Keywords
Romania
Cătălin Mihuleac
Deborah
Holocaust literature
Transnistria
How to Cite
Abstract
This article deals with representing the Holocaust through a humorous lens. After discussing the pros and the cons of using humour in different works since the 1990s to represent such a tragedy as the Holocaust, in the second section, we will present the author that our case study focuses on, Cătălin Mihuleac, and his novel Deborah. The other sections attempt to answer three main research questions: How does Mihuleac use humour in Deborah to depict the tragedy of the Jews in Romania, particularly the deportation to Transnistria? How can humour theories be applied to analyse this novel? What insights does this novel provide regarding Holocaust-themed humour in literature? The third section explains what happened in Romania during the Holocaust and why its memory is still difficult at present, since many Romanians refuse to understand that their nation was involved in such atrocious crimes. The fourth section is a synthesis of the humour theories that we will engage with. The last section brings examples of how Mihuleac approaches the various theories of humour and what kind of effects it has on the readers. We will eventually ask whether this way of narrating the story is efficient or not.
References
Adair, G. (1999). The critics: Fairy-tales after Auschwitz. Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-critics-fairy-talesafter-auschwitz-1070749.html. Retrieved October 10, 2025.
Adorno, T. W. (1983). Cultural criticism and society. In Prisms (S. Weber, Trans.) (pp. 17-34). MIT Press. (Original work published in 1955).
Allan, K., & Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden words taboo and the censoring of language. Cambridge University Press.
Alvarez, A. (1964). The literature of the Holocaust. Commentary, 38(5): 65-69. https://www.commentary.org/articles/a-alvarez/the-literature-of-the-holocaust/. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
Ancel, J. (2011). The history of the Holocaust in Romania (Y. Murciano, Trans.; L. Volovici with the assistance of M. Caloianu, Ed.). University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem.
Andén, L. (2025). Testimonial literature and the meaning of the past: The “other” narratives of the Gulag in women’s memoirs. In G.-J. van der Heiden, & P. Marinescu (Eds.). The phenomenology of testimony: From inner truth to shared world. (pp. 162-179). Brill.
Arendt, H. (1964). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the banality of evil. Viking.
Baron, L. (2005). Projecting the Holocaust into the present: The changing focus of contemporary Holocaust cinema. Rowman & Littlefield.
Billig, M. (2005). Laughter and ridicule: Towards a social critique of humour. Sage Publications
Bondi, R., & Naor, R. C. (2008). Trapped: Essays on the history of the Czech Jews, 1939–1945. Yad Vashem Publications.
Brodsky, M. (2005). Memory under construction (G. Indij, Ed. & D. Foster, Trans.) La Marca Editora.
Buciu, M.V. (2022) Istoria între sens și… sex. [History between sense and… sex] Viața Românească, 9. https://www.viataromaneasca.eu/revista/2022/09/istoria-intre-sens-si-sex/. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
Cameron, K. (1993). Humour and history. In K. Cameron (Ed.), Humour and history (pp. 5-9). Intellect Books.
Carpenter, W. (2010). Laughter in a time of tragedy: Examining humour during the Holocaust. Denison Journal of Religion, 9, 1-25. https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/religion/vol9/iss1/3. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
Cârstocea, R. (2014a). Anti-Semitism in Romania: Historical legacies, contemporary challenges. ECMI Working Paper #81. European Centre for Minority Issues, 3-39.
Cârstocea, R. (2014b). The path to the Holocaust: Fascism and antisemitism in interwar Romania. S.I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation, 1, 43-53. https://simon.vwi.ac.at/index.php/simon/article/view/149.
Chelaru, V. (2022). Tradition, nationalism and Holocaust memory: Reassessing antisemitism in post-communist Romania. Plural – History. Culture. Society. Journal of History and Geography, 10(2), 58-84. https://doi.org/10.37710/10/plural.v10i2_3
Cioflâncă, A. (2014). O surpriză de dincolo de mormânt: Aurel Leon, agent sub acoperire în timp ce scria [A surprise from beyond the grave: Aurel Leon under cover while he was writing]. Ziarul de Iași, https://www.ziaruldeiasi.ro/stiri/o-surpriza-de-dincolo-de-mormant-aurel-leon-agent-sub-acoperire-in-timp-ce-scria--76760.html. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
Cioflâncă, A. (2005). Gramatica disculpării în istoriografia comunistă [The grammar of apology in communist historiography]. Anuarul Institutului de Istorie „A. D. Xenopol,” 42, 627-644.
Davies, C. (1993). Exploring the thesis of the self-deprecating Jewish sense of humor. In A. Ziv, & A. Zajdman (Eds.), Semites and stereotypes: Characteristics of Jewish humour Jewish and Israeli humour. (pp. 29-46). Greenwood Press.
Davies, C. (2010). The mirth of nations. Transaction.
“Deborah. By Cătălin Mihuleac.” (2025). Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52300695-deborah. Accessed 10 December 2025.
“Deborah. By Cătălin Mihuleac.” (2025). Fable. https://fable.co/book/deborah-by-catalin-mihuleac-9789735065836. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
Deletant, D. (2006). Hitler’s forgotten ally: Ion Antonescu and his regime, Romania 1940–44. Palgrave Macmillan.
Derrida, J., & Attridge, D. (1992). This strange institution called literature: An interview with Jacques Derrida. In Derrida, J. Acts of literature (D. Attridge, Ed.). (pp. 33-75). Routledge.
Dewey, J. (1894). The theory of emotion. Psychological Review, 1, 553-569. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0069054
Dorian, E. (1982). The quality of witness: A Romanian diary, 1937–1944 (M. Dorian, Ed.; M. Soceanu Vamos, Trans.; M. Stanislawski, Intro). Jewish Publication Society of America.
Fanto, R. (2010). Rozalia alone. Xlibris Corporation.
Florescu, P-I. (2024). Holocaustul între memorie locală și globală. America de peste pogrom de Cătălin Mihuleac [The Holocaust between local and global memory. America over the pogrom by Cătălin Mihuleac]. Transilvania, 6-7, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2024.06-07.01
Florian, A. (Ed.). Holocaust public memory in postcommunist Romania. Indiana University Press, 2018.
Foxman, A. H. (2010). Jews and money: The story of a stereotype. Palgrave Macmillan.
Freud, S. (1928). Humour. Journal of Psycho-Analysis, IX (Part 1), 1-6. https://www.freudedition.net/en/werke/humour/druckschrift. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
Freud, S. (1963). Jokes and their relation to the unconscious (J. Strachey, Trans. & Ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
Friedman, J. C. (2022). Haunted laughter: Representations of Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, and the Holocaust in comedic film and television. Lexington Books.
Grumaz, L. (2024). Deborah. Semne. https://omiedesemne.ro/deborah-de-liliana-grumaz/. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
Halkin, H. (2006, April). Why Jews laugh at themselves. Commentary. https://www.commentary.org/articles/hillel-halkin/why-jews-laugh-at-themselves/. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
Hancock, J. T. (2004). LOL: Humour Online. Interactions, 11(5), 57-58. https://doi.org/10.1145/1015530.1015557
Hilberg, R. (2003). The destruction of the European Jews. Yale University Press.
Huyssen, A. (2004). Lecture on ‘Resistance to memory: The uses and abuses of public oblivion.’ Porto Alegre.
Huyssen, A. (2001). Of mice and mimesis: Reading Spiegelman with Adorno. In B. Zelizer (Ed.), Visual culture and the Holocaust. (pp. 28-44). Rutgers University Press.
Insdorf, A. (2003). Indelible shadows: Film and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press.
Ioanid, R. (1990). The sword of the Archangel: Fascist ideology in Romania (P. Heinegg, Trans.). Boulder.
Ioanid, R. (2000). The Holocaust in Romania: The destruction of Jews and gypsies under the Antonescu regime, 1940–1944 (E. Wiesel, Foreword, P. A. Shapiro, Preface). Ivan R Dee in association with The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Ioanid, R., Friling, T., & Ionescu, M. E. (2005). International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania: Final report. Polirom.
Ionescu, A. (2017). Manipulated memory: Censuring the Romanian Holocaust under Ceauşescu and its aftermath. In M.-I. Neagu, & D. Tomescu (Eds.). Information and persuasion. (pp. 165-188). Peter Lang.
Ionescu, A., & Tucan, D. (2025a). Representations of the Romanian Holocaust in testimonial literature and films: From trivialization, denial to working through the past (Part 2). Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 8(2), 119-145. https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v8i2.27312.
Ionescu, A., & Tucan, D. (2025b). Bibliography on the Holocaust and antisemitism in Romania. Dacoromania Litteraria, 12, 257-304. http://doi.org/10.33993/drl.2025.12.257.304.
