论文总字数：27664字

摘 要

这是一部意大利电影，但却在世界范围内广受欢迎。这部电影的名字翻译成英文便是美丽人生。影片的故事是由已经成年的约书亚讲述的，他给我们描述了一个领着他穿过尸骨成山的集中营的伟大父亲形象。约书亚自己也说：“这是个简单的故事，但并不易讲，像寓言，有悲有喜；也像寓言，充满惊奇和美丽。”这是因为约书亚的父亲圭多用黑色幽默的方式向约书亚解释了集中营的艰苦生活，年幼的约书亚才会觉得生活不可思议，生活如此美好。本文旨在从黑色幽默的角度简要分析电影《美丽人生》。分析过后，作者也将努力得出黑色幽默是《美丽人生》这部电影取得成功的重要因素之一。

关键词：黑色幽默；美丽人生；影响

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Black Humor 3

3.1 Definition of black humor 3

3.2Background of black humor 4

3.3 Features of black humor 6

4.Life Is Beautiful and black humor in Life Is Beautiful 6

4.1 Position of Life Is Beautiful 6

4.2 Background of Life Is Beautiful 7

4.3Plot of Life Is Beautiful 7

4.4 Case study on black humor in Life Is Beautiful 10

4.5 Influence of using black humor in Life Is Beautiful……………………… 10

5. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

It is because the plot was absurd but impressive that makes the film of Life Is Beautiful was so different from other war films ; it is a typical film about black humor, although we laughed a lot during the film, but we still feel depressive after watching it,because the black humor is a recognition that life is not fair, thus the control our life of risk consciousness.The author attempts to make a brief analysis of black humor in Life Is Beautiful and aims to make reader think more deep about life, and try to appreciate and enjoy our lives.

This thesis tries to make a brief analysis of Life Is Beautiful from the perspective of black humor. It consists of five parts, with two chapters coming after the introduction and literature review, the last part is conclusion.

Chapter one is mainly about black humor, which includes: definition of black humor, background of black humor, and features of black humor. The definition of black humor is that black humor combines humor with resentment,gloom,anger and despair .Black comedy is the origin of black humor. Black humor can be traced back to the era of Shakespeare. However, at present,black humor is often used to refer to some western, especially the writer of America after World WarⅡ.Black humor has three characteristics, they are: metaphysical subject, absurd and allegorized plot, and ‘Anti-hero’ characters.

Chapter two elaborates on the Life Is Beautiful which embodies position of Life Is Beautiful, background of Life Is Beautiful, plot of Life Is Beautiful. It is an Italian film, but it is very popular around the world. In English, this film is called Life Is Beautiful. This film is directed and acted by Roberto Benigni. He stars in the film called Guido Orifice .When the film came out, it was very popular among people and wined best foreign language film, best actor, and best original film music at the 71st Oscar awards ceremony.

Then, shows some case studies and analyzes on black humor in Life Is Beautiful and discusses the influence of using black humor in Life Is Beautiful. Guido will treat their experience in the camp as though it were all part of a game. We want to emphasize that Guido does not enter the experience with a well-defined plan or strategy. This plot is kind but absurd, after all, the war is terrible and many people are dead .It can’t be treated as a game. On the contrary, it is serious. However, when we review the features of black humor, we will find that black humor novels produce humorous effect by way of absurd plot and express the metaphysical subject by way of allegorizing the plot. Though the plot is absurd, we are still more willing to believe it is a game, not a serious war.

The thesis ends with a conclusion drawn from the preceding studies that black humor plays a positive role in the film. On the one hand,to the boy in the film, he survived in the camp, the psychological problem is still not a terrible war. On the other hand, the film is very different, because it allows us to think of the hard life in a different way, let us try to change the bad situation as well, encouraging us to enjoy life. However, as a coin has two sides, we should also consider the use of black humor, that is to say we should not use black humor blindly. The author makes a brief analysis of black humor in Life Is Beautiful, making the readers think about life more deeply, to appreciate and enjoy our life.

