이 글의 목적은 오늘날 총체성에 저항하는 수단으로서 문화와 사유 전반에 걸쳐 막대한 영향력을 행사하고 있는 웃음 개념의 발전과정을 고대로부터 현대에 이르기까지 상세한 고찰을 통하여 현대문화의 중요한 일면을 이해할 수 있는 이론적 기틀을 마련하는 데 있다. 이를 위해 저항적 웃음에 대한 철학적 담론이 고대로부터 어떻게 현대까지 변화해 왔는가를 살펴보았다. 연구의 결과 견유학파의 대표적 철학자였던 디오게네스에서 중세 카니발의 저항적 웃음을 거쳐 보들레르, 니체, 프로이드 등 근대 이후의 웃음에 대한 이론에 담긴 저항적 의미를 확인할 수 있었다. 이러한 웃음의 저항적 의미는 이후 벤야민과 아도르노의 웃음에 대한 논쟁을 거쳐 20세기 후반에는 에코와 지젝의 논쟁까지 이어지며 여전히 중요한 이론적 탐구의 대상이 되고 있다.

This treatise deals with the laughter as method of resistance against the totality and the seriousness from the antiquity to the contemporary philosophy of culture and aesthetics. The author tried herewith to provide a theoretical possibility of better understanding the concept of subversive laughter which exerts nowadays an enormous influence on the contemporary philosophy and culture. The result of the inquiry is as follows: From the antiquity to the modernity, the laughter was disregarded and neglected by the dominating cultural and scientific discourse. For it was understood as a reaction to the absurdity which can be discovered in other person's behavior or speech. This reaction was believed to be caused by the feeling of superiority over the others which result from the discovery of the absurdity in their behavior or speech. It was morally unacceptable for the decent people, even to be turned down as religious sin. Therefore, the laughter was even officially forbidden in Middle Ages, for example in the monasteries and in the barracks of crusaders. But the resistant as well as subversive laughter has been a very important object of theoretical and practical discourse in the area of aesthetics and cultural philosophy, from Diogenes of Sinope through the laughter of fools in the carnival, to the theories of laughter in the thought of eminent artists and philosophers as Baudelarie, Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, Bakhtin, Benjamin, Adorno, Sloterijk, Eco, Zizek etc.

In dieser Abhandlung handelt es sich um die eingehende Betrachtung über das Lachen als Methode des Widerstandes gegen die Totalität und den Ernst, von der Antike bis zur zeitgenössischen Kulturphilosophie und Ästhetik. Damit sollte eine theoretische Möglichkeit geschaffen werden, den Begriff des widerständigen Lachens besser zu verstehen, welches heute einen enormen Einfluss übt auf die heutigen Kulturphänomene und Philosophie. Aus der Betrachtung ergibt sich folgendes: Vom dominierenden kulturellen sowie wissenschaftlichen Diskurs wurde das Lachen geringgeschätzt bzw. verachtet von der Antike bis in die Moderne. Denn es wurde verstanden als eine auf dem Gefühl der Überlegenheit basierende Reaktion auf die gefundene Absurdität beim anderen Menschen. Das war für viele anständigen und ehrwürdigen Leute moralisch unakzeptabel, sogar als Sünde im religiösen Sinne abzulehnen. Daher das öffentliche Verbot des Lachens im Mittelalter, z. B. im Kloster und in der Kaserne der Kreuzfahrer. Aber von Diogenes von Sinope, einem Exponenten des antiken Kynismus über das widerständige Lachen des Karnevals, bis zu den Theorien des großen Künstlers wie Baudelaire, der großen Gelehrten wie Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, Bakhtin, Benjamin, Adorno, Sloterijk, Eco, Zizek etc. war und ist immer noch das Lachen ein sehr wichtiger Gegenstand des theoretischen wie praktischen Diskurses im Bereich der Ästhetik and Kulturphilosophie.

Laughter, Irony, Kynical Laughter, Subversive Laughter, Diabolical Laughter

Lachen, Ironie, kynisches Lachen, subversives Lachen, diabolisches Lachen