Theology, Comedy, and Politics- Marcus Pound
Published 2019 by Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN. 235 pages
It could be argued that, perhaps more than any other descriptor, tragedy is the register in which to understand the tumultuous events of the 20th century. In the first half of the century, the Western world faced a devastating economic depression, which ruined the livelihoods of many in the middle and lower class. Two world wars devastated the population and landscape of Europe, resulting in the deaths of more combatants than any previous war. Above all else, the horrors of the Holocaust on the Jewish, Romani, Johovah’s Witnesses, and homosexual communities left the entire world in a state of unbearable shock and unspeakeable grief. Before the century reached its midpoint, the myth of progressivism had been irreparably shattered as humanity had to come to grips with its own barbarity and inhumanity. The existentialists responded by pondering whether the seemingly indifferent universe had any meaning at all. Christian theologians similarly responded by shifting the key of theology into one of tragedy, identifying with a God who also suffered at the hands of an unjust system.
In his 2019 book, Theology, Comedy, Politics, English philosopher Marcus Pound argues that comedy, rather than tragedy, may be a more accurate way to understand the Christian experience. By utilizing Lacan, Kant, Hegel, Zizek, Zupancic, Derrida, and several other philosophers and psychoanalysts, Pound deconstructs the theo-political potential of comedy as an emancipatory force against global capitalism. By doing so, Pound hopes that, understood theologically, comedy could serve as an essential theo-political practice, which can open us up to our deepest sources of trauma, subvert the ideological imperatives of market forces, and serve as the counter-joke against capitalism (xvii, xix, 157). By deconstructing the category of comedy as a slippage of language that thrives on its own failure, Pound hopes to revitalize the importance of comedy within the Christian narrative and collective community.
Overview:
Pound’s book is divided into four main chapters. In the first, he attempts to give the reader an overview of comedy within the fields of philosophy and theology. Essentially, Pound is seeking to answer the question: How and why was comedy ignored as a central site of philosophical and theological reflection? He answers this through three central “elisions,” or omissions, of comedy. In the first (philosophical), Pound examines the role of comedy in Greek philosophy and how it was often denigrated, which continued in its condemnation by Christendom. In the second (historical), Pound critiques the supposed revival of comedy in theology spearheaded by Mikhail Bakhtin, arguing that it is these theories of comedy rooted secular liberalism that confined the comedic potential of the Church, rather than the Medieval Church itself. In the third elision (theological), Pound critiques the work of Donald MacKinnon and his emphasis on the tragic dimensions of theology and instead makes a case for a comic understanding.
In the second chapter, as as opposed to linking comedy with the social, Pound outlines the metaphysical assumptions regarding comedy and its function. In doing so, he recounts the modern critique of metaphysics via Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard, and follows it to the postmodern turn. In essence, Pound argues that comedy has been too entrenched in Kantian thinking rather than Trinitarian thought, which both Hegel’s criticism of Kant and Kierkegaard’s theological reading have the potential to open new avenues for understanding comedy through a theological lens. For Pound, comedy is often set in diachronic, oppositional terms (tension vs release, expectation vs subversion, etc), which sets itself up for crude dichotomies, However, following Hegelian dialectics, he argues, this can be relieved by introducing a third way (thus reflecting the Trinity).
As such, in the third chapter, Pound argues that the work of Jacques Lacan helps us articulate a speculative redescription of trinitarian Christianity. Pound argues that Freud’s theory of jokes allows us to see that “while dreams may be the royal road to the unconscious, jokes offer us a cheeky shortcut” (121), as jokes highlight the relationship between the signifier and our desire. He thus relates this notion to the concept of Christian charity, as he writes, “ Responding to the other is never simply a question of responding to a given need (the secular view) but precisely a question of responding to the desire of the other, that is, that which exceeds a mere need (the theological view). In other words, charity must attend not so much to the immediate needs but to those little object causes that go beyond need and that comedy exploits” (134). In this way, Christian theology and psychoanalysis are linked in that they both operate in the framework of charity, and must negotiate with the Other in the realm of desire. According to Lacan, jokes humanize us in a way similar to the logic of sacramental life. Pound then utilizes the work of Alenka Zupancic to make a connection between tragedy (which is centered on unfulfilled desire) and comedy (which provides us with a surplus satisfaction that surpasses the initial demand of desire), where Christ stands in as the object a, around which our desire constantly circles. In short, through Lacan, comedy and theology are both placed at the limits of what it is to be a human subject.
