Laughter is a fascinating and often under-appreciated element of social interaction. It can play a big part in uniting in-groups and creating or reinforcing put-groups. It can be deployed to mock the pretensions of the powerful, or demean the already marginalised.
Analysing humour can entail interrogating the mechanics of how jokes operate, evaluating their impact or indeed explaining the relationships between the two.
Our aim with this Theme is to provide a platform for books studying humour, laughter, comedy, and satire across a range of geographies, historical periods, and art forms. We’re excited to see how broadly this Theme can be interpreted and welcome proposals whether clearly within its stated scope or approaching from left-field.
Comedy as an art form is often treated as less worthy than tragedy, and other more “serious” modes of drama or literature. Perhaps this is because we instinctively understand joking to be the opposite of being serious. Or perhaps it is because comedy tends not to age as well as “straight” forms, being as it is more dependent on shared assumptions and expectations. Most likely it is a combination of these and other factors.
Over time we’re going to be going into more detail about what we have in mind for each of our Themes, as well as any forthcoming projects.
