Humor w folklorze Żydów aszkenazyjskich – zarys problematyki
Humour in the Folklore of Ashkenazi Jews – an Overview

Summary/Abstract: This story shows looks into the problems related to the presence and purpose of humour in Jewish folklore In the course of the analysis the writer studies the circumstances of the birth of the phenomenon of Jewish humour analysed based on surviving records, chiefly coming from East-Central Europe from the fin de siècle period. Then the author refers to the place of humour in the life of the traditional Jewish community, taking into account its special characteristics and the rapport with the surroundings. Meanwhile, the last part of the text deals with sources dating back to the times of the Holocaust and the latest attempts to analyse this topic. While the author’s attention is focused on matters related to the Jews’ culture, all the issues raised here could well serve farther reaching comparative studies. However, due to an early stage of the research, the article focuses on an evaluation of the discourse so far and on a presentation of the main trends emerging from a preliminary analysis of the source materials.

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