Nature Of Laughter Research Articles

The Estonian and Ukrainian Conference on the Nature of Laughter

The Estonian and Ukrainian Conference on the Nature of Laughter

Теории юмора в изучении фигуры клоуна

This article continues the research of the author in the field of studying the phenomenon of a clown. The author discusses the problem of polar interpretations of the figure of a clown in scientific discourse, where there is a noticeable absence of convincing art history and cultural theories and concepts that can explain the connection between the figure of a clown and the phenomenon of laughter and humour. It is noted that, despite the fact that most studies focus on clown laughter, they do not analyse its specifics. In connection with the problem posed, the author suggests shifting away from the established paradigm of considering a clown as an artistic image and a comic character, and puts forward a hypothesis, according to which evolutionary theories of laughter and humour hold considerable verification potential for studying the clown figure. The author concludes that based on A.G. Kozintsev’s interdisciplinary evolutionary theory of laughter and the theory of humour, it is possible to prove the relationship between the clown phenomenon and the nature of laughter. The article discusses the assumption that man is the only species capable of semiosis and humorous meta-reflection, due to which he can be considered the most superficial hominid or “a flat animal” (the concept of G. Deleuze) that has humour, which is equivalent to a clown. The results of this research can be applied when studying the peculiarities of a clown as an artistic image (representation) in a work of art.

Introduction to the Special Issue of the Scientific Study of Laughter: Where We Have Been, Current Innovations, and Where We Might Go From Here

In his pioneering work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Darwin (1872/1965) argued that laughter was the outward expression of mirth. In the 150 years since the publication of this book, research has revealed that laughter is substantially more complex, nuanced, and socially important than Darwin theorized. The current special issue highlights recent discoveries regarding the nature of laughter and illuminates numerous themes. These include the importance of both representational and constructionist accounts of laughter, the value of studying naturally-occurring laughter “in the wild,” evoked in a variety of contexts (including contexts likely to elicit derisive laughter), and the critical advantage of pre-registration and other open science practices for improving our scientific understanding of laughter.

Quintilian on Laughter (Inst. 6.3)

Abstract This paper presents a reading of the chapter on laughter in Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria (Inst. 6.3), the fullest treatise on ancient rhetoric extant. It argues that Inst. 6.3 can be better understood in light of the context of the treatise, and that it can be read as a little mise-en-abyme of, and reversely magnifying lens on, the whole. First, it briefly outlines Quintilian’s two main claims to originality: his aim to educate the ideal orator, who is both technically and morally outstanding, and his thorough, but practical-minded didactic method. Then, it shows how the didactic spin of the treatise can be detected in his discussion of laughter, and how his remarks on the nature of laughter (and the laughable) characterize it as problematic both from a didactic point of view and for the conception of the ideal orator. The difficulties to classify laughter make it hard to teach and control. It is attributed the potential to undermine the very social status and moral character of the orator: it is inexplicable, and potentially dangerous for anyone trying to elicit it. Nevertheless, Quintilian treats laughter as a part of the orator’s rhetorical arsenal, which shows that it is a powerful weapon the benefits of which must outweigh its risks. This raises the question wherein its utility lies exactly, which is addressed in the last section of the paper. Drawing some parallels to modern theories of laughter allows to better understand some dynamics behind laughter in a forensic context that Quintilian only implies. Overall, this paper aims to present a case study on the extent to which the Institutio is an artful and thoroughly thought-through literary construct, and to make a small contribution to recent scholarship on the literariness of ancient didactic prose.

ПРИРОДА СМІХУ У ДИЛОГІЇ П. ЗАГРЕБЕЛЬНОГО «ЛЕВИНЕ СЕРЦЕ» ТА «ВИГНАННЯ З РАЮ»

The article is devoted to the study of the nature of laughter in «whimsical» «The Lion’s Heart» and «Exile fromParadise» novels by P. Zagrebelny. The general scientific method of analysis of theoretical and methodological sources, cultural-historical method, elements of the biographical method, as well as a systematic approach to the analysis of the fiction work were used in the research. The analysis of literary scientific works made it possible to identify the main means of « especially valuable whimsy» in Ukrainian prose, which include laughter, folk fiction, historical color, as well as to determine that the source of humor in the «whimsical» novel is folk laughter culture. It is proved that laughter is a universal life-affirming principle and ideological dominant of the author and characters in P. Zagrebelny’s novels, and the author’s humorous view of the world is deeply rooted in the Ukrainian laughter culture. The statement that laughter in P. Zagrebelny’s novels has all the features of «carnival laughter» (M. Bakhtin), because it is national, universal and ambivalent is especially valuable. The study also emphasizes that the use of irony allows the writer to humorously depict ordinary rural life, to reveal the specifics of human relations and the psychology of the characters. Special attention is focused on the analysis of the image of the author-narrator, who is endowed with a number of individual traits of P. Zagrebelny himself. We note that the image of the author is depicted in a humorous way, which gives grounds to define the dilogy as an «autoparody». Analyzing female images in the text, we note that the writer creates the image of a new, modern self-sufficient woman, who, however, does not lose her feminine appeal. It is determined that the main and secondary characters of the dilogy are depicted in the traditions of folk laughter culture and embody both positive and negative traits of human nature. Also we note that at the linguistic level the realization of the traditions of folk laughter culture in the novels is through the active use of vernacular and colloquial vocabulary, nicknames, proverbs, sayings etc.

