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The Jester and the Madman, Heralds of Liberty and Truth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Paolo Santarcangeli
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I. Hardly any other mythical creature has enjoyed the ubiquity of the clown: “There are few other myths such as this one about which it can be affirmed without any doubt that they involve the most ancient modes of human expression,” wrote Paul Radin in his famous essay on the figure of the clown among primitive American Indians. “There are few myths which have retained their original characters with so few changes.” The character of the Fool, the Jester, the Joker appears in a clearly identifiable fashion in the most primitive as well as the most highly cultivated groups: among the Greeks as well as the Chinese; in Japanese civilization as well as the Semite world. The medieval juggler is the embodiment of this figure of many aspects who perdures in the theater, especially puppet theater, and in the guise of the circus clown.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 27 , Issue 106 , June 1979 , pp. 28 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Paul Radin, Der göttliche Schelm. Ein indianischer Mythen-Zyklus, Zurich, 1954.

2 Paul Radin, Primitive Man as Philosopher, New York-London, 1927; Alfonso Di Nola, Antropologia religiosa, Florence, 1974; Giuseppe Cocchiara, Il mondo alla rovescia, Turin, 1963, etc.

3 W.B. Kristensen, De goddelijke Bedrieger, 1928, and Josselin De Jong, De Oorsprung van den goddelijken Bedrieger, 1929, both in Mededeel. Akad. Wetensch., Afd. Letterk. and an article of R. Pettazzoni in Paideuma, 1950.

4 Friedrich Schlegel, Lucinde, Ed. Munich, 1876, p. 117.

5 Ernst Jünger, Strahlungen, II, D.T.V. Taschenausg., Munich, 1965, p. 18.

6 Id., ibid., III, 1966, p. 258.

7 Michel Foucault, Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, Paris, 1961 and 1972.

8 Roger Caillois, L'Homme et le sacré, Paris, Gallimard, 1950; Les Jeux et les hommes, Paris, Gallimard, 1958.

9 Jean-Paul Richter, "Vorschule der Aesthetik," Der Hanswurst, p. 40.

10 Hancock E. E. Welsford, "The Fool" (Jester), Encyc. Brit., 1961/IX, p. 465 and following; id., The Fool, London, 1935; C. F. Fogel, Geschichte der Hofnarren, 1789; A. Canel, Recherches historiques sur les fous des rois de France, Paris, 1873; J. R. Allardyce Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, London, 1931.

11 Mikós Szabolcsi, A clown mint a müvész önarcképe, Budapest, Corvi na, 1974.

12 Soeren Kierkegaard, Diapsalmata, in Opere, Florence, 1972, p. 4.