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Dangerous Liaisons
Giorgio Baruchello, Ársæll Már Arnarsson
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R4,187
Discovery Miles 41 870
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Humor and cruelty can be the best of friends. Many cruel domains
have facilitated hilarity of all kinds, whether experienced
directly or vicariously, stretching from the torture chamber to the
living room—or wherever else a screen is to be found. Conversely,
many jests have provided the vehicle with which to dispense
cruelty, whether callously or gleefully, in myriad settings, from
public events to intimate family dinners. Combining the sources and
resources of the humanities and social sciences, this book
investigates the mutually supportive liaisons of humor and cruelty.
We unearth the brutal, aggressive, and/or sadomasochistic roots of
mockery and self-mockery, sarcasm and satire, whilst addressing
contemporary debates in humor studies focusing on the thorny ethics
and existential challenges arising from the acceptance of the
much-appreciated yet seldom innocent channel for human interaction
called "humor."
Part 2 of Volume 3 addresses in detail the conflicts between humor
and cruelty, i.e., how cruelty can be unleashed against humor and,
conversely, humor can be utilized against cruelty. Potent enmities
to mirth and jollity are retrieved from a variety of
socio-historical contexts, ranging from Europe’s medieval
monasteries to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre. Special attention
is paid to the cruel humor and humorous cruelty arising thereof,
insofar as such phenomena can reveal critical aspects of today’s
neoliberal socio-economic order. In parallel, settings where humor
has been used as an instrument to cope with suffered cruelty,
whether natural or human in origin, are also retrieved and
discussed. These also vary greatly and encompass domains such as
hospital wards, 20th-century Jewish ghettoes, and contemporary
funeral homes. A set of concluding reflections is then offered on
the psychological, theological, ethical, and metaphysical roots of
humor—and its cruel rejection.
Humor has been praised by philosophers and poets as a balm to
soothe the sorrows that outrageous fortune's slings and arrows
cause inevitably, if not incessantly, to each and every one of us.
In mundane life, having a sense of humor is seen not only as a
positive trait of character, but as a social prerequisite, without
which a person's career and mating prospects are severely
diminished, if not annihilated. However, humor is much more than
this, and so much else. In particular, humor can accompany cruelty,
inform it, sustain it, and exemplify it. Therefore, in this book,
we provide a comprehensive, reasoned exploration of the vast
literature on the concepts of humor and cruelty, as these have been
tackled in Western philosophy, humanities, and social sciences,
especially psychology. Also, the apparent cacophony of extant
interpretations of these two concepts is explained as the
inevitable and even useful result of the polysemy inherent to all
common-sense concepts, in line with the understanding of concepts
developed by M. Polanyi in the 20th century. Thus, a thorough,
nuanced grasp of their complex mutual relationship is established,
and many platitudes affecting today's received views, and
scholarship, are cast aside.
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