O śmiechu i okrucieństwie

Abstract

The subject matter of the study is the category of “cruel laughter”, which is analysed foremost from the aesthetic and literary perspectives. The author makes a review of various theories on humour pondering on how thinking about the links between laughter and aggression and cruelty has been shaped since antiquity. In the remaining part of the study, the author, referring to the prose output of Michal Choromanski, indicates such forms in which “cruel laughter” is manifested, and he attempts to prove that in the literature of the 20th century, this kind of laughter is not necessarily connected with aggressive or even sadistic attitude of the writer or an appeal to this kind of predisposition of the receiver. On the other hand, it may have an important aesthetic significance as a reaction (risky in a moral sense) against the overuse of sentimentalism, which is characteristic primarily of popular literature.