'Ce n'est pas un blague: Purposes and limits of humour in early post-war France (1944-46)'

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I am proposing to research the different forms, purposes, limits and evolution of war humour in French publications during the post-war period from the Normandy landings in June 1944 until the establishment of the Fourth Republic on 27th October, in France, a period that has never been studied from this perspective. My project will utilise publications in the Chadwyck-Healey Liberation Collection, whose scope is 1944 until 1946, along with other archives .An audit of the Liberation Collection and my knowledge of its contents reveal a relatively large proportion of humorous books (c.50-70): pictorial works, from watercolours to cartoons, prose, and poetry, ranging from camp humour to political satire. 'Humour and war' may seem an oxymoron, yet, these publications lead to questions on the uses of humour in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.Previous historical approaches appear to have paid insufficient attention to war and post-war humour in printed material, including how these works were published and received. There is, however, a strong emerging body of work on humour in the First World War, and on Book History, which will provide helpful points of reference to build my argument.Using John Morreall's and other works on the philosophy of humour (1986, 2009) I intend to enquire the purposes of early post-war humour as a strategy to accept the unacceptable, perhaps by providing a parody of the conflict to boost morale. Was humour in the transition following the Second World War in France 'a safety valve which allowed modified expression of people's worst fears, helping them to endure through present pain and in contemplation of unpredictable post-war future', as Jean-Yves Le Naour (2001) argues in his study of World War I humour?