Black Humor

Black Humor - in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce. For example, Stanley Kubrick's Read More...

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Black Humor

1 .

Death and Black Humor, in Critique
by Thomas Leclair. 36 pgs.

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2 .

Surrealist Black Humor as Oppositional Discourse, in Symposium
by John D. Erickson. 18 pgs.

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3 .

American Dark Comedy: Beyond Satire
by Wes D. Gehring. 194 pgs.

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From Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Gehring presents a compelling theory of the black comedy film genre. Placing the movies he discusses in a historical and literary context, Gehring explores the genre's obession with death and the characters' failure to be shocked by it. Movies discussed include: Slaughterhouse Five, Catch-22, Clockwork Orange, Harold and Maude, Heathers, and Natural Born Killers.

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Title Page

Contents

Illustrations

Foreword

Preface

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1: Historical Literary Overview

Notes

2: Selected American Dark Comedy Films and Themes

Notes

3: Dismantling Dictators: "Marxist" or Otherwise

Notes

4: Coming of Age. . .With a Vengeance

Notes

5: When Film Noir Becomes Dark Comedy

Notes

6: Conclusions

Notes

Appendix: Selected Filmography

Selected Bibliography

Index
4 .

Toward the Poetics of Surrealism (Discussion of black humor begins on p. 88)
by J. H. Matthews. 241 pgs.

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Title Page

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1: The Nineteenth-Century Heritage

2: The Emergence of Surrealism

3: A Language of Intelligent Revolt

4: Subversion and Revolution

5: Surrealist Poetic Expression

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Toward the Poetics of Surrealism
5 .

Between Two Worlds: The American Novel in the 1960's (Chap. II "The Graying of Black Humor")
by Sanford Pinsker. 139 pgs.

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Pinsker identifies the literary trends that dominated the decade and focuses upon authors who came into prominence during this period.

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Title Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

I: An Introduction of Sorts

Notes

II: The Graying of Black Humor

Notes

III: The Rise-And-Fall of the American-Jewish Novel

Notes

IV: Christ as Revolutionary/Revolutionary as Christ: the Hero in Bernard Malamud's the Fixer and William Styron's the Confessions of Nat Turner

Notes

V: John Barth: the Teller Who Swallowed His Tale

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VI: Fire and Ice: the Radical Cuteness of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Notes

VII: The Mixed Chords of David Madden's Cassandra Singing

VII: The Mixed Chords of David Madden's Cassandra Singing

VIII: Isaac Bashevis Singer and Joyce Carol Oates: Some Versions of Gothic

Notes

A Selected Bibliography of the American Novel in the 1960's
6 .

Rebellious Laughter: People's Humor in American Culture (Discussion of black humor begins on p. 87)
by Joseph Boskin. 252 pgs.

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Title Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

1: Introduction

Part One: Twentieth-Century Accents

2: America Dream/America Laugh

3: The Urban Fulcrum

4: Outsiders/Insiders

Part Two: Time Frame

5: The Child and the Giant

6: Repression and Riposte

7: Guerrilla Satirists

8: Is There Life Before Death?""

9: The Undeclared Joke Wars

10: Comedic Correctness

11: Tribal Reprisals"

12: The Tattered Dream

13: Postlude: How Many Jokes Does It Take to Change a Zeitgeist.

Notes

Index
7 .

Semites and Stereotypes: Characteristics of Jewish Humor (Chap. 1 "The Schlemiezel: Black Humor and the Shtetl Tradition")
by Avner Ziv, Anat Zajdman. 206 pgs.

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This interdisciplinary collection of essays assesses Jewish humor as a subject of serious scholarly inquiry. Scholars from England, France, the United States, Denmark, Israel, and Australia explore Jewish humor from a variety of perspectives, including anthropology, literature, psychology, sociology, and religion. Individual essays focus on linkages with language, religion, and historical traditions; study characteristics such as gallows humor, self-disparagement, and stereotyping; analyze distinctions between humor in Israel and in the diaspora; and discuss the contributions of Jewish humorists and comic performers and Jewish theorists of humor.

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Title Page

Recent Titles in Contributions in Ethnic Studies

Contents

Preface

REFERENCES

Introduction: Jewish Humor -- A Survey and a Program

REFERENCES

I: PSYCHOSOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JEWISH HUMOR

1: The Schlemiezel: Black Humor and the Shtetl Tradition

2: Sholom Aleichem's Humor of Affirmation and Survival

3: Exploring the Thesis of the Self-Deprecating Jewish Sense of Humor

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4: Three Jews and a Blindfold: The Politics of Gallows Humor

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5: Are Jews Funnier than Non-Jews?

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6: Since When Is Jewish Humor Not Anti-Semitic?

7: The Origins and Evolution of a Classic Jewish Joke

7: The Origins and Evolution of a Classic Jewish Joke

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II: MEN AND WOMEN IN JEWISH HUMOR

8: Love among the Stereotypes, or Why Woody's Women Leave

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9: Philip Roth and Woody Allen: Freud and the Humor of the Repressed

10: From Eve to the Jewish American Princess: The Comic Representation of Women in. Jewish Literature

REFERENCES

11: The Transactional Implications of the Jewish Marriage Jokes

APPENDIX

REFERENCES

III: HUMOR IN THE PROMISED LAND

12: Jewish Humor in the. Service of an Israeli Political Leader: The Case of Levi Eshkol

APPENDIX

13: The Development of Humor in Israeli Children's Literature in the Twentieth Century

Selected Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index

About the Editors and Contributors
8 .

Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor ("Black Humor" begins on p. 46)
by Alleen Pace Nilsen, Don L. F. Nilsen. 366 pgs.

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Who says you can't have a serious reference work on humor? This new resource offers a broad look at humor with more than 100 well-written and entertaining entries. Scholarly in nature, yet enjoyable to read, the Encyclopedia examines several aspects of humor, such as: styles of humor, subjects of comedy, media methods, academic endeavors, humor in society, historical aspects. This volume celebrates a century of twists and turns in American humor.

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Title Page

Contents

Preface

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

L

M

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Bibliography

Index
9 .

The Unconfirmed Thesis: Kurt Vonnegut, Black Humor, and Contemporary Art, in Critique
by Max F. Schulz. 24 pgs.

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