In this Book
- Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folkore and Popular Culture
- Book
- 2003
- Published by: Utah State University Press
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Laughter, contemporary theory suggests, is often aggressive in some manner and may be prompted by a sudden perception of incongruity combined with memories of past emotional experience. Given this importance of the past to our recognition of the comic, it follows that some "traditions" dispose us to ludic responses. The studies in Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture examine specific interactions of text (jokes, poetry, epitaphs, iconography, film drama) and social context (wakes, festivals, disasters) that shape and generate laughter. Uniquely, however, the essays here peruse a remarkable paradox---the convergence of death and humor.
Table of Contents

- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- p. vii
- PART ONE Disaster Jokes
- PART TWO Rites of Passage
- PART THREE Festivals
- PART FOUR Popular Culture
- REFERENCES
- pp. 335-351
- CONTRIBUTORS
- pp. 352-353
Additional Information
Copyright
2003