UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE “Overpowered by Laughter”? Spanish Humor under Franco DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Spanish By William Foster Carr Dissertation Committee: Professor Gonzalo Navajas, Chair Professor Jacobo Sefamí Professor Santiago Morales-Rivera 2018 © 2018 William Foster Carr DEDICATION To Melissa, obviously. This belongs to her more than to me (but not as much as I). Without her kind diligence and sub-posterior incendiary prowess, this dissertation would not exist because its author would be dead. To my older children, who have slogged through eight years of Grad Student Dad, holding onto the memories of Fun Dad and the faint hope of his prophesied return. And to my younger children, who have heard the legend of Fun Dad, and together with their older siblings have suffered through Poor Dad. “There is no more dangerous literary symptom than a temptation to write about wit and humor. It indicates the total loss of both.” George Bernard Shaw (in Victor Raskin, Semantic Mechanisms of Humor) “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” —E.B. White (in John Morreall, Comic Relief) “He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.” —Gandalf the Grey, (in J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring) ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v CURRICULUM VITAE vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ix Introduction: Laughter under Franco—What Is at Stake? 1 Chapter 1: The Superiority, Relief, and Incongruity Theories of Humor 10 Superiority Theories 10 Platonic Laughter: Ridicule and Scorn 12 Plato’s Legacy 20 Relief Theories 24 The third Earl of Shaftesbury, Sigmund Freud, and President Erdogan walk into a bar... 24 Freedom or Functionalism? Bakhtin and the Carnivalesque 34 Ajo y Agua: Preston Sturges and the “Hymn to the Common Man” 37 Incongruity Theories 42 Making (non)Sense of the World 45 This Is Your Brain on Humor 49 Codes and Communities 51 Chapter 2: La Codorniz—Popular Humor Playing for Keeps 57 Poniendo el Huevo: From Spain’s Avant-Garde to Postwar Absurdity 58 Putting the ismo in Humorismo 61 Acolytes of La Sagrada Cripta del Pombo 69 Mihura’s Hatchling Codorniz 79 “El humor puro” in Mihura’s Codorniz 85 No tan puro 96 Laiglesia’s Codorniz, from Adolescence to Senescence 109 Suegro vs. Yerno, o las Nubes vs. el Pimentón 111 From Frogs and Butterflies to Ministers and Caudillos 116 Chapter 3: Gila and His Enemy 126 “El maestro” 126 Gila’s Wars: A Compilation 131 Descoyuntamientos: Language and Context 150 Reception and Interpretations 157 Chapter 4: “Is this the enemy?” Translating Gila 167 Humor and/in Translation: The Humorist as Translator 167 Gila’s Wars 178 “¿Es el enemigo?” 179 “Gila en la guerra” 185 Conclusion: Joking Truth to Power? 192 WORKS CITED 200 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Gollum-Smeagol and Erdogan 25 Figure 2: Antonio de Lara, "Apaches" 72 Figure 3: Miguel Mihura, "La muerte del primer actor dramático..." 73 Figure 4: Antonio de Lara, "¡Caramba, don Jerónimo!" 87 Figure 5: José María Picó López, "Impaciencia" 98 Figure 6: Antonio de Lara, "Patatas" 100 Figure 7: Miguel Mihura, "Los Amantes" 101 Figure 8: Miguel Gila Cuesta, “El Caballo Roto” 117 Figure 9: Miguel Gila Cuesta, "He llenado mi uniforme de agujeros." 132 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Gonzalo Navajas, for his unstinting support, his enthusiasm, and his positivity. His guidance through this process was invaluable. His patience and his oft-expressed belief in my ability to actually write this dissertation flew in the face of the body of evidence collected until today. And his mentorship throughout my PhD coursework and candidacy was equally stupendous and fundamental to my success. I must thank my committee members, Jacobo Sefamí and Santiago Morales-Rivera, for their patience throughout this process as well as their insightful and probing feedback during my defense. Just as important, Jacobo and Santiago have always exemplified collegiality and kindness in our many interactions at UCI. I thank the many friends at UCI who have helped me along in this six-year journey. Armin Schwegler and Julio Torres have been wonderful friends and mentors in the seminars they have taught as well as the long, laugh-filled conversations everywhere else. Armin gets special mention for the parking spot and two of the best and most unexpected free meals ever. Jared White and Ben Cluff guided me through the freak-out months with wisdom and commiseration. Christina García and William Yankes, my cohort at UCI, became my fast friends over many a hot chocolate and during our frighteningly old infancy. (Together we form what must be the fastest-finishing cohort in department history, despite my dragging pace at the rear.) For my friends Valerie