2. Literature Review

Many people like the film of Life Is Beautiful because it expresses good value, just as Roberto Benigni himself said: “I want to tell all the people, life is expensive and full of laughter. Even before he died, he can also get the happiness.”(Cui Xin amp; Sun Ying, 2013:15)

Guido’s story is actually introduced to us by an adult Giosuè, narrating over the image of his father carrying him through the mist towards the mountain of corpses in the camp, and saying that in this story, “It is like a fable, there is sorrow, and, like a fable, it is full of wonder and happiness.” (Vincenzo Binetti, 2006:145) In this sense we are invited to participate in the translation of history into fable, which is to say, we express fact in another way, and try to make bitter life become sweat one. Another famous author of black humor called Joseph Heller once explained this kind of change more properly , that is “I want people to laugh at first, and then go back to feel dreadful at what they have laughed.”(Cheng Aimin, 2002:89)

Guido has assigned himself the task of enabling his son’s physical and psychological well being in the face of the overwhelming historical fact of incarceration in a concentration camp. He succeeded at the end and now when we retrospect, we understand he uses the technique of black humor and create different situation for his son. Black humor is humor out of despair and laugh out of tears. Under tragic circumstances of human life,black humor makes the reader laugh.

In 1920s, the word “black humor” is first implied by Andre Breton, a French pre-modernism poet and critic. “Black comedy”, “humor under the scaffold” or “comedy of the absurd.” are also the names of black humor.(Chen An,2000:103) Black humor writers usually break the convention, making the plot illogical, mixing the reality with fancy and reminiscence, seriousness with playfulness. In their opinion, realism is important to depict the complicated society; therefore many surreal and fragmental depictions are used to uncover man’s sub-consciousness and the hysteria of the modern society. (Yang Jingren,2004:50) And black humor can be more appropriately defined as "grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, contradictions, and cruelty of the modern world". (O’Neill, 1993: 61)

3. Black humor

3.1 Definition of black humor

The definition of black humor can be defined as humor combines with resentment, gloom,anger and despair. Black humor is seen as not reasonable, false, ugly, or crazy. Anger is a causion of modern humor, black humor is a type of modern humor. It is a kind of humor often describes sad or horrible events in words,which is normally associated with light-hearted or pleasant occasions. Black humor combines absurdity with this kind of humor,therefore black humor often produces the absurd effect, which is needed for humor. The reader is made to laugh at the tragic situatin or darkness in human life. Thus, black humor is a kind of humor blends despair with laugh.

3.2 Background of black humor

Black humor is very different from the traditional humorous style．In March 1965，American writer Milton Friedman edited a brochure which has more than one hundred and seventy pages．It collected some of writers snippets．Even though the style of these works is not fully unified，Mr.．Friedman has found something common in them．The common style is called the black humor and the brochure was named after it．Later, many kinds of comments appeared，such as ‘black comedy’， ‘desperate comedy’， ‘morbid humor’， ‘grotesque novel’，and ‘gallows humor’. Black humor is a literary school that appeared in the sixties in the United States，it is always regarded as the start of postmodernism．The fear of people toward the end of the world was aroused the body and metal wounds by the World War II. What’s more, the massacre in World War II caused people to be in anger, anxiety, and anguish, which brought the collapse of culture and civilization that became the concentration of black humor writers．Many literary works at that time such as “Catch一22” by Heller were based on those materials．In the 1960s，America entered the post-industrial period．A lot of American novelists transcended the traditional and modern novels, thus black humor developed．If we say traditional humor is the result of agricultural civilization and pre-industrial civilization，the aesthetic characteristic is harmony, and the theme is the external society, the black humor which generated from the post—industrial civilization has the aesthetic characteristics of contradiction and paradox．Black humor during this period is based on the Existentialism and refers to the existence of human beings themselves．The humor in traditional way shares exactly the same formal characteristics which show people the things no value directly while black humor always regulates the grotesque with reason and dignity, but writes the reasonable things into grotesque and gives out an effect of alienation．

In the second part, the cultural background of black humor reflects in three aspects. They are: Freudianism，Henri Bergso’s Intuitionism and Jean—Paul Sartre represented existentialism．In 1895, ‘Studies on Hysteria’ was published by Freud, which established a new scientific psychoanalysis. The whole world was shocked greatly by his later works, such as The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900，Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality in 1905，and Totem and Taboo in 1913． Compared with Freud, no one has a greater effect on the ideas and cultural art ．In the World War II, Freudianism came to America early．He devalued the rational spirit that made people have a worse doubt of and more negative attitude toward the traditional rationalism．When writers applied humor, His terms like “the Unconscious” became the new characteristics．Bergson’s concept of multiplicity attempts to unify in a consistent way of two contradictory features：heterogeneity and continuity．Many philosophers today think that this concept of multiplicity is revolutionary, despite its difficulty. It is revolutionary because it opens the way to a preconception of community．And this helps black humor users break the traditional writing way which according to time order, and turns them to a way with past intervening with present and future．

