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10 Lang-Lit: Literary Humor

Your Task

Select a literary humorist from the list at right >>

  • Research the author's life and the social and/or historical context in which s/he was writing.

  • Consider:

    • What issues were confronting society at the time?

    • What issues was the author facing?

    • What are the author's most famous humorous pieces?

    • How is the historical context and their life experience seen in their work?

  • Present a quick overview of the author's life and works to the class highlighting the historical context and the type(s) of humor the author used.

  • Practice your TWO Minute Talk to the point of near memorization. You may have slides but no words other than a single heading.

Which of these TERMS did your author employ?

Give your audience examples!

Absurdity

  • An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. Absurdity is used in humor to make people laugh or to make a sophisticated point, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdity

Dark (or Black) Humor

  • Dark Humor is the juxtaposition of morbid and farcical elements (in writing or drama) to give a disturbing effect, a comic work that employs humor that makes light of otherwise solemn subject matter, also called gallows humor.

Anecdote

  • An anecdote is a short, true story that is funny.

Gelotology

  • Gelotology (from the Greek gelos, meaning laughter) is the study of laughter and its effects on the body, from a psychological and physiological perspective. Its proponents often advocate induction of laughter on therapeutic grounds in complementary medicine.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelotology

Hyperbole

  • Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole

Paraprosdokian

  • A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists. Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase, but they also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a form of syllepsis.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraprosdokian

Parody

  • Parody is an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Pun

  • A pun is a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Riddle

  • A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed inmetaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddle

Satire

  • Satire is a literary technique in which ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society.

Slapstick

  • Slapstick is a style of comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events.

Syllepsis

  • A syllepsis is a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses (e.g., caught the train and a bad cold or to two others of which it grammatically suits only one (e.g., neither they nor it is working.

Understatement

  • Understatement is a technique of creating emphasis by saying less than is actually or literally true.

 

These terms are used with permission from Scott Pfitzinger, via the LibGuide of Murphy Library

Literary Humorists

Choose one of these authors to study:

Search Tips

Search Tips:

  • "Author's name"
  • Anticipate other spellings and synonyms - "humor OR humour OR wit"
  • "thematic effect"
  • "satir*" - use a * to get all forms of a word (satire + satiracle)
  • Use Boolean operators to narrow or broaden - hyperbole OR hype OR metaphor - litotes OR distortion

Humor in Literary Fiction

Articles:

Tricky Terms: Irony vs. Sarcasm

" 'Irony' is to point out the absurdity of something.  Sarcasm is meant to wound. That's the difference." ~ Merrell Perlman

from the article "How to tell if you're using 'irony' or 'sarcasm' "

More Examples:

Videos