Kierkegaard and the Traditions of the Comic in Philosophy

Abstract

AbstractThe paper relates Kierkegaard’s body of thought on the comic, irony, and humor to ten traditions of the comic (eight dating from antiquity and two from modern and postmodern times) that represent philosophy’s complex relationship with the comic. I emphasize the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance roots in Kierkegaard’s vision of the comic and in doing so hope to fill a gap within the pertinent scholarship. In particular, I inquire into the sources of his thought in and his indebtedness to these traditions in order to determine how, if at all, his conception of the comic, irony, and humor may be deemed original.