Una riflessione sul riso e sull’umorismo ebraico: The King of Schnorrers di Israel Zangwill

The first part of the essay gives an overview of the main theoretical approaches to humour and laughter, with emphasis on Freud, Bergson, and Pirandello; on philosophers Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Schopenhauer; and finally on contemporary scholars Georges Minois and Donata Francescato. In the light of studies by Moni Ovadia, Marc-Alain Ouaknin, and Laura Salmon, the peculiar traits of Jewish humour and the functions it served are then examined, from its origins in Biblical writings and Midrashic literature to its later history. The essay then specifically examines British author Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) and his celebrated picaresque novel The King of Schnorrers (1894). In Zangwill’s novel, the stock character of the astute, money-grabbing Jew that had prevailed in the English literary tradition (with notable examples in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta , Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice , and Dickens’ Oliver Twist ) is recast by a Jewish writer who applies his talent for humour to bring into perspective and relativize British atavistic fears in the face of Jewish people and their tradition.