Humour

Product Description<br/><br/><br/>MP3 CD Format<br/>A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humor and comedy within Western culture—by one of its greatest exponents.<br/><br/> Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humor 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 humor subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit?<br/><br/> Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humor, 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 humor and its social and political evolution over the centuries.<br/><br/><br/>About the Author<br/><br/><br/>Terry Eagleton pursues the concept of sacrifice through the history of human thought, from antiquity to modernity, in religion, politics, and literature. He sheds skewed perceptions of the idea, honing in on a radical structural reconception that relates the ancient world to our own in terms of civilization and violence.