"I have to quit comedy": the Female Trickster’s humour in trauma renegotiation
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Keywords

humour
trauma
Female Trickster
Hannah Gadsby
Nanette

How to Cite

Quinlan, C. F. (2025). "I have to quit comedy": the Female Trickster’s humour in trauma renegotiation. The European Journal of Humour Research, 13(3), 93-111. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2025.13.3.896

Abstract

This article weaves a possible way of trauma renegotiation through humour. Using Hannah Gadsby’s account on her process of writing and performing her comedy act Nanette, Peter Levine’s work with trauma and the Female Trickster’s humour, it is possible to observe how humour can be used in trauma renegotiation. Although humour had been used as a distancing tool from the emotional experience of trauma, in analysing Gadsby's approach to her own traumas using humour from a feminist and postcolonial perspective, it is possible to see that humour can be used in trauma renegotiation as a bridging tool to lessen the pain of trauma.

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