Abstract The paper elucidates the “paradox of comedy”—a perpetual philosophical concern regarding the nature of theatrical/stage comedy—through a cross-cultural comparison between Bharatamuni’s (circa 500 A.D.) and Henri Bergson’s (1859–1941) theorization of the comic and thereupon, fathoms the Indian comic tradition in the canon of comedy studies. Bharata’s hāsya in Nāṭya Śāstra and Bergson’s Laughter become tenable for a comparative aesthetic study as they approach the stagecraft of the comic socio-aesthetically. The comic paradox implies the tension in the nature of comedy, which on one hand has to arouse emotion in the audience and simultaneously, has to detach them from the emotion for the comic manifestation. This is further elaborated through: the personal and social nature of the comic; the absence and presence of feeling; the degrees of the comic paradox through detachment and indifference; the identification and isolation of the character; the aim of the comedy. The authors argue for Bergson’s position of the comic as an ‘outward’ and Bharata’s as an ‘inward-outward’ operation. The study also includes an appendix, which validates Bergson’s approach to laughter as the earliest attempt to dedicate an elaborate study on the nature of the comic.

中文翻译：

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Nāṭya Śāstra 中巴拉塔穆尼 (Bharatamuni) 的哈夏与柏格森 (Bergson) 的笑声：漫画美学的比较研究

摘要 本文通过 Bharatamuni（大约公元 500 年）和 Henri Bergson（1859-1941）的喜剧和喜剧理论之间的跨文化比较，阐明了“喜剧悖论”——一种关于戏剧/舞台喜剧性质的永恒哲学关注。因此，在喜剧研究的经典中理解了印度的喜剧传统。婆罗多在 Nāṭya Śāstra 中的 hāsya 和 Bergson 的笑声在比较美学研究中站得住脚，因为它们在社会美学上接近喜剧的舞台技巧。喜剧悖论意味着喜剧本质的张力，一方面要唤起观众的情感，同时又要使观众脱离情感以表现喜剧。这通过以下方面得到进一步阐述： 漫画的个人和社会性质；感觉的缺失和存在；超脱和冷漠导致的喜剧悖论的程度；角色的识别和隔离；喜剧的目的。作者认为柏格森将漫画定位为“向外”，而巴拉塔则将其定位为“向内-向外”操作。该研究还包括一个附录，它证实了柏格森的笑声方法是对漫画本质进行详细研究的最早尝试。