Vol. 13 No. 1 (2023): HUMOUR AND PATHOS IN LITERATURE AND THE ARTS (I)
he journal’s originality lies primarily in the following cherished values: 1. inclusiveness: open to both literature-centered, and culture-centered scholarship, both theory, and practice/ applied analysis, and coverage of the entire English-speaking space; 2. pluralism: no theoretical or ideological partisanship, pooling scholars from all areas of the world, all national and academic cultures; open-minded engaging of contentious subjects; 3. extended cultural discourse studies: screening the entire field of applicability for the notion of discourse and discourse studies as a suprasegmental concept, meant to bring together under the same umbrella critical theories, literary criticism, social anthropology, British, American and Canadian cultural studies, translation theories, comparative literature, as well as the study of nationalism and post-communism, visual culture and performance arts.
Full Issue
Articles
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“A jest with a sad brow”: Shakespeare’s ambivalent insults
Abstract
Shakespeare’s insults are ambivalent creatures that oscillate between humour and pathos. That is what this article aims to show. It focuses on the part insults play in the articulation of humour and pathos in Shakespeare’s plays, Falstaff and his reference to “a jest with a sad brow” appearing as a case in point. Through examples taken from Much Ado About Nothing, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Henry IV, Hamlet, Othello, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the article explores how insults and moments of insult convey the complex and fragile balance between humour and pathos. It shows that Shakespeare’s theatre of insult is based on the tension between laughter and tears, between the ludic and the serious modes or humours of insult, at a time when the word ‘humour’ was mainly conceived in the plural and still referred to fluid(s) rather than wit. This article first analyses how Shakespeare’s plays reveal a breach between humour and pathos by dramatizing, on the one hand, what is called “skirmish[es] of wit” in Much Ado About Nothing, and, on the other hand, what is called “heart-struck injuries” in King Lear. After dissociating comic and tragic insults, the article then shows how Shakespeare cultivates moments of insult when the spectators do not know whether they should laugh or cry, moments when insults waver between humour and pathos, between mirth-making and grief-making, moments in which insults hurt even when they are supposed to be humorous. This ambivalence is related to the ambivalence that is at the heart of the way the tongue is represented in Shakespeare’s world which points to its essential volatility, unpredictability and instability.
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Humour without Pathos of Internet Memes in the Context of Online Visual Communication
Abstract
In this article we focus on internet memes that have become an important genre of online communication, as internet users have created a new visual language: not only in form, but also in meaning (often very satiric). Internet memes relate to the Web 2.0 phenomenon, where users can access hundreds of meme templates, images, or short videos, and can assign them a specific meaning. The aim of this article is to theoretically define the “memetic visual language” with specific background, forms, and rules for creating and decoding it. In the empirical part of paper, we present a selection of examples put forward by the Slovak project ZOMRI, meant to demonstrate without pathos, but with humour, the power of internet memes to depict the personality of Slovak president Zuzana Caputova.
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Motifs of Disguise/ Imitation in European Literary Tradition (From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century): Comic Effect vs. Tragic Pathos
Abstract
The article defines and examines the connection between the disguise/imitation motifs and the categories of comic and tragic within European literary tradition (from Antiquity to the Eighteenth century). The authors of this research explain the factors that make these motifs popular means of creating comic effect or tragic pathos and highlight the trends in their functioning. Disguise/imitation motifs are shown to be mostly related to situations that violate the usual norms of conformity, hierarchical relations, behavioural canons, and for this precise reason, they have a powerful affective potential, i.e. become capable of evoking strong emotions. The disguise/imitation motifs are appropriate for comic effect due to their archaic genetic links with ritual-laughter culture and their conformity to the very nature of the comic, which is based on contradictions. Tragic pathos arises as a result of tragic consequences of one’s identity loss within disguise/imitation situations, it prompts awareness of the injustice of society and the “cruelty” of fate, which are the cause of the forced rejection of one’s self. The article indicates the prospects of researching disguise/imitation motifs in modern art, where they are often employed in adventurous narratives to increase the plot’s dynamism, heighten dramatic tension, and intensify intrigue.
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Humour and Knowledge in Katherine Mansfield’s “The Daughters of the Late Colonel”
Abstract
The present study intends to look at the ways in which humour enacts modes of knowledge and self-expression in Katherine Mansfield’s short story “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” (1921). The story revolves around two spinsterly sisters who have spent most of their lives tending to their tyrannical father and now find themselves at a loss when they are finally free of him. The narrative is both sympathetic and merciless towards the sisters’ fumbling attempts at independence, but the women are often in on the joke; humour is both a “black dressing-gown” which envelops the sisters and renders them objects of ridicule, but it is also a way out, offering a subversive counterpoint to the voice of the Father, as the sisters imagine the patriarch in very comical and undignified positions, while perceiving themselves as outsiders, “creeping off…like black cats”. Though the short story has often been read in terms of hopelessness and despair by Rhoda B. Nathan and Gerri Kimber, this paper wishes to show how humour modulates and moderates this hopelessness, allowing for the two single women to assert their personality within the stifling society of their time. The ridiculous, in this case, does not need to be a death sentence, but rather a form of knowledge and resistance: the spinsters are aware of the absurdity of their condition and the futility of their place in the modern world and choose comedy over tragedy.
