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“Memorial Art" is a general term coined by contemporary theorists of culture and ethnography to describe history-charged places and monuments or museums as warehouses for memory . Consequently , memorial art is mainly a material phenomenon guiding towards a culture of remembrance , thus constructing identities . But can memorial art be immaterial as well ? What if the warehouses for memory were refuges for shared ideas , images and associations that emerge from the security of the subconscious mind – their immanent source – in sudden flashes of inspiration , precognitive fears or even amusement ? My essay follows the Freudian idea of the subconscious mind as source of humor and thus as a means to construct and preserve identity – as what we could call immaterial memorial art . The Sobriety of Humor , or Human Nature as Narrative Survivor “ Humor is , in fact , very serious , " as the well-known German saying goes . This supposed sobriety of humor derives from its cultural sources , whi...
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