The Stability Of Laughter

Author : James Nikopoulos
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2018-12-17
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780429639661

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The Stability of Laughter by James Nikopoulos Pdf

A "sad and corrupt" age, a period of "crisis" and "upheaval"—what T.S. Eliot famously summed up as "the panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history." Modernism has always been characterized by its self-conscious sense of suffering. Why, then, was it so obsessed with laughter? From Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Bergson and Freud to Pirandello, Beckett, Hughes, Barnes, and Joyce, no moment in cultural history has written about laughter this much. James Nikopoulos investigates modernity’s paradoxical relationship with mirth. Why was the gesture we conventionally associate with happiness deemed the only sensible way of responding to a world, as Max Weber wrote, that had been "disenchanted of its gods?" In answering these questions, Nikopoulos also delves into our ongoing relationship with laughter. He looks to contemporary research in emotion and evolutionary theory, as well as to the two-thousand-plus-year history of the philosophy of humor, in order to propose a novel way of understanding laughter, humor, and their complicated relationships with modern life. The Stability of Laughter explores how art unsettles the simplifications we revert to in our attempts to make sense of human history and social interaction.

Author : Ping Zhu,Zhuoyi Wang,Jason McGrath
Publisher : Hong Kong University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2019-08-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9789888528011

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Maoist Laughter by Ping Zhu,Zhuoyi Wang,Jason McGrath Pdf

WINNER — 2020 Choice’s Outstanding Academic Title During the Mao years, laughter in China was serious business. Simultaneously an outlet for frustrations and grievances, a vehicle for socialist education, and an object of official study, laughter brought together the political, the personal, the aesthetic, the ethical, the affective, the physical, the aural, and the visual. The ten essays in Maoist Laughter convincingly demonstrate that the connection between laughter and political culture was far more complex than conventional conceptions of communist indoctrination can explain. Their sophisticated readings of a variety of genres—including dance, cartoon, children’s literature, comedy, regional oral performance, film, and fiction—uncover many nuanced innovations and experiments with laughter during what has been too often misinterpreted as an unrelentingly bleak period. In Mao’s China, laughter helped to regulate both political and popular culture and often served as an indicator of shifting values, alliances, and political campaigns. In exploring this phenomenon, Maoist Laughter is a significant correction to conventional depictions of socialist China. “Maoist Laughter brings together prominent scholars of contemporary China to make a timely and original contribution to the burgeoning field of Maoist literature and culture. One of its main strengths lies in the sheer number of genres covered, including dance, traditional Chinese performance, visual arts, film, and literature. The focus on humor in the Maoist period gives an exciting new perspective from which to understand cultural production in twentieth-century China.” —Krista Van Fleit, University of South Carolina “An illuminating study of the culture of laughter in the Maoist period. Focusing on much-neglected topics such as satire, jokes, and humor, this book is an essential contribution to our understanding of how socialist culture actually ‘worked’ as a coherent, dynamic, and constructive life experience. The chapters show that traditional culture could almost blend perfectly with revolutionary mission.” —Xiaomei Chen, University of California, Davis

Author : Phillip Glenn,Phillip J. Glenn,Elizabeth Holt
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2013-07-25
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781441164797

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Studies of Laughter in Interaction by Phillip Glenn,Phillip J. Glenn,Elizabeth Holt Pdf

Explores the nature, occurrence and uses of laugher in a range of different kinds of interactions across a variety of languages.