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The Humour-Pathos Link from Late-Victorian Aestheticism to Modernism and After in British Literature
Abstract
By using Freud’s theory of humour (1927) and his Jokes in their relation to the unconscious (1905), we follow the dominant features of the humour-pathos nexus from the late Victorian to the postmodernist literary decadence, taking in our stride the two peaking twentieth century modernist texts published by T.S. Eliot and James Joyce in 1922 Britain. We begin with Oscar Wilde’s popular The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) in relation to Walter Pater’s less well-known autobiographical novel Marius the Epicurean (1885), showing what relation the latter has with T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and James Joyce’s Ulysses. The modernist genial humour of Eliot’s 1939 Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is contrasted with Tom Stoppard’s in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) and with the dark humour closer to pathos in The Life and Songs of the Crow (1970) by Ted Hughes.
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I am a Comedian, That’s My Job: The Stand-up Activism of Vir Das
Abstract
In an epoch characterized by rapid digitalization, the proliferation of disinformation, and the deepening schisms within society, the significance of stand-up comedy has assumed unprecedented prominence. Its popularity is burgeoning on a global scale, and concurrently, the Indian comedy landscape has witnessed a remarkable influx of talent over recent decades. Among this exceptional cohort of comedic voices, Vir Das emerges as a prominent figure. Known for his incisive humour, he ventures far beyond light-hearted humour, delving into the heart of pivotal societal issues. This article discusses the profound impact of comedy and satire in catalysing socio-critical transformations through a discerning analysis of select jokes from Vir Das’s repertoire. As such, it is organized into three distinct sections, each contributing to the overarching objective. The initial section offers a concise exploration of the historical evolution of comedy, with a particular focus on its development within the Indian context. Subsequently, the second section delves into the core concept of stand-up comedy as a potent medium for activism, grappling with fundamental questions regarding the gravity and consequential influence of comedic discourse. Lastly, the concluding section meticulously conducts a comprehensive thematic analysis of Vir Das’s body of work, accentuating his pivotal role as a stand-up activist.
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Lugubrious Victorians, Ludicrous Narratives: The Function of the Comic in Jane Harris’ The Observations
Abstract
Given the socio-economic circumstances of the Victorian Era, one of its unassailable facts was that the conservative and solemn spirit of the time created a claustrophobic social atmosphere for some of its occupiers. Victorian, as well as Neo-Victorian novels register an exigency for laughter partly as a response to this solemnity. As a successful representative of the latter, Jane Harris’ debut novel, The Observations (2006) narrates the dolorous life of an Irish girl, Bessy Buckley who is taken on as a maid in a Scottish manor and is asked to perform strange duties assigned to her by the mistress of the house. This study attempts to unearth The Observations’ versatile approach to the notion of comic on three functional levels by resting on Alexander Bain’s notion of ‘ludicrous degradation.’ Firstly, the study scrutinizes comicality arising out of situations in which clashes of value and meaning occur. Secondly, it explains how ludicrous degradation turned into humour allows for psychological release. Thirdly, it looks at how Bessy’s sense of humour works as a coping mechanism and an antidote for Victorian pathos apart from being a literary source of amusement.
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Online Satirical News as Instances of Liquid Racism: Evidence from Greek
Abstract
When discussing the relationship between humour and racism, research usually concentrates on ethnic or racist jokes or on other humorous texts which expressly target migrants or other minorities. Relevant studies more or less explicitly ascribe to critical humour studies investigating topics such as how and why humour targeting the linguistic, cultural, or religious Other reproduces and maintains social discrimination and inequality, as well as how and why the generic conventions of humorous genres do not incite the audience to think critically of their content but instead enhance their tolerance for discriminatory and racist standpoints. In this context, the present study explores humorous texts that at first sight appear to have antiracist intentions. More specifically, I analyse a corpus of satirical news coming from popular Greek websites and targeting majority people for their racist views and practices towards migrants. The analysis is based on the concepts of script opposition and target as defined in the framework of the General Theory of Verbal Humour. The findings suggest that distinguishing between antiracist and racist interpretations is not an easy or straightforward matter: humour seems to blur the boundary between racism and antiracism. In order to account for this dimension of humour, I exploit the concept of liquid racism put forward by Weaver (The Rhetoric of Racist Humour) to account for the ambiguities of humorous discourse when it involves racist and antiracist meanings and interpretations.
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Humour, Wit, and Society in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (“The Author’s Preface”)
Abstract
The present essay provides an analysis of humour in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, exploring its various forms, functions, and meanings. After introducing the idea of the lex inversa of humour, which can be observed in Sterne’s unconventional storytelling style, it analyses the “Author’s Preface” that appears at the end of the third volume of the book rather than at its beginning. The essay compares the satirical criticism of modern introductions found in Jonathan Swift’s A Tale of a Tub and the humorous but balanced mixture of wit and judgment in Tristram Shandy’s Preface. It examines the evolution of the concept of humour in the eighteenth century and traces its various meanings in Sterne’s book, from ancient bodily theories to psychological character construction. It argues that Sterne’s portrayal of odd humours aligns him with those who depicted England as a land of freedom, where humour played a crucial role in challenging wrong societal norms and liberating humanity from hypocrisy. This sympathetic form of comedy portrays human flaws for communal laughter, promoting harmony and balance. After addressing the ambiguity surrounding the actual subject of Sterne’s “learned” satire, the essay concludes by emphasising Sterne’s wit as a form of his humour, especially in the paradoxical defence of wit in the “Author’s Preface”, which he contrasts with the false severity of the “grave folks”. The essay argues that Sterne’s humorous strategy provides society with a moral foundation of humanity, sociability, and freedom.