Iovănel, M. (2020). Cele mai proaste cărți din 2019 [The worst books of 2019]. Scena 9. https://www.scena9.ro/article/carti-proaste-romania-2019?fbclid=IwY2xjawPCjKFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBiZnVqSnFNYzdWOTk2Y2lLc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHnx50gSjmQnkl-08QqR_GUu1z7j9NpolMB3c9DWDdTlL3IbQwROY02iba3yC_aem_UjXtqL6E7thfaFUBYJjzzw. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Iovănel, M. (5 December 2025). Public Post on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/mihai.iovanel. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Ispas, L. (2020). (Mis)representing trauma through humour? Roberto Benigniʼs La vita è bella. In A. Ionescu, & M. Margaroni (Eds.), Arts of healing: Cultural narratives of trauma. (pp. 51-70). Rowman & Littlefield International.
Kaplan, L. (2002). It will get a terrific laugh: On the problematic pleasures and politics of Holocaust humor. In H. Jenkins, T. McPherson, & J. Shattuc (Eds.), Hop on pop: the politics and pleasures of popular culture. (pp. 343-356). Duke University Press Books.
Kenez, P. (2013). The coming of the Holocaust: From antisemitism to genocide. Cambridge University Press.
Kerner, A. (2011). Film and the Holocaust: New perspectives on dramas, documentaries and experimental films. Continuum Books.
Kracauer, S. (1960). Theory of film: The redemption of physical reality. Oxford University Press.
Korber-Bercovici, M. (2017). Jurnal de ghetou: Djurin, Transnistria, 1941–1943 [Ghetto diary: Djurin, Transnistria, 1941–1943]. Preface A. Florian. Curtea Veche Publishing & Editura lnstitutului pentru Studierea Holocaustului din Romania “Elie Wiesel.” (Original work published in 1995). A fragment translated into English as Korber-Bercovici, M. (2002) Transnistria. In Zapruder, A. Salvaged pages: Young writers’ diaries of the Holocaust. (p. 243-70). Yale University Press.
Lebovic, M. (2020, July 7). Holocaust humour upends mainstream history. Scholars say it’s no laughing matter. The Times of Israel, https://www.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-humor-upends-mainstream-history-scholars-explain-why-thats-important/. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Lefcourt, H. M., & Martin, R. A. (1986). Humour and life stress: Antidote to adversity. Springer.
Lipman, S. (1991). Laughter in hell: The use of humour during the Holocaust. Jason Aronson.
Livezeanu, I. (1995). Cultural politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, nation building, and ethnic struggle, 1918–1930. Cornell University Press.
Lobont, F. (2025). Re-enacting the past: Emotional understanding of the Holocaust, memory and trauma. Word and Text – A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics, 15, 36-59. https://doi.org/10.51865/jlsl.2025.03
Logan, B. (1999). Does this man really think the Holocaust was a big joke? The Guardian (29 January), https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/jan/29/awardsandprizes. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Malaparte, C. (1946). Kapput (C. Foligno, Trans.). E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
Martin, R. A., & Lefcourt, H. M. (1983). Sense of humour as a moderator of the relationship between stressors and moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1313-1324. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.6.1313
Martin, R. A. et al. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humour and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humour styles questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(1), 48-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00534-2
Martin, R. A., & Ford, T. (2018). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Academic Press. (Original work published by Martin, R. A. in 2007).
Martin, M. (2015) Prin apele istoriei – interviu cu scriitorul Cătălin Mihuleac [On history – an interview with writer Cătălin Mihuleac]. Dilema veche, 605 (17-23 September), https://dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/la-zi-in-cultura/prin-apele-istoriei-interviu-cu-scriitorul-592564.html. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Mihuleac, C. (2019). Deborah. Humanitas.
Mihuleac, C. (15 December 2025a). Public Post on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/catalin.mihuleac.90. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Mihuleac, C. (22 December 2025b). Public Post on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/catalin.mihuleac.90. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
Milesi, L. (2020). Conditionnalité singulière de la littérature. In I. Alfandary (Ed.), La littérature sans condition (pp. 259–271). Le Bord de l’eau.
Morreall, J. (2009). Comic relief: A comprehensive philosophy of humor. Wiley-Blackwell.
Morreall, J. (1983). Taking laughter seriously. State University of New York Press.
Niv, K. (2003). Life is beautiful, but not for Jews (J. B. Lev, Trans.). Scarecrow Press.
Oring, E. (1983). The people of the joke: On the conceptualization of a Jewish humor. Western Folklore, 42(2): 261-271. https://doi.org/10.2307/1499501
Ostrower, C. (2009). Lelo humor hayinu mitabdim [Without humour we would have killed ourselves]. Yad Vashem.
