Humour in Times of Confrontation: 1901 to the Present examines the various and surprising ways in which humour has been powerfully employed, through a wider range of media than possible at any other time in history, as a response to conflict.
Humour in Times of Confrontation: 1901 to the Present examines the various and surprising ways in which humour has been powerfully employed, through a wider range of media than possible at any other time in history, as a response to conflict.
With no earlier century undergoing more diverse, more extensive, and more intense conflicts than the period in question, the last twelve decades provide a unique landscape to explore the farthest edge of humour: its darkest side. This book argues that such conflict has not only traumatically shaped the modern psyche but created a fertile ground for humour to grow and evolve with the advent of new representations and technologies. The chapters in this volume focus on international conflicts that have been reported widely through news media but seldom regarded as material for serious humour studies. Each chapter begins by engaging with a particular form of confrontation before providing a case study of how it has contributed to the creation, enjoyment, and/or sharing of humour via different media.
This volume is a valuable resource to students and scholars of humour studies, modern cultural and social history, the history of technology, and media studies.
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Introduction: [ W]hen the world is torn apart by so much conflict and
division
Shun-Liang Chao and Vivienne Westbrook
Chapter One: Caricaturising the City: Humour and Racial Difference in New
York City at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Meaghan M. Walsh
Chapter Two: Red in the Face: The Great Depression, Nathanael West, and
Cynical Humour
Richard Aldersley
Chapter Three: Juro Kubicźks Mein K(r)ampf: Derision, Dissent, and
Denazification in Post-War Berlin
Camilla Smith
Chapter Four: The Power and Limitations of Humour in State Socialist Hungary
in the Aftermath of the 1956 Revolution
Lili Zįch
Chapter Five: A demonstration is also FUN:
Folk Humour and Play as Tactics to Disrupt the Rational State during the
1968 Protests
Laura Bowie
Chapter Six: Confronting Patriarchy: Humour and the British Womens
Liberation Movement, 1968-1992
Sarah Crook
Chapter Seven: Riotous Laughter: LGBTQ+ Humour in the Age of Stonewall
Sarah Chant
Chapter Eight: Survivalist Humour: Improvising at the Turn of the Millennium
Gabe Beckhurst
Chapter Nine: Confronting Chinas Little Pinks: Political Humour in
Namewees Love Song Fragile
Shun-Liang Chao
Index
Shun-Liang Chao is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He has authored Rethinking the Concept of the Grotesque: Crashaw, Baudelaire, Magritte (awarded the Anna Balakian Prize of the ICLA) and co-edited Humour in the Arts: New Perspectives and Romantic Legacies: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Contexts.
Vivienne Westbrook is Professor of English and Cultural Studies. She holds honorary research positions in The School of Humanities and the Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, and in The School of Life Sciences at La Trobe University, Australia. She is a General Editor of Humour in Literature and Culture and Oceans, Seas and Shorelines: Cultural, Environmental and Natural Histories.
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