Laughter
Notes on a Passion
$63.89
- Paperback
232 pages
- Release Date
27 August 2010
Summary
Uncovering an archive of laughter, from the forbidden giggle to the explosive guffaw.Most of our theories of laughter are not concerned with laughter. Rather, their focus is the laughable object, whether conceived of as the comic, the humorous, jokes, the grotesque, the ridiculous, or the ludicrous. In Laughter, Anca Parvulescu proposes a return to the materiality of the burst of laughter itself. She sets out to uncover an archive of laughter, inviting us to follow its rhythms and listen to i…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262514743 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0262514745 |
| Author: | Anca Parvulescu |
| Publisher: | MIT Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | MIT Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 232 |
| Release Date: | 27 August 2010 |
| Weight: | 318g |
| Dimensions: | 229mm x 152mm x 13mm |
| Series: | Short Circuits |
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Critics Review
“An intellectual short circuit, and it deserves the careful attention of a broadaudience, not just students of ‘laughter’.” P.L. Derks, emeritus, College of William and MaryCHOICE
What’s remarkable about Paravulescu’s brief history is its fresh and eclectic documentation, and this erudite trait continues throughout the book. The bulk of the work focuses on modernism and the laughs in the African-American tradition (Ellison), the philosophical avant-gardes and their focus on the experience of laughter (Bataille), feminism and the location of Medusa’s laugh (Cixous), and film from photograph to cinema and the laugh of culture industry (Adorno). Each chapter includes the context and background necessary for the uninitiated before moving into subtle analyses that allow each laugh to reverberate on the page. No summary, regardless of its completeness, can reveal the impressiveness of Parvulescu’s study.
—Journal of Modern LiteratureAn intellectual short circuit, and it deserves the careful attention of a broad audience, not just students of ‘laughter’.
—ChoiceAbout The Author
Anca Parvulescu
Anca Parvulescu is Assistant Professor in the English Department and the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis.
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