Hegstrom, Dale Pratt, and Daryl Hague, this is the culmination of an eighteen-year effort to get me doctored, and the beginning of the era in which they no longer have to pay for lunch. This dissertation would not have been possible without the financial support of the Humanities Commons Dissertation Fellowship, the GAANN Fellowship, and the School of Humanities’ Regents’ Fellowship. v CURRICULUM VITAE William Foster Carr EDUCATION Ph.D. Spanish Language and Literature, Emphasis in Translation Studies, University of California, Irvine, 2018. M.A. Hispanic Literatures, Brigham Young University, 2012 B.A. Spanish Translation and Interpretation, Minor in Humanities, Brigham Young University, 2000 DISTINCTIONS UCI Humanities Commons Dissertation Fellowship recipient, Winter 2018 GAANN Fellowship recipient, Winter-Spring 2016 Regents’ Fellowship, School of Humanities, 2012-13 Premio Gonzalo Rojas, BYU Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 2011 PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS “Laughing at Power: Cela, Gila, and La Codorniz in Postwar Spain.” Mid America Conference on Hispanic Literatures, Washington University in St. Louis; October 2017. “Codes, Crimes, and Communities: Translating the Humor in Fernando López del Oso’s Asesino de políticos.” The 13th Annual Samuel G. Armistead Colloquium at the University of California, Davis; October 2017. “Pop Quiz: Who Killed Federico García Lorca?” UCI Film Forum: La novia; November 2016. “‘Todo en orden, ¿no?’ Testimony, Silence, and Un(re)solved Crimes in Transitional Spain.” UCI Film Forum: La Isla Mínima; November 2015. “Exotic Adventures in Government/Academic/Community/Commercial Translation.” Guest lecture given at UC Irvine to Spanish 97 (Spanish for Reading Knowledge); March 2015. “El ‘relato dominado’: Linguistic, Emotional, and ‘Artificial’ Distance in Jorge Semprún’s La escritura o la vida.” The University of Arizona’s 25th Annual Graduate and vi Professional Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature, Language and Culture; February 2015. “Three Women, Three Places, Three Moments in History.” UCI Film Forum: De tu ventana a la mía; November 2014. “From ‘Sneewitchen’ to Mirror, Mirror: Snow White Translations Through the Ages.” UCI Film Forum: Blancannieves; November 2013. “Frankenstein, the Psycho Virus from Outer Space: An Overview of Horror in Film.” UCI Film Forum: El espinazo del diablo; February 2013. “Cultural Translation in Nublares.” Ometeca Working Conference, Madrid; June 2012. “Translators Swearing Badly: Exotic Adventures in Government Translation.” Presented to Spanish Translation and Interpretation program at Brigham Young University; January 2012 (also during Fall 2010, Fall 2009). PUBLICATIONS Carr, William F., and Dale J. Pratt. “Minds in the Cave: Translation and Early Human Subjectivities in Spanish Novels of Prehistory”: pp. 17-44. Ometeca: Science and Humanities 23 (2017). “Cristóforo Quijote.” La marca hispánica 21 (2011): 20-25. TEACHING EXPERIENCE Brigham Young University: Adjunct Faculty Upper-Division Courses: • Spanish 355: Spanish-American Culture and Civilization (Fall 2018) • Spanish 428B: Intermediate Translation and Interpretation (Winter 2004) • Spanish 441: Survey of Spanish Literature (Fall 2018) • Spanish 528: Translation and Interpretation Project (Winter 2004) Graduate Teaching Assistant Beginning Spanish Courses: • Spanish 101: Beginning Spanish, 1st Semester (Fall 2010, Winter 2011) • Spanish 102: Beginning Spanish, 2nd Semester (Winter 2011) Intermediate Spanish Courses: • Spanish 206: 6th Semester Spanish (Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012) vii University of California, Irvine: Graduate Teaching Assistant Beginning Spanish Courses: • Spanish 1A (Fall 2013) • Spanish 1B (Winter 2014, Winter 2018) • Spanish 1C (Spring 2014) Intermediate Spanish Courses: • Spanish 2A (Fall 2014) • Spanish 2AB (Winter 2015, Summer Session I 2016) • Spanish 2BC (Summer Session II 2017) • Spanish 2C (Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2016) Heritage Language Spanish Courses: • Spanish 3H: Spanish for Heritage Speakers (Spring 2017) • Spanish 3J: Research Paper for Heritage Speakers (Winter 2017) Teaching Practicums: • Spanish 3H (Fall 2015, Professor Julio Torres) • Spanish 101A: Intro to Iberian Literature & Culture (Fall 2014, Professor Gonzalo Navajas) viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “Overpowered by Laughter”? Spanish Humor under Franco By William Foster Carr Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish, Translation Studies Emphasis University of California, Irvine, 2018 Professor Gonzalo Navajas, Chair Humor and laughter are quintessentially human, yet they are often ignored in scholarly studies. The Humanities in particular tend to privilege “serious” literature, especially