Laughter and Freedom: The theory and practice of humour in

In 1914 Kazantzaks publshed hs translaton of Le rire (Laughter), by the phlosopher Henr Bergson, whose lectures he had attended n Pars. Le rire s clearly, though nfor-mally, ntegrated nto Bergson’s phlosophy as a whole, whch profoundly nfluenced Kazantzaks. Bergson proposes that laughter can be nterpreted as socety’s way of pun-shng the type of behavour whch he descrbes as “automatsm”. Ths occurs when humans react to crcumstances or events n an “unthnkng”, nflexble way. In so dong they fal to utlse the mental powers whch dstngush our speces, and whch allow us to acheve a unque degree of freedom and creatvty. Many of the amusng trats of characters n Kazantzaks ’ novels can be nterpreted accordng to Bergson’s theory. At the same tme, Kazantzaks seems to contnue a tradton of popular humour, n whch wsdom may be found n the sayngs or actons of an apparently foolsh or naïve person. In general Kazantzaks ’ works exude a profound serousness and a passonately ear-nest belef n hs own msson to enlghten hs readers. “Humour ” s not a word we would assocate wth hs tragedes, hs Odyssey, or hs phlosophcal works such a