Este 6 y 7 de junio, se celebró en la Facultat d'Humanitats de la UPF, el XIII Workshop on Aesthetic Experience dedicado, en esta ocasión, a "Humour, WIt and Knowledge". En este contexto, tuve el honor de participar el 6 de junio a las 11,30 h con una conferencia sobre "Laughter and doubt: humor in Milan Kundera’s work".
Aquí adjunto el enlace para escuchar mi conferencia (sin el turno de preguntas y solo audio), el abstract de mi aportación y el cartel del evento.
Laughter and doubt: humor in Milan Kundera’s work.
Abstract: in the Kundera’s work, laughter and humor are always present. However, In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting the author explains that not every laugh is related with humor: he built a kind of “theory” of laughter. But the laughter that is connected with humor seems to have always one characteristic: it is presented as doubt. Nevertheless, a doubt about what?
Kundera writes in order to create a story about his society. In concrete: the socialist society of the Czech Republic (1948-1989). And the author thinks he has detected the motor of the power of this society (and maybe this point is not valid only for only this one): the faith.
Faith could be, perhaps, understood beyond the religious meaning and explanation. And if it is possible to do this action, maybe we can apply the concept of faith (faith as a trust) to the guidelines of the socialist system (at least: the socialist society of Kundera). But the key question is: What happens when humor and laughter collide with faith?
Keywords: laughter, laugh, humor, doubt, faith, socialism, Kundera.