Author : Pierre Destrée,Franco V. Trivigno
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2019-08-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780190917616

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Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Ancient Philosophy by Pierre Destrée,Franco V. Trivigno Pdf

Ancient philosophers considered question about laughter, humor, and comedy to be both philosophically interesting and important. They theorized about laughter and its causes, moralized about the appropriate uses of humor and what it is appropriate to laugh at, and wrote treaties on comedic composition. They were often merciless in ridiculing their opponents' positions, borrowing comedic devices and techniques from comic poetry and drama to do so. This volume is organized around three sets of questions that illuminate the philosophical concerns and corresponding range of answers found in ancient philosophy. The first set investigates the psychology of laughter. What is going on in our minds when we laugh? What background conditions must be in place for laughter to occur? Is laughter necessarily hostile or derisive? The second set of questions concerns the ethical and social norms governing laughter and humor. When is it appropriate or inappropriate to laugh? Does laughter have a positive social function? Is there a virtue, or excellence, connected to laugher and humor? The third set of questions concerns the philosophical uses of humor and comedic technique. Do philosophers use humor exclusively in criticizing rivals, or can it play a positive educational role as well? If it can, how does philosophical humor communicate its philosophical content? This volume does not aim to settle these fascinating questions but more importantly to start a conversation about them, and serve as a reference point for discussions of laughter, humor, and comedy in ancient philosophy.

Author : Phillip Glenn,Elizabeth Holt
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2013-05-23
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781441162809

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Studies of Laughter in Interaction by Phillip Glenn,Elizabeth Holt Pdf

Laughter is pervasive in interaction yet often overlooked in the research. This volume presents a collection of original studies revealing the highly-ordered, complex, and important phenomenon of laughter in everyday interactions. Building on 40 years of conversation analytic research, the authors show how the design and placement of laughs contribute to unfolding sequences, social activities, identities, and relationships. In this revealing study leading experts investigate laughter in a range of different contexts and across a variety of languages. The research demonstrates that laughter is not simply a reaction to humour but is used in a fascinating array of different ways. Findings reported here include its use in clinics, employment interviews, news interviews, classrooms, the discourse of children with severe autism, and ordinary conversations. The acoustics of laughter and its relationship to movement, gaze and gesture are also explored. The volume brings together new and influential research into this phenomenon to present the state-of-the-art. It will be invaluable to anyone interested in the study of interaction, conversation analysis, humour and laughter.

Author : Brian Edgar
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2019-08-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781532649851

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Laughter and the Grace of God by Brian Edgar Pdf

Laughter is important because we cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh, and this is true of our relationship with God. Having a sense of humor is essential for maturity in faith and holiness. Unfortunately, humor and the role that laughter plays in life and spirituality have often been neglected and the aim of Laughter and the Grace of God is to restore laughter to its central place in Christian spirituality and theology. It examines the role of laughter in Scripture and finds it in unexpected places including the story of Abraham and the formation of the covenant and the tragedy of Job. There is laughter in the incarnation, the resurrection, and even the crucifixion. Jesus is the great Laugh-maker. Thomas Aquinas spoke of the sin of having too little laughter as well as the danger of having too much, while Martin Luther said, "If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there." Laughter is nothing less than a participation in the life and love of God.

Author : Nathan Miczo
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2022-09-07
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781666901139

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Disparagement Humor in Social Life by Nathan Miczo Pdf

In this book, Nathan Miczo demonstrates that humor operates at different levels of identity, exploring how within- and between-group dynamics shape the creation and reception of disparagement humor. While positive forms of humor arise in interpersonal settings, negative forms reflect the activation of group-based, communal identities. Building on this dual sociality view, Miczo critiques the superiority theory of disparagement humor, rooted in Hobbes’s definition of laughter, and tied to his notion of a “war of all against all.” Miczo employs the agōn (Greek for contest) to replace the Hobbesian metaphor with a view that groups use disparagement humor to pursue rival goals. This perspective forwards the multifunctional utility of humor in social life, analyzing examples of naturally occurring interaction drawn from studies in Communication, Psychology, and Anthropology. Scholars of humor studies, communication, and anthropology, will find this book of particular interest.

Author : Nicodemus (van de Heilige Berg)
Publisher : Paulist Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0809130386

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Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain by Nicodemus (van de Heilige Berg) Pdf

Nicodemos (1749-1809), a monk of Saint Athos dedicated to asceticism and learning, was one of the most influential Orthodox writers of the last two centuries. His Handbook, written during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, shares an exalted vision of human nature, but a vision that proceeds from the truths of revelation as interpreted by the Greek Fathers, not Descartes.

