Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folkore and Popular Culture

by Peter Narvaez

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874214819
Publisher:	Utah State University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	6 MB

Table of Contents

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION The Death-Humor Paradox PART ONE Disaster Jokes 1 JOKES THAT FOLLOW MASS-MEDIATED DISASTERS IN A GLOBAL ELECTRONIC AGE 2 MAKING A BIG APPLE CRUMBLE The Role of Humor in Constructing a Global Response to Disaster PART TWO Rites of Passage 3 CREATING SITUATIONS Practical Jokes and the Revival of the Dead in Irish Tradition 4 TRICKS AND FUN Subversive Pleasures at Newfoundland Wakes 5 PARDON ME FOR NOT STANDING Modern American Graveyard Humor PART THREE Festivals 6 WISHES COME TRUE Designing the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade 7 MAKING MERRY WITH DEATH Iconic Humor in Mexico’s Day of the Dead 8 CALAVERAS Literary Humor in Mexico’s Day of the Dead 9 EXIT LAUGHING Death and Laughter in Los Angeles and Port-au-Prince PART FOUR Popular Culture 10 DANCING SKELETONS The Subversion of Death Among Deadheads 11 TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE, POPULAR AESTHETICS, WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S, AND VERNACULAR CINEMA NOTES REFERENCES CONTRIBUTORS INDEX