Paulovicova, N., Cichopek-Garaj, A, & Michlic, J. B. (Eds.) (2025). Shattered liberation: Sexualized violence against Holocaust survivors, 1943–1946. Purdue University Press.
Phillips, C. (2025). Muted memories: Reconciling memories of sexual violence and abuse in Holocaust survivor narratives. Word and Text – A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics, 15, 181-194. https://doi.org/10.51865/jlsl.2025.11
Popescu, D. (2020). Antonescu and the Axis – Beyond “closed doors”. Marginalia to the volume “The third man of the Axis” by Gh. Barbul. Revista Economica, 72(4), 48-61. https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:blg:reveco:v:72:y:2020:i:4:p:48-61
Potter, S. (1954). The sense of humour. Penguin.
Rosenfeld, A. H. (2013). The end of the Holocaust. Indiana University Press.
Sebastian, M. (2000). Journal, 1935–1944: The fascist years (P. Camiller, Trans.; R. Ioanid, Intro. and Notes). Ivan R. Dee, in Association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Shafir, M. (2011). Romania’s tortuous road to facing collaboration. In R. Stauber (Ed.), Collaboration with the Nazis: Public discourse after the Holocaust (pp. 256-260). Routledge & Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism.
Shafir, M. (2012). Political antisemitism in Romania? Hard data and its soft underbelly. Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 12(4), 557-603. https://journals.unibuc.ro/index.php/sprps/article/view/4275
Slucki, D., Finder, G. N., & Patt, A. (2020). Introduction: To tell jokes after Auschwitz is barbaric, isn’t it? In D. Slucki, G. N. Finder, & A. Patt (Eds.). Laughter after: Humour and the Holocaust. (pp. 1-10). Wayne State University Press.
Sover, A. (2021). Jewish humour. An outcome of historical experience, survival and wisdom. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Sover, A. Book review: Slucki, David, Finder, Gabriel N., & Patt, Avinoam (Eds.) (2020). Laughter after: Humour and the Holocaust. Wayne State University Press. The European Journal of Humour Research, 10(1), 218-219. https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/588
Solonari, V. (2010). Purifying the nation: Population exchange and ethnic cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania. Woodrow Wilson Center Press & The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Snyder, T. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books.
Steir-Livny, L. (2016). Is it OK to laugh about it yet? Hitler Rants YouTube parodies in Hebrew. The European Journal of Humour Research, 4(4), 105-121. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2016.4.4.steir.
Steir-Livny, L. (2017). Is it OK to laugh about it? Holocaust humour, satire and parody in Israeli culture. Clays.
Stone, D. (2023). The Holocaust: An unfinished history. Penguin Random House.
Tucan, D. (2020). A trăi infernul (2). Jurnale din timpul Holocaustului ale copiilor și tinerilor din spațiul românesc [To live the inferno (2). Holocaust diaries of children and young people in the Romanian space]. Analele Universității de Vest. Seria Științe Filologice, 58, 211-243. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346446719_A_TRAI_INFERNUL_2 _JURNALE_DIN_TIMPUL_HOLOCAUSTULUI_ALE_COPIILOR_SI_TINERILOR_DIN_SPATIUL_ROMANESC. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
Tucan, D. (2021). Literatura și recuperarea memoriei pierdute. Despre romanele postmemoriale ale lui Cătălin Mihuleac [Literature and retrieval of lost memory: On Cătălin Mihuleac’s postmemorial novels]. Quaestiones Romanicae, IX, 410-421. https://ciccre.uvt.ro/ro/qvaestiones-romanicae/articole/literatura-si-recuperarea-memoriei-pierdute-despre-romanele
Tucan, D., & Pașcălău, M. (2024). Calea spre genocid. Antisemitismul european. Antisemitismul românesc [The path to genocide: European antisemitism, Romanian antisemitism]. Editura Universității de Vest din Timișoara.
Wisse, R. R. (2013). No joke: Making Jewish humour. Princeton University Press.
Ziv, A., & Zajdman, A. (1993). Semites and stereotypes: Characteristics of Jewish humour. Contributions in ethnic studies. Greenwood Press.
Ziv, A. (1984). Personality and sense of humour. Springer.
Ziv, A. (1986). Introduction. In A. Ziv (Ed.). Jewish humour. (pp.7-18). Papyrus.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 The European Journal of Humour Research