Author : Thomas Pughe
Publisher : Birkhäuser
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2013-03-09
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9783034877466

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Comic Sense by Thomas Pughe Pdf

The idea for this study came to me in the course of my reading of innova tive US-American! fiction of the last three decades. I observed that much of it is cast in the comic mode - or, more precisely, that there seems to be in contemporary fiction an affinity between 'innovation' and 'the comic' and that this affinity, furthermore, appears to be characteristic of postmo dernism. It is obvious, at the same time, that comic has become an elusive and, more often than not, a disputable category. Frederick Karl, in his sur vey of American Fictions 1940-1980, maintains, for instance, that much comic writing consists in ridicule that lacks deeper intellectual and cul tural roots. "Wit and mockery," he notes, "by themselves have little lasting value. Even in the best of such fiction, Gravity's Rainbow, one is made aware of attenuated skits stiched onto previous segments, rather than baked in by a defined point of view. " (Karl: 27) Such assessments of course challenge my view that the comic is in significant ways connected with what is innovative in postmodernist US-American fiction. Yet the term comic -or related terms like humour, parody, irony and so fort- is regularly and heavily employed in discussions or reviews of con temporary fiction.

Author : Henri Bergson
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 114 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780486113579

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Laughter by Henri Bergson Pdf

In this great philosophical essay, Henri Bergson explores why people laugh and what laughter means. Written at the turn of the twentieth century, Laughter explores what it is in language that makes a joke funny and what it is in us that makes us laugh. One of the functions of humor, according to Bergson, is to help us retain our humanity during an age of mechanization. Like other philosophers, novelists, poets, and humorists of his era, Bergson was concerned with the duality of man and machine. His belief in life as a vital impulse, indefinable by reason alone, informs his perception of comedy as the relief we experience upon distancing ourselves from the mechanistic and materialistic. "A situation is always comic," Bergson notes, "if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings." The philosopher's thought-provoking insights (e.g., "It seems that laughter needs an echo. Our laughter is always the laughter of a group.") keep this work ever-relevant as a thesis on the principles of humor.

Author : Georges Bataille
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2004-11-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0816635056

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The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge by Georges Bataille Pdf

Keuze uit het werk van de Franse filosoof (1897-1962).

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 1890
Category : Shorthand
ISBN : SRLF:A0005269766

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The Philadelphia Stenographer by Anonim Pdf

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 1892
Category : Shorthand
ISBN : HARVARD:HN4LCM

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Frank Harrison's Shorthand Weekly by Anonim Pdf

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 708 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 1892
Category : Shorthand
ISBN : HARVARD:HN4FLG

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The Stenographer by Anonim Pdf

Author : Robert Matthew Brzenchek,Ben Pieper,Garrick Plonczynski
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2017-10-02
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9781351655835

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The Gang Life: Laugh Now, Cry Later by Robert Matthew Brzenchek,Ben Pieper,Garrick Plonczynski Pdf

The Gang Life: Laugh Now, Cry Later examines the criminal gangster mindset and offers gang prevention strategies, using real-world examples to demonstrate a holistic approach toward combatting this surging societal problem. The text outlines the evolution of gang membership from a state of interest, to association, to hardcore "O.G." (Original Gangster) status, and explores the evolution of law enforcement’s multi-pronged approach to combating criminal street gang violence, from the catch-and-release mentality of the 1970s and 1980s to today’s collaboration with private organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs. In-depth profiles, case studies, and lengthy histories of gangs, gang members, and their transformations are provided to demonstrate the deleterious effect of gangs on society. Designed for criminal justice students and for practitioners in the field, this text offers readers a holistic approach toward gang prevention from three nationally awarded educators and gang investigators.