The Genius of Involuntary Humour: The Kempner-Effect and the Rules of Fiction

What is it about?

Known variously as the ‘Silesian Swan’, the ‘Silesian Nightingale’, the ‘Genius of Involuntary Humour’ and ‘Germany’s worst poet’, Friederike Kempner (1828-1904) is one of Germany’s most widely read, mercilessly ridiculed, and relentlessly quoted authors. Both the entertainment value of her poems and her tremendous visibility are usually linked with the wretched quality of her writing. As such, Kempner presents us with an ideal test case to re-evaluate institutionalized views of ‘aesthetic quality’. Drawing on Freud’s distinction between comedy, wit and humour and Foucault’s ideas on the work as discourse and the ‘author-function’, the essay examines the ‘Kempner-function’ as it has determined and limited interpretations of her poetry, and suggests an alternative framework, the ‘Kempner-effect’.

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