BooksDirect

Description - Humour by Terry Eagleton

A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humour and comedy within Western culture—by one of its greatest exponents

Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humour and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit?
 
Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humour, including the idea that it springs from incongruity and the view that it reflects a mildly sadistic form of superiority to others. Drawing on a wide range of literary and philosophical sources, Terry Eagleton moves from Aristotle and Aquinas to Hobbes, Freud, and Bakhtin, looking in particular at the psychoanalytical mechanisms underlying humour and its social and political evolution over the centuries.

Buy Humour by Terry Eagleton from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, BooksDirect.

Other Editions - Humour by Terry Eagleton

A Preview for this title is currently not available.
Tragedy
Hardback , Aug '20
RRP: $46.95 $46.01
Why Marx Was Right
Paperback , Mar '18
RRP: $24.95 $24.45
On Evil
Paperback , Apr '11
RRP: $26.95 $26.41
Marxist Literary Theory
Paperback , Dec '95
RRP: $95.95 $94.03
William Shakespeare
Paperback , Feb '86
RRP: $80.95 $79.33
Ideology
Hardback , Jan '17
RRP: $284.00 $281.16
Across the Pond
Paperback , May '14
RRP: $24.95 $24.45
The Great Philosophers: Marx
Paperback , Jan '21
20% OFF!
RRP: $12.99 $10.39
Materialism
Paperback , Aug '19
RRP: $24.95 $24.45