Cheeky Fictions. Laughter and the Postcolonial

• Ute Kauer

Explaining the joke is a rather dreary task and neither makes for good reading nor does it contribute to the profundity of literary analysis. Cheeky Fictions, though, definitely offers more than descriptions of literary witticisms. Although a key-feature in postcolonial literature, no extensive study of the form and function of humour has been undertaken so far. Due to our postmodern conundrum, when using the term “postcolonial” some theorizing and problematizing has to be undertaken. In the introduction, the editors therefore set out to locate their position within this debate, which is characterized by the “concept of difference” (p. 7). No unifying theory of either humour or the postcolonial has been imposed on the collection of essays, mainly because laughter is essentially subjective, but also because a dialogue of different approaches seemed more productive than a “master theory”. It is stressed that laughter in postcolonial literature is not only a question of “laughing back” at the colonizer but can have numerous other functions: it can be conciliatory, release tension, provide “intellectual stimulus” (p. 12), or create a feeling of community.

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