Existentialism is main philosophical basis of black humor ．When Existentialism dominated American ideological circle, black humor matured. Existentialism emphasized that the existence of the world and human beings is absurd that don’t have any certain meanings and value．And the concept became the idea basis of black humor．The literary works written with black humor describe a world that is never controlled by rationalism．The most apparent lies in the blur of being strong and being weak，kind and evil，true or false，victims and persecutors．

Black humor is the humor of the post ------industrial civilization． “Black comedy”, “humor under the scaffold” or “comedy of the absurd” is also the names of black humor. The term “comedy” denotes a literary form which usually presents a sympathetic protagonist meeting and overcoming difficulties of an ordinary kind，which is familiar to the reader or audience，and which finally asserts a general human capacity for endurance and survival．And the term ‘humor’ is an element of comedy, but more specifically, it is a reaction to recognition of an incongruity that gives way to laughter.

3.3 Features of black humor

Black humor has some characteristics reflected in the following three ways：Firstly ,metaphysical subject. It is difficult for readers to get the themes of black humor novels, because they are often hidden deep. Metaphysical subject is always represented by the technique of abuse and muse, the absurd plot and the ironic language. The materials chosen by black humor writers are usually superficial，but with deep thoughts．So the black humor novels are usually philosophical．

Secondly, absurd and allegorized plot．Black humor novels usually produce humorous effect by way of absurd plot and express the metaphysical subject by way of allegorizing the plot．

Thirdly, Anti-hero’s characters．Black humor novels deviate from the traditional way of writing to shape positive figures or negative ones．The characters in the novels are not simply positive or negative．The readers have to consider them according to their status，their cultural background or more complicated standards．

To conclude，black humor is a term to designate a sub ------genre of comedy and satire in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism，often about the topic of death，a writing that parallels morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones that underscore the senselessness or futility of life．Black humor often uses farce and low comedy to make clear that individuals are helpless victims of fate and character．

4. Life Is Beautiful and Black Humor in Life Is Beautiful

4.1Position of Life Is Beautiful

Life is beautiful is an Italian film and directed by Roberto Benign, what’s more, the director; Roberto Benign also stars in the film called Guido Orifice. When the film came out, it was very popular among people and got many significant honors. At the 71st Oscar awards ceremony it won the Best Foreign Language Film, Best Actor, and Best Original Film Music. Without a doubt, Life is beautiful is a successful film not only in Italy but also in the world. However, what makes its success? There are many reasons, in which the usage of black humor is one of the important elements due to its great success.

4.2 Background of Life Is Beautiful

The Second World War took place in 1939, the shadow of the war covered the whole world, and Italy is no exception. As we all know Jewish nation is a very special nation in the world, which is often named “the smartest nation”. However, it was also a nation hated by some people, especially by Hitler who insisted that Jewish should be responsible for the failure of World War I and many other bad things. In his point of view, Jewish are the inferior race which had no culture and intended to destroy other nations’ culture just like vampires and parasites. Therefore，he did not trust Jewish and killed a lot of them. What’s more, he forced them to do things they were not willing to do, and built concentration camp to torture them. Many books and movies have written and made on the background of Nazi’s concentration camp, and this movie is of no exception. What makes it different is that it describes the war in a way of black humor and aims to highlight the glory of humanity.

4.3Plot of Life Is Beautiful

During the Second World War, a very happy family was put into a concentration camp, in the camp; the father tried his best to make his son believe the dilemma was a kind of game that his family participates in, they were just playing a game, where the first prize was a tank. The father used his wisdom and imagination in order to make his son to be happy and brave.

In 1939, Guido and his friend arrived in town called Arezzo, it is located in Italy. Guido is a naïve, happy, funny and imaginative Jewish man, he falls in love with a school teacher called Dora. But Dora has agreed another man to marry him. Guido use his wisdom and imagination, he wins the teacher’s heart. Finally, the teacher runs away with Guido without a moment"s hesitation, although Guido is a waiter. Then they have a kid and he often enjoys the father’s special imagination. In the camp, Guido uses various levels of creativity to protect his son. The camp is a terrible place, because the old and the children are dead, they are killed because they are not strong enough to work. Although Guido protect his son very well, at the end of the film, Guido died, and he couldn’t reunion with his family.

