The paper Waltharius’ Witz is an analysis of irony in the medieval epic Waltharius, based on Freud’s Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten and Der Humor. The intention of this research is to add further nuances to Kratz’s model for interpreting the Waltharius and its irony, which concerns the relationship between heroic and Christian codes in this epic. Instead of explaining the various examples of irony through an interpretation of the Waltharius as a whole, the opposite approach is taken: the interpretation of the entire epic is based on a close examination of the examples of irony and the tendencies that lurk behind them.
The Waltharius is introduced and the interpretative model of Kratz, in which the irony of this epic is explained as a mocking of the characters. The epic heroes are mocked because of their vitia, which prevent them from becoming Christian heroes. The analysis based on Freud’s works however, differentiates irony according to the categories mentioned in Der Witz: jokes, the comic and humour. Having uncovered these ironic tendencies and the shift from the comic to the humoristic at the ending of the epic, a new interpretation is outlined as a struggle to reach an equilibrium between heroic and Christian code, by conquering human frailty through humour. This seems to fit the monastic culture of the 10th century.
Related articles
Towards Gay Science: The End of Analysis as the Analysis of the EndIn an attempt to account for the end (the goal, the direction) of the psychoanalytic treatment, Jacques Lacan has formulated quite a few principles and ideas over the course of his seminars and writings. Amongst these principles, the notion of the ‘traversal of the fantasy’ has come to occupy a priviliged position, despite the fact that it is effectively a hapax in Lacan’s works. This paper offers a succinct study of an alternative principle, which is rarely recognised in the…
The Subject's Responsibility: The Beginning and the End of AnalysisResponsibility is a crucial notion in psychoanalysis. This article begins with a discussion of the preliminary sessions and the installation of the supposed subject of knowledge as the clinical moment in which the analysand takes up responsibility for his suffering. The second part of this article deals with the fate of the subject supposed to know in analysis as illustrated by the author's testimony of a moment of pass in his own analysis. The analysis of two crucial dreams proves…
Hermine von Hug-Hellmuth: Preliminary Steps for the Technique of Child AnalysisAt the 6th International Psychoanalytic Conference in The Hague in 1920 the Viennese psychoanalyst Hermine von Hug-Hellmuth presented her paper "On the technique of child analysis". Her lecture discussed the many practical problems and theoretical questions she encountered while "analysing" children in the early twenties. The author reviews the main ideas of von Hug-Hellmuth in light of the work of other psychoanalysts, such as Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Françoise Dolto. He also determines the current value of the…
