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Abstract
This study looks into the relation between the comic and anger. Specifically, the paper analyses how anger emerges as the flip side of the comic, by studying the theory of emotions as presented in Bharatamuni’s Nāṭyaśāstra. The performative languages of the comic (hāsya) and anger (raudra) are closely examined. By analysing the features of hāsya and raudra the study attempts to prove the mutative tendency of the comic to anger.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Kunal Kamra, who performed the stand-up comedy act ‘Patriotism and the Government’ and uploaded it on YouTube, received death threats on 15 March 2017 (‘Stand-Up Comedian Kunal’ Citation2017).
2 Sorabh Pant, an Indian stand-up comedian received 15 death threats on the New Year’s Eve (Benu Citation2019). He had been receiving death threats for many of his acts.
3 In July, comedian Agrima Joshua was sent rape and death threats for her jokes on the upcoming statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji (‘Agrima Joshua: One More’ Citation2020).
4 ‘The comedian recently released video in which he was seen taking a jibe on UP mafias and illegal constructions of bigots and India’s strict attitude on Pakistan’ (Singh Citation2022).
5 These are compilation of stories through which the Vedic wisdom is taught to the people. There are 18 major purāṇās and 18 minor purāṇās.
6 Ramāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are the two itihāsas. They are considered to be akin to epics.
7 Ganesha is a Hindu God with an elephant head and a human body.
8 Wife of the Pandavas. There is an episode where the Pandavas construct a new palace at Indraprasthand when Duryodhana comes to visit he gets beguiled by the flooring. He thinks the floor to be dry but actually it has water which is very still and clear. As he steps over the floor he slips and falls down.
9 Paul Ricouer’s ‘Violence and Language’ (1998), Judith Butler’s Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1997), Jean-Jacques Lecercle’s The Violence of Language (1990), Almut Suerbaum’s Language as Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Discourse (2016), Daniel Silva’s Language and Violence: Pragmatic Perspectives (2017) and Claire Kramsch’s Language as Symbolic Power (2020).
10 Rasa is defined as the aesthetic delight garnered from a performance. It was first mentioned in Bharatamuni’s NŚ. Bharata prescribes eight rasas which are: Śṛiṅgāra (erotic), hāsya (humourous), karuṇa (pathos), raudra (anger), vīra (heroic), bhayānaka (terrific), bībhātsa (odious) and adbhuta (mysterious).
11 Theory of Suggestion by Ānandavardhana.
12 Theory of figures of speech by Bhāmaha.
13 Theory of poetic expression by Kuntaka.
14 A. R. Wadia, ‘Can Indian and Western Philosophy Be Synthesized?’, Philosophy East and West 4 (4) (1955), 291–293, at 292 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396740> accessed 25 May 2017.
15 T. M. Knox, ‘The Classical Review’, Review of Indian and Western Philosophy, a Study in Contrasts by Betty Heimann, The Classical Review 52 (2) (1938), 89–89, <http://www.jstor.org/stable/704279> accessed 10 May 2017.
16 ‘Rasa is tasted-beauty and is felt-only by empathy, “einfühlung” (sadharana)’ (Coomaraswamy 231). Visvanatha in the Sāhitya Darpaṇa says rasa and rasāsvadana is ‘pure, indivisible, self- manifested, compounded equally of joy and consciousness, free of admixture with any other perception, the very win brother of mystic experience (brahmasvadana sahodarah) and the very life of it is supersensousness (lokattara) wonder’ (qtd. in. Coomaraswamy, 35).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Vishaka Venkat
Dr. Vishaka Venkat has a PhD from National Institute of Technology, Trichy, for her research on ‘Theorising the Language of Humour in Indian Political Cartoons’. She specifically researches the concept of hāsya and the Indian traditions of humour. Her primary research interests include humour, Indian aesthetics and mythology. Her articles have been published in journals like Humor, European Journal of Humor Research and Journal of Creative Communications. At Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth, she teaches courses in English Language and Literature.