Finally, in the fourth and final chapter, Pound attempts to connect a theological understanding of comedy to our modern political, economic, and social landscape. In particular, he elaborates on the contemporary significance of comedy and enjoyment in postmodernism. In order to do this, Pound traces the shifts in the realm of capital from a production-based economy (in which basic needs are met through commodities) to a consumer based economy (where consumption serves as the new social condition and everything is commodified). As opposed to shopping for our basic needs, we now shop and consume as a leisure activity. This consumer culture is fed by a superego injunction to enjoy; enjoyment becomes a social obligation that, by its very existence, makes enjoyment impossible, since joy, like love, can only be accessed indirectly as a byproduct (when we aim for enjoyment, we miss it). As we become further entrenched in capitalism and a culture of commodification, we are more ardently and fruitlessly enslaved to pursue an enjoyment that can never be accessed.
To remedy this, Pound proposes psychoanalysis as the reverse side of capitalism, framing desire as a lack that can be mobilized for positive change. As such, echoing an earlier point, Pound writes, “psychoanalysis is the last refuge of faith in the sense that they both maintain at their core the practice of charitable love” (185). Pound then turns toward the theological, as he offers a novel interpretation of the story of Abraham and Sarah, as she laughs at the prospect of having a son at her age (which Pound argues is actually a jab at Abraham’s impotence in his old age and serves to symbolically castrate God in the narrative). Pound then relates this to Christianity, as Christ’s death serves as a surplus that disturbs the traditional symbolic balance, opening up the condition for the emergence of a new order (aka the Church). In this way, love, like comedy, opens us up to the unexpected and resides in our lack, through giving what we do not have (exemplified by the Offering of the Widow in Mark 12:41-44). Pound concludes by arguing that the death drive is like the church qua sacrament “endlessly and parodically circulating around its absent center: Christ as the object cause of desire around which the church ceaselessly revolves, constantly putting to work the surplus of Christ in the transmission of God’s initial joke through its nonidentical repetition” (219-220). This, Pound believes, could very well be the salvific remedy for the anxieties of our consumer age.
Commendations:
One of the most striking features of this book is its novel thesis. Through this short work, Pound wades through an immense amount of philosophical and psychoanalytic insights in order to offer an alternative understanding of theology and psychoanalysis through the lens of comedy. By doing so, Pound joins a conversation set by the likes of Alenka Zuppanic and Todd McGowan, where comedy is framed in terms of desire, drive, and repetition. Pound’s contribution is to frame Christ as a comic figure, rather than a tragic one, and this shift in emphasis opens up new and intriguing insights into the subversive potential of Christianity and the communities it creates.
Furthermore, there is an interesting breakdown of Bahktin’s framework of the carnivalesque in modern folkloristics that I think is very well worth considering. Bahktin and his work, Rabelais and His World (1965), was greatly influential in my own work within the field of religion, magic, medicine, and folklore during my tenure in graduate school, and Pound’s analysis of Bakhtin serves as a refreshing and insightful critique into his thesis. Essentially, Pound argues that Bakhtin attributes the comedic elements of Christian ritual (such as the Feast of Fools) to pagan, pre-Christian sources, which then must disavow its institutional framework and take the form of literature in order to survive. This, Pound argues, transforms the participants of Carnival into mere spectators, ripping laughter and comedy away from its liturgical context (49). While I’m not wholly convinced of his argument, Pound’s critique is well-articulated and has kept me thinking on my toes as it forces me to approach Bahktin in a new light.
Also, in the second chapter, there is an interesting discussion of eschatology (“end times”) in Greek and Christian frameworks. Here, Pound takes a classic case of contrasting Greek and Christian philosophy and reframes it in the language of tragedy versus comedy. Essentially, Pound argues that Christiainity is not about a restorative return to origins (aka, a golden age of immortals, or before the Edenic Fall), but rather one of ultimate excess beyond the origin, a gift that gives with interest (108-109). Thus, in Pound’s view, this comedic eschatology is what makes Christianity distinct. Again, while this argument could be aided with a bit more of a robust example, it is still an interesting twist to the common “cyclical vs linear” dichotomy that is typically set up between Greek and Christian religious frameworks.
Finally, toward the end of the book, there is a fascinating examination of the laughter of Abraham and Sarah regarding the conception and naming of Isaac (יִצְחָק lit. “he will laugh”), and its relation to the castration of the phallic symbol through the figure of the woman (Sarah). Essentially, Pound argues that Sarah’s laughter serves as a symbol of castration in the face of a sexualized female, both in Abraham’s inability to give pleasure and God’s anxiety in the face of her laughter. In both cases, the phallic function is castrated and meets its limits in the figure of a woman, signified by laughter (195). Pound also notes that Isaac is the only patriarch (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) who does not change his name, linking his son Israel (Jacob) with the birth of Judaism through laughter. Pound writes, “What matters for Sarah is not simply the promise of a child who will become the father of a nation but that people will continue to hear the story and laugh in response” (195). The value of Pound’s interpretation is in its novelty, as it seeks to give a psychoanalytic spin to one of the foundational stories of Judaism. This is Pound at his best, when he takes a particular story or event as a case study and follows through with his rigorous analysis. The lack of these specific types of examples, however, highlights one of the central weaknesses of this work.
