On Humour

On Humour
Author: Simon Critchley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2011-08-26
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1135199035

This is a fascinating and beautifully written book on what philosophy can tell us about humour and about what it is to be human. It will fascinate and intrigue anyone with a sense of humour.

Humour

Humour
Author: Terry Eagleton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0300244789

A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humour and comedy within Western culture—by one of its greatest exponents Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humour and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit? Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humour, including the idea that it springs from incongruity and the view that it reflects a mildly sadistic form of superiority to others. Drawing on a wide range of literary and philosophical sources, Terry Eagleton moves from Aristotle and Aquinas to Hobbes, Freud, and Bakhtin, looking in particular at the psychoanalytical mechanisms underlying humour and its social and political evolution over the centuries.

Humour, Comedy and Laughter

Humour, Comedy and Laughter
Author: Lidia Dina Sciama
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1782385436

Anthropological writings on humor are not very numerous or extensive, but they do contain a great deal of insight into the diverse mental and social processes that underlie joking and laughter. On the basis of a wide range of ethnographic and textual materials, the chapters examine the cognitive, social, and moral aspects of humor and its potential to bring about a sense of amity and mutual understanding, even among different and possibly hostile people. Unfortunately, though, cartoons, jokes, and parodies can cause irremediable distress and offence. Nevertheless, contributors’ cross-cultural evidence confirms that the positive aspects of humor far outweigh the danger of deepening divisions and fueling hostilities

On Humour

On Humour
Author: Simon Critchley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2011-08-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135199027

Does humour make us human, or do the cats and dogs laugh along with us? On Humour is a fascinating, beautifully written and funny book on what humour can tell us about being human. Simon Critchley skilfully probes some of the most perennial but least understood aspects of humour, such as our tendency to laugh at animals and our bodies, why we mock death with comedy and why we think it's funny when people act like machines. He also looks at the darker side of humour, as rife in sexism and racism and argues that it is important for reminding us of people we would rather not be.

It's a Funny Thing, Humour

It's a Funny Thing, Humour
Author: Antony J. Chapman
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 536
Release: 2013-10-22
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 148315825X

It's a Funny Thing, Humour contains the papers presented at the International Conference on Humor and Laughter, held in Cardiff in July 1976. The symposium provides a platform from which authors from different professional and personal background can talk about their own definition and analysis of humor. The book is structured into 10 main sections that reflect the structure of the conference and presents various studies and research on the nature of humor and laughter. Contributions range from theoretical discussions to practical and experimental expositions. Topics on the psychoanalytical theory of humor and laughter; the nature and analysis of jokes; cross-cultural research of humor; mirth measurement; and humor as a tool of learning are some of the topics covered in the symposium. Psychologists, sociologists, teachers, communication experts, psychiatrists, and people who are curious to know more about humor and laughter will find the book very interesting and highly amusing.

Transmedial Perspectives on Humour and Translation

Transmedial Perspectives on Humour and Translation
Author: Loukia Kostopoulou
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2023-12-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1003826733

This innovative collection spotlights the role of media crossovers in humour translation and how the latter is conveyed through new means of communication. The volume offers an in-depth exploration of the entanglements of film, theatre, literature, TV, the Internet, etc., within the framework of transmediality and their influence on the practice of translating humour. Chapters focus on the complex web of interrelationships shaped by and shaping the process(es) of transformation and adaptation that take place across media and across languages and cultures. Situating translation practices and innovations within an interdisciplinary context, the volume underscores the hybrid nature and complex semiotics of humour and the plurality of possibilities for new insights that contemporary approaches offer driven by technological advancements in the industry. The book will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of Translation Studies, Humour Studies, Audiovisual Translation, Media Studies, and Adaptation Studies.

Humour in the Beginning

Humour in the Beginning
Author: Roald Dijkstra
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2022-10-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9027257469

Humour in the Beginning presents a multidisciplinary collection of fourteen in-depth case-studies on the role of humour – both benign and blasphemous, elitist and ordinary, orthodox and heterodox – in early, formative stages of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and (late-antique) Judaism. Its coherence is strengthened by four preceding theoretical essays, many cross-references and a conclusion. Thus, the volume allows for a methodologically sound comparison and explanation of historical views on humour in the world’s most important religions. At first sight, the foundational period of religions do not seem to offer much opportunities for humour. A closer look on primary sources, however, reveals the ways in which people formulated answers to existing ideas on humour and laughter, in moments of religious renewal. Main topics include the incongruous nature of the divine, the role of anthropomorphism, superior and didactic humour, moderate laughter, responses from dissenters and the gap between religious regulations and reality.

Translating Humour

Translating Humour
Author: Jeroen Vandaele
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 113496644X

It is all too often assumed that humour is the very effect of a text. But humour is not a perlocutionary effect in its own right, nor is laughter. The humour of a text may be as general a characteristic as a serious text's seriousness. Like serious texts, humorous texts have many different purposes and effects. They can be subdivided into specific subgenres, with their own perlocutionary effects, their own types of laughter (or even other reactions). Translation scholars need to be able to distinguish between various kinds of humour (or humorous effect) when comparing source and target texts, especially since the notion of "effect" pops up so frequently in the evaluation of humorous texts and their translations. In this special issue of The Translator, an attempt is made to delineate types of humorous effect, through careful linguistic and cultural analyses of specific examples and/or the introduction of new analytical tools. For a translator, who is both a receiver of the source text and sender of the target text, such analyses and tools may prove useful in grasping and pinning down the perlocutionary effect of a source text and devising strategies for producing comparable effects in the target text. For a translation scholar, who is a receiver of both source and target texts, the contributions in this issue will hopefully provide an analytical framework for the comparison of source and target perlocutionary effects.

Translation, Humour and Literature

Translation, Humour and Literature
Author: Delia Chiaro
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2010-09-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1441105778

Translation studies and humour studies are disciplines that have been long-established but seldom looked at in conjunction. This volume uses literature as the common ground and examines issues of translating humour within a range of different literary traditions. It begins with an analysis of humour and translation in every day life, including jokes and cross-cultural humour, and then moves on to looking at humour and translation in literature through the ages. Despite growing interest and a history of collaborative study, there has been little translation studies scholarship published in this area. This collection features a comprehensive introduction by the editor, which covers strategies and techniques for translating humour as well as the pragmatics involved. The book will appeal to scholars and postgraduates in translation and interpreting studies and humour studies.