Untoward laughter and the micropolitical: social action, politics and the will after the sovereign subject

From a commonsense perspective, an outburst of laughter appears to demonstrate little more than a lack of subjective will; it certainly does not register as having political significance. Yet, this is also to render the political in commonsense terms. As the emerging body of literature on the question of the micropolitical suggests, there is, beneath the essentially representational sphere of macropolitics, a micropolitics of affective force. In exploring the political potential of eruptions of laughter, I argue that grasping the novelty of the micropolitical requires that we shift debate away from the scalar questions of large and small, towards the distinction between the ordinary and the singular. Untoward laughter, by protracting the process through which affective force crosses a threshold of perception and becomes remarkable, draws attention to the micropolitics of everyday life. In pursuing this argument, first, I draw on the work of Helmuth Plessner to make a case for the fundamentally ‘undecidable’ nature of laughter: laughter expresses an ‘answer’ to an unanswerable situation. Yet, I argue that Plessner’s phenomenological explanation of laughter is insufficiently sensitive to the micropolitics of bodies, their affective and intensive transformations. Second, then, I draw on Nietzsche’s critique of the sovereignty of subjective will, arguing that the ‘I’ who laughs is merely the dominant drive among a series of conflicting drives. Finally, I draw on Gilles Deleuze’s The Fold, to show that such drives are never ‘mine’. As untoward laughter demonstrates so clearly, the events of the world are always constituted through much more dynamic foldings of material and incorporeal forces.

‘I Hope ’Twill Make You Laugh’: Audience Laughter at the Globe Theatre

This article considers the role of laughter at the early modern and reconstructed Globe Theatres. Recently, debate has emerged over the nature of laughter at the Globe, as some critics and scholars believe that the actors encourage the audience to laugh excessively at the reconstructed Globe Theatre on Bankside in London. This article explores these concerns by tracing the anxieties surrounding laughter during the early modern period, and analysing their views against the modern actor's perspective at the Globe. The article argues that the architecture and shared lighting of the theatre foster more comedic moments for the audience, and considers its implications.

Drama absurda kot izvor komedij Dušana Jovanovića

The article analyses four comedies by Dušan Jovanović: Znamke, nakar še Emilija (Stamps, and then Emilija, 1969), Življenje podeželskih plejbojev po drugi svetovni vojni ali tuje hočemo – svojega na damo (The Life of a Provincial Playboy after the Second World War or We Want What’s Foreign and Won’t Give Away What’s Ours, 1972), Viktor ali Dan mladosti (Victor or Youth Day, 1989) and Klinika Kozarcky (Kozarcky Clinic, 1999). The analysis focuses on the correlation between comedy and the theatre of the absurd, as this dramatic convention played a decisive role in a considerable part of his writings. Through the analysis of individual elements, the article shows that the special place assigned to comedy within the theatre of the absurd has an impact on a different nature of laughter, and that one of the most important changes in Jovanović's transformation of traditional comedy into modern comedy is the destroyed concept of the identity of dramatic personae. Other peculiarities which make his comedies not (just) funny are the changed role of language, the lack of story, and the presence of socio-critical elements.

The Nature of Laughter.

The Nature of Laughter.

Nature and Mind

THE common presumption of the mutual indifference of philosophy and science has never been true of the masters. Every great creative mind in philosophy has been responsive to the scientific situation and method of his day, and most of those who have formulated the decisive hypotheses of the various sciences have recognised the scientific importance of those inquiries into the presuppositions of knowledge or into the most general features of reality, which are the proper business of philosophy. But though the greater movements of both disciplines have thus influenced each other, it is no doubt true-and part of the price we pay for our instrument of specialised investigation-that the detailed working out of these dominant conceptions in each field has proceeded with relatively little reference to the other; and that from time to time there has been evident a failure of adjustment and harmony. (1) Prolegomena, to an Idealist Theory of Knowledge. By Prof. Norman Kemp Smith. Pp. xiii + 240. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 10s. 6d. net. (2) Modern Theories of the Unconscious. By Dr. W. L. Northridge. Pp. xv + 194. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 8s. 6d. net. (3) The Nature of Laughter. By J. C. Gregory. (International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method.) Pp. v + 241. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc., 1924.) 10s. 6d. net. (4) The Beautiful. By Henry Rutgers Marshall. Pp. x + 328. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 15s. net. (5) The Philosophy of Music. By Dr. William Pole. Sixth edition, with an Introduction by Edward J. Dent, and a Supplementary Essay by Dr. Hamilton Hartridge. (International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method.) Pp. xxiv + 342. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc., 1924.) 10s. 6d. net.

The Nature of Laughter.

The Nature of Laughter.

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Psychology and Primitive Culture. By F. C. Bartlett, M.A.Mnemic Psychology. By Richard Semon. Translated by Bella Duffy.The Unstable Child: An Interpretation of Psychopathy as a Source of Unbalanced Behaviour in Abnormal and Troublesome Children. By Florence Mateer, A.M., Ph.D.Abnormal Behaviour: An Introduction to the Study of Abnormal and Anti‐Social Behaviour. By Irving J. Sands, M.D., and Phyllis Blanchard, Ph.D.The Nature of Laughter. By J. C. Gregory.Psychoanalysis and Aesthetics. By Charles Baudouin. Translated from the French by Eden and Cedar Paul.The New Psychology and the Parent. By H. Crichton Miller, M.A., M.D.Opening Doors. By John Thomson, M.D.