Absurd humor strategies in cinema

Doctoral student: Akvilė Gelažiūtė
Supervisors: Doc. dr. Giedrė Beinoriūtė, Prof. dr. Aušra Martišiūtė-Linartienė
Department: Cinema and Television
Intended duration: 2020–2024

Abstract

Akvilė Gelažiūtė

The aim of this artistic research is to determine how humor is constructed through the absurd in cinema, to consider why it is growing and how it is related to the changing cultural situation. In order to talk about the cinema of the Absurd, we must first look at the very concept of the absurdity, its continuing contradiction, and determine what absurdity and humor have in common. A review of the differences between the absurdities of Eastern and Western Europe, based on M. Esslin “The Theatre of the Absurd” (1961), N. Cornwell “The Absurd in literature” (2006), D. Amstrong “Wiseman’s Cinema of the Absurd: ‘Welfare’, or ‘Waiting for the Dole.’” (1988), E. Çağlayan “Poetics of Slow Cinema. Nostalgia, Absurdism, Boredom” (2018) and other authors describe the common features of works of absurdity that can be used in a film.

Also, based on the Incongruity and T. Veatch N+V theories explaining the origin of humor, a connection is found between absurdity and humor. In this context, applying the analysis of film reception, content and form and directing method, directors’ public speeches and interviews the contemporary documentary and fiction films are overviewed. Based on the analysis of literature and films, a feature documentary “Friends” is created, in which strategies of absurd humor are applied.

Keywords: humor, absurdity, absurd cinema