In Partial Fulfillnent April 1966 - MSpace at the University of Manitoba

The Ï,ow German element in his narratives nay be
of a thenatic, geographic, linguistie or even a rrwelt-
anschaulichrr nature. The extent of the presence of this
low Gernan element may vary from a iteclared Low German
work, sueh as rrDe Moorfrofr, to a whol1y Iligh German one,
sueh as lfDie Gleichenrr, where the low German factor
presents itself only in geographical terms and. in some
of the minor eharaetere.
The most striking theme brought forth in his
work 1s humor as an ans\Ãier to the incongruence and
paradox of life. His unilerstanding and use of hunor
has to be approached from the tragi-conical-r even the
grotesque, rather than the eomical, since it presupposes
two contrailictory aspects of l-ife3 manrs natural ioie
de vlvre on the one hand., and his consciousness of the
transitoriness and hence futility of l-ife on the other.
For Jah¡ humor is the ability to reconeile this paradox
by aecepting 1ife, by retainlng or rather regalning' a
positiveoutlookonlife in spite of his
conseiousness of the tem'porariness of all human existenee.
As hls own personal rrlebenshaltungrr .this application
of humor finds its expression nainly in I'T111 Eulenspiegelrl
(prose), and. in the Unkepunz and. Ulenspegel Un Jan Dood
poems.
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