Repentant Cows and a Vomiting Whale: Tragic Laughter in the Book of Jonah

Abstract

Several scholars have identified comedic elements in the book of Jonah such as the very funny images of a ship having a nervous breakdown, of converted cows donned in sackcloth mooing in lament, and of a whale who after giving the reluctant prophet a lengthy ride vomits him out in disgust. However, underlying these comedic elements are traumatic memories of the devastating violence caused by empires. So the reference to Nineveh is likely to evoke memories of the terrible cruelty performed by the Assyrians, coupled with painful memories of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem that saw the destruction of the city and the temple in addition the deportation of thousands of its inhabitants. This paper will read the comedic elements in the book of Jonah through Jacqueline Bussie’s notion of “tragic laughter” which she develops in her award-winning book, The Laughter of the Oppressed (T&T Clark, 2007). According to Bussie, “tragic laughter” that emerges out of a context of trauma has the purpose of interrupting a system of oppression, so serving as a form of resistance and protest in the face of the devastating psychological effects of trauma, which not only shatters victims’ ability to put in language what has transpired, but also destroys their traditional thought and belief systems. By transforming tragedy into comedy, tragic laughter plays an important role in fostering hope, so enabling the survival of the human spirit. Â

Keywords

• Jonah
• Humour
• Literary Criticism