Critique:
While this book is generally more accessible than most of the works that he utilizes in his analysis, it is still targeted towards specialists in the field and can be rather dense in some sections. That being said, theory can always be aided by relevant examples or “real-world” applications. Unfortunately, in this book, there are not many relevant examples to ground his theory outside of obscure song lyrics and personal jokes accompanied by a wide array of quotations from scholars and artists. Throughout these nearly 200 pages, Pound’s thesis reads more like an extended essay than a fully-formed, robust book. This is not inherently a problem, but the way it is structured and the tone of this work is much more reminiscent of a series of essay pieces that, while building on one another, never seem wholly fleshed out. As I read through the chapters, while the arguments themselves are brilliant and complex, there just seemed to be some pieces missing.
Furthermore, where Pound does elaborate on his ideas, it seems like the basis for his arguments are sometimes based on misinterpretations of the authors he’s citing. To take one example, in the opening chapter, Pound utilizes Zizek’s analysis of The Sound of Music and its song “Climb Every Mountain” (and the reasons as to why it was banned in the former Communist Republic of Yugoslavia) in order to argue for a subversive reading of Christianity centered on refusing to cede one’s desires against an oppressive regime. This to me seems a little disingenuous, as Zizek’s point in his analysis seems to be a much more cynical reading of Catholicism, pointing out its own disavowed hedonism as one example of how institutions are held together through obscene bribes and agreements. In fact, as opposed to being a liberating force, Zizek says, “This obscene contract does not belong to Christianity as such. It belongs to the Catholic Church as an institution. It is the logic of institution at its purest. This is again a key to the functioning of ideology. Not only the explicit message: renounce, suffer and so on… but the true hidden message: pretend to renounce and you can get it all.” (The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, (2012)). Here, Pound seems to be simplifying and twisting Zizek’s example in order for it to fit within his thesis.
While this is clearly only one example, there are also several other places throughout the book that had me scratching my head, especially in some of the ways in which Hegel and Lacan were interpreted to be Trinitarian in their thought. Perhaps Pound and I have a simple disagreement of interpretation, or maybe I am missing something crucial to his argument. Pound is clearly brilliant in his insight and incredibly well-versed in the authors that he cites, as he elsewhere brilliantly summarizes thinkers like Lacan, Hegel, and Zizek with a great degree of clarity, insight, and charisma. However, some of the twists and turns taken throughout this work could be a bit frustrating at times and Pound can often seem to overstate his case in a few places.
When getting at the heart of his thesis, the key question regarding the political ramification of comedy is whether it offers a workable critique of structures of power, rather than allowing the systems of power to continue uninterrupted. In short, can we utilize comedy as a rupturing Event that breaks our current system of meaning, or will these systems continue to absorb comedic critiques in order to dissolve resentment and continue to operate per usual? For example, according to the late social theorist Mark Fisher, in order for a political project to be emancipatory, it must always destroy the appearance of a’ natural order’, must reveal what is presented as necessary and inevitable to be a mere contingency, just as it must make what was previously deemed to be impossible seem attainable (Capitalist Realism, 17).
To his credit, Pound does address this aspect of comedy at the outset of this book. Yet, by the end, I was still not entirely convinced of the ways in which the liturgical nature of the church can act as a clear and radical indictment against global capital. After finishing the book, I still had a myriad of questions that were left unanswered: How exactly does the church become a site of the comedic, circling around its object a (Christ)? How can charity, even in Pound’s generous estimation, be utilized as a form of resistance against the forces of capitalism, rather than being co-opted by it? How exactly does a comedic church body subvert capitalism in any real, meaningful, or material way? None of these questions raised by Pound’s thesis are really explained fully, aside from Pound offering this theory-driven counter-narrative. There’s not a lot of practical application or illustration of what such a community would tangibly look like in a liturgical context. In the end, it seems that Pounds thesis is still confined to the same patterns laid out by Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy project of the 90s, and we’ve still yet to see the emancipatory fruits of it. Similarly, it remains unclear whether Pound’s remedy to the issue of global capital would likewise be established via a return to a more liturgical way of living.
Conclusion:
Through this compact and richly written work, Marcus Pound makes a compelling case for the place of comedy within the traditional Christian framework. While it can be difficult in a few sections and the work would greatly benefit from more salient and grounded examples, Pound’s work continues to inspire deep thought as it confronts us with a new paradigm for understanding Christian theology. Some of the weaknesses in the book could possibly be a problem inherent within any effort to define comedy. That’s the problem in explaining the joke; when you do, it no longer becomes funny. Regardless, Pound does an exemplary job in synthesizing and critiquing the thoughts of writers across the postmodern and psychoanalytic canon, and if you’re interested in how such a theory of comedy could be applied to Christianity in novel and potentially transforming ways, then this book could serve as the abstract, theoretical springboard to build communities of true, radical change right here on the ground.