the audience and fellow actor’s notion of theatre. The result of the study implies that some laughter can’t be explained just by studying each of these modes separately. When the character leaves the fictional play and acts within the audience reality, or when the actor on stage is understood as part of the fiction an incongruity is created that tends to make the audience laugh.

Teilw. zugl.: Kiel und Coimbra, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.

The subject of this paper is the philosophy of comedy. It is an orientation through history of laughter and its connection to the essence of comedy. This investigation tries to pinpoint some characteristics of the comedian and the task of the comedian today, focusing primarily on comedy in the public sphere. This paper concludes that comedy could be something physical and biological, but also something political. Humor is general and something very common but also culturally unique. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate comedy as something highly spiritual, absolute human and animalistic. It also aims to connect comedy to the philosophical discipline and strengthen its bond to the academic field. This paper includes some theories of humor, from both an evolutionary, scientific perspective to a more philosophical and theological view. It also includes a political discussion of how one can joke about everything and why comedy is important today.

Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Universiẗat, Diss.

Sweden has an active and growing culture of feminist comic book artists that use comedy as a mean of disseminating political ideas and critic. In this essay I do a reparative reading of Sara Granér’s comic book All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi in order to find out if it advocates alternative orders and/or ways of expression. By exploring what the comic book does to me as a reader and how, using the term ”skev” – a hybrid of queer that examines normativity not strictly tied to sexuality – and gulesque theory – a mix of feminism, cuteness, the grotesque and riot grrrl –, I show that the comic book, through the use of comedy, works as a trojan My Little Pony, reclaiming the girly franchise, while challenging several so-called dichotomies, such as: femininity/masculinity; youth/adult; high art/kitsch. I conclude that the comic book contain feminist figures of resistance, and that it creates affects and nourishment that can be used as a means to imagine a feminist other.