ABSTRACT This paper explores humor in Marlene van Niekerk’s Triomf, a novel radically different from other South African novels of the 1990s. In fact, Triomf recalls works by American Southern grotesque writers, for example the incest and devolution of families and cultures in Faulkner. Even more compelling is the resemblance between Van Niekerk’s novel and Flannery O’Connor’s fiction. In comparing Van Niekerk’s singular achievement to the effects of O’Connor’s fiction, I want to differentiate effects of the grotesque. Using similar techniques—grotesque bodies, racism, misogyny, violence, criminality, and corrosive humor—both writers create discomfort for the reader, but with a much different effect. We laugh at the white-trash Afrikaner Benades in Triomf, but we also laugh with them; they are abjectly corporeal characters set in a wickedly ironic social and political allegory. Skillfully using humor, Van Niekerk maintains the perfect proximity, enabling readers to get close enough to understand the Benades while preventing a false, simplistic empathy.

中文翻译：

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一棵满是山坡的树：Marlene van Niekerk的Triomf中的怪诞幽默

摘要本文探讨了玛琳·范·尼克尔克（Marlene van Niekerk）的《 Triomf》中的幽默，这本小说与1990年代的其他南非小说截然不同。实际上，Triomf记得美国南方怪诞作家的作品，例如福克纳（Faulkner）家庭和文化的乱伦和权力下放。更引人注目的是凡·尼克尔克的小说和弗兰纳里·奥康纳的小说之间的相似之处。在比较范·尼克尔克的奇异成就和奥康纳小说的效果时，我想区分怪诞的效果。使用类似的技巧（怪诞的身体，种族主义，厌女症，暴力，犯罪和腐蚀性幽默），两位作家都会给读者带来不适，但效果却大不相同。我们嘲笑Triomf中白垃圾的Afrikaner Benades，但我们也与他们一起笑；他们是邪恶的具有讽刺意味的社会和政治寓言中令人毛骨悚然的人物。Van Niekerk巧妙地运用幽默感，保持了完美的亲近感，使读者能够足够近地理解Benades，同时避免了虚假的，简单的移情。