The story took place in 1936 in Italy town, in the background of the fascists rampant active, racial discrimination is gradually expanding. The quiet countryside, and good people, a clown like figure-Guido, he wants to open a bookstore of his own and lead a comfortable life, stand aloof from worldly success. However, in applying for opening, he faced all sorts of obstacles, then, he becomes a waiter in his uncle"s restaurant. His dedicated service and humorous behaviors are loved by many customers. At the same time in the beginning of the town, he met a beautiful female teacher in Italy, she is called Dora. Guido met Dora for several times, he was full in love with her. After many twists and turns, he won the heart of Dora. After the two married, Guido opened his own bookstore and had a lovely son- Giosué Orefice. But wonderful life at this time but can not stop the fascist in continental Europe. The arrival of the war made the fate of the characters change, until Guido was taken away again over again, finally one day, uncle and his son embarked on a train to a Nazi concentration camp, Dora could not bear the separation of husband and son .Although she is not Jewish, Dora voluntarily stamped by the husband and son with a train. The concentration camps looked like the hell, Guido and many of the Jews suffered a huge excess load work. In the face of difficult circumstances, they may be killed at any time. Guido uses the world that he and his son have known to interpret everything they faced. The game, to win one thousand points, and so on, sit home tank. All the time, Guido didn’t forget his wife and try to care for his wife. However, the dark alley, blue light, a burst of gunfire, a short symphony revealed the irreparable injury. Then the Nazi surrendered and dawn rise. Son sat tanks to reunite with his wife. He drove the fear away from son with humor and brought hope and happiness to his son with actions. Finally he sacrificed to perfect beautiful life.

4.4 Case studies on black humor in Life Is Beautiful

We would like to focus on many instances throughout Life Is Beautiful, where Guido navigates the language of authority and turns it to his own purposes. In this process, we can feel the great power of black humor. Without it, the little son would be more likely to be killed in the horrible concentration camp.

Case study 1

Giosué Orefice asks his father why all the shops say “No Jews or Dogs Allowed.” I don’t like dogs, but Jews are people, what’s wrong with them. Guido tells his son that Not Allowed signs are the popular trend, one day, I and my friend kangaroo are in a shop, but their sign said No Kangaroos Allowed, then I asks my friend what can I do, they don’t allow kangaroos in . Then the son asks his father why our shop doesn’t have a Not Allowed sign. Guido happily tells his son tomorrow, we will put one up, anything we don’t like will not let in, and then he asks his son what you don’t like. The son says spiders, and Guido tells his son he don’t like vampires, tomorrow we will get sign No Spiders or Vampires Allowed.

Here, Guido explained the racial discrimination in a very humorous way; he just simplified it and tried to reduce the extent of resentment. In fact, he just wanted his son to enjoy his life and Guido tried his best to protect his son from harmful situation. But as an audience, the author will first laugh at the humorous language, then the author will find the laughter is so bitter, because most audience will show sympathy to Guido and Giosué, and become worried about Guido, and worried about all Jewish in that situation. The effect of black humor makes the radical racial discrimination not so radical, but it makes audience have a lasting impression about the Guido’s open mind and unfair situation of Jewish.

Case study 2

Guido and his son have just arrived at the concentration camp. As they file out of the train cars in long, somber lines of men, women, and the elderly each heading toward their own final destinations within the camp, Giosuè begins to complain. Guido nervously tries to explain to his son that this is a marvelous place, as evidenced by the long lines of people trying to get in.

In this scene, Guido had to deal with a hard problem. That is, on his son’s birthday, they were taken into the concentration camp and would do many hard things or even at the risk of losing their lives. But Guido still tried his best to express the bad concentration camp as a marvelous place. He also treated his son that it was a special travel for his birthday party, and many people were waiting for him in line.

Guido succeeded in making his son believe in his words, and Giosuè was excited to wait in the line. Guido used ironic language，it is also the feature of black humor, The materials chosen by black humor writers are generally superficial，but with deep thoughts．So the black humor novels are usually philosophical．Guido was very wise to use black humor to change the situation.

Case study3

Giosuè : “but what kind of game is this?”

Guido : “That’s it! It’s that game . . . that game where . . . we’re all players. It’s all organized. The game is the men are over here, and the women are over there. Then there’s the soldier’s. They give us our schedule. It’s hard, you know. It’s not easy. If somebody makes a mistake, they get sent straight home. That means you have to be very careful. But if you win, you get first prize.”

Giosuè: “what prize”?

Guido nervously buying time repeats “The first prize!”

At this point, Guido’s elderly uncle, Eliseo, steps in, leaning down to Giosuè to tell him “it’s a tank!”

Giosuè : “ I already have one. ”

Guido: “This one’s a real and brand tank!”

Giosuè: “No? A real one isn’t it?”

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