Conference explores 'totalitarian laughter'

By Staff on May 8, 2009, 10:01 a.m.

A conference exploring the peculiar relationship between repression and laughter in socialist states is scheduled for Friday through Sunday, May 15-17, in 219 Burr Hall.

The conference, titled "Totalitarian Laughter: Cultures of the Comic Under Socialism," will examine satire, humor and comedy orchestrated by the state cultural industry under socialist regimes. An interdisciplinary group of scholars will discuss topics such as how state socialism transformed traditional comic genres and categories, and the ways comic versions of socialism became available to larger audiences.

The conference is sponsored by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Council of the Humanities, the Program in European Cultural Studies, the Program in Russian and Eurasian Studies, the University Center for Human Values and the Davis Center for Historical Studies.

A full schedule is available on the conference website.
 

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