Laughing while it hurts: On humor and contradiction in an authoritarian state
Mittwoch, 05.11.2025, 18:15 Uhr
| Veranstaltende: | Collegium generale |
|---|---|
| Redner, Rednerin: | Prof. Dr. Azadeh Ganjeh, Performative Künste, Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen, Ottersberg |
| Datum: | 05.11.2025 |
| Uhrzeit: | 18:15 - 19:45 Uhr |
| Ort: |
Auditorium maximum, Raum 110 Hauptgebäude Hochschulstrasse 4 3012 Bern |
| Anmeldung: | Keine Anmeldung erforderlich |
| Merkmale: |
Öffentlich kostenlos |
Abstract
This lecture explores humor as a performative and intersubjective act that unfolds in the in-between – between self and other, authority and subject, power and resistance. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s distinction between authoritarianism and totalitarianism and Simon Critchley’s notion of humor as distance and emancipation, I examine how humor operates simultaneously as a tool of control and a practice of freedom within oppressive systems.
In authoritarian contexts, humor serves both the state and the people: it is deployed as propaganda but also recreated from below as a strategy of survival and critique. The public sphere thus becomes a contested stage where official and subversive performances of humor confront and reflect one another. In totalitarian states such as Iran’s Islamic Republic, the regime’s attempt to dictate laughter exposes its unease before humor’s relational and unpredictable nature.
By approaching humor as performance, as a mode of communication, and as a liberating yet painful experience – laughing while it hurts – this lecture examines the performative stages of humor with a particular focus on Iran, exploring how laughter can both sustain and destabilize authority and expose the fragile boundary between complicity and resistance.