Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates the use of humor in national minority festivals and theatrical productions, and discusses the possibilities of using heritage in combination with comedy to transgress a history of the ruling majority’s cultural hegemony.

Paper long abstract:

Important elements in narrative presentations of national minorities in contemporary festival contexts relate to, and make extensive use of, a shared history and heritage. New re-tellings of the narratives from oral tradition are significant parts of performances during festivals celebrating a common intangible heritage. Along with other narratives, humor and comedy of course are a part in this. In this paper I want to take festivals with theatrical elements celebrated among the Finn Forest and the Kven national minorities in Norway as my point of departure, and discuss dramatic (and humorous) presentations related to the use (and misuse) of illegally produced liquor (pontikka, moonshine) in these contexts. Confrontations with the representatives of the national authorities (police and sheriffs) results in comic incidents, calling for laughter among the attending public. Whether the drinking practices are appreciated or depreciated on stage or in other performances both incorporates and visualizes a “fleeting” or ambiguous boundary between “us” and “them”. In this way, the performances could comment on the long history of suppressing the minorities in Norwegian national state politics (most often termed Norwegianization politics). At the same time, the humorous context also allows for more nuanced and ambiguous understandings of heterogeneous identities in multi-ethnic and multi-national contexts.