‘Or Words to That Effect’:The Antimetaphysics of Slapstick

Antimetaphysical slapstick–as a figure of thought–draws on the traditions of the theatric and cinematic slapstick as well as on the postulates and thought structures of a philosophy of difference dating back to the formation of post-modern or poststructuralist theory. The antimetaphysical variety of slapstick, outlined in this chapter, develops first from within the traditional concept of body-related comedy and subsequently intersects with a number of other forms of comedy and the comedic. Notably, subtleties of distinction between comedy genres such as satire, parody, farce, or travesty do not play a role here, as the focus is on the use of specific operations and techniques that are traditionally attributed to slapstick and can even be found in the discourses of poststruc-turalism and postmodernism (sense, nonsense, repetition, seriality). Drawing particularly on Gilles Deleuze’s treatiseLogique du sens[The Logic of Sense,1969], this chapter examines to what extent these techniques yield the construct of an antimetaphysical variant of slapstick which is no longer driven by a metaphysical desire to get to the bottom of things, and which is fundamentally independent from genre. Instead, the question of how the comedic is produced, i.e.,constructed through comic operations is discussed in detail using the example of German dramatist Wolfgang Hildesheimer’s comic plays. On the one hand, this leads to a novel reading of Hildesheimer’s early theater that outlines the structure and special features of antimetaphysical slapstick. On the other hand, it results in an original contribution that refines the overall definition of slapstick.

Hron, Irina. "‘Or Words to That Effect’: The Antimetaphysics of Slapstick". Slapstick: An Interdisciplinary Companion, edited by Ervin Malakaj and Alena E. Lyons, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021, pp. 269-292. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110571981-017