Limits of Humour? Satire and Societal Change in Germany and France by the Example of the Magazines Pardon/Titanic and Hara-Kiri/Charlie Hebdo (1960/62-2017)
Final Report Abstract
Taking the magazines pardon/ Titanic and Hara-Kiri/ Charlie Hebdo as examples, the research project analysed how satire can be used as a probe for social developments. Against the background of different traditions with regard to the social significance of satire in Germany and France, it became clear that the French magazines - unlike their German counterparts - consistently adopted an attitude that saw themselves as enlightened and secular and radically defended the right to unrestricted freedom of expression and artistic freedom. In contrast to pardon and Titanic, the French satirical magazines thus had a highly controversial but nevertheless firm and clearly defined place in the French public sphere. However, the unrestricted adherence to this line meant that the magazines clearly lost their self-proclaimed position as avant-garde when it came to issues of sexism and discrimination. The German magazines were also fundamentally from a left-wing milieu that tended to be enlightened and critical of religion and the church without developing and defending a kind of political programme. Titanic in particular tended to defend its claim to embody the satirical avant-garde, which, however, remained fundamentally critical against the background of social developments, but flexible in detail, for example with regard to criticism of religion. Against this backdrop, it came as no surprise that the German edition of Charlie Hebdo, founded in 2016, ceased publication after just one year of existence. More than the Titanic in Germany, Charlie Hebdo thus reflected the disputes within the left about how to deal with religion on the one hand and freedom of expression on the other.
Publications
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Der Streit um die Mohammed-Karikaturen. Grenzen der Komik, 241-270. Aisthesis Verlag.
Gabriel-Kinz, Carina
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Provokation oder Kampf um republikanische Werte? Charlie Hebdo und die Grenzen des Sag- und Zeigbaren im sogenannten „Karikaturenstreit“, in: Frank Becker/ Antonia Gießmann-Konrads (Hg.), Grenzen des Sag- und Zeigbaren. Humor im Bild von 1900 bis heute, Darmstadt, S. 173-203
Gabriel-Kinz, Carina
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Satirische Darstellungen sexualisierter Gewalt in kirchlichen Einrichtungen und ihre Auswirkungen auf die öffentliche Debatte in Deutschland und Frankreich, in: Jörg Requate/ Dirk Schumann/ Petra Terhoeven (Hg.), Die (Un)Sichtbarkeit der Gewalt. Medialisierungsdynamiken seit dem späten 19. Jahrhundert (Veröffentlichungen des Zeitgeschichtlichen Arbeitskreises Niedersachsen 37), Göttingen, S. 170-189
Gabriel-Kinz, Carina
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»Le seul candidat sérieux«. Abgrenzen, Entgrenzen, Begrenzen, 129-146. transcript Verlag.
Requate, Jörg
