Michael Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195326703
- eISBN:
- 9780199864867
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326703.001.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Sensory and Motor Systems, Behavioral Neuroscience
This book offers a fundamental new theory of motor cortex organization: the rendering of the movement repertoire onto the cortex. The action repertoire of an animal is highly dimensional, whereas the ...
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This book offers a fundamental new theory of motor cortex organization: the rendering of the movement repertoire onto the cortex. The action repertoire of an animal is highly dimensional, whereas the cortical sheet is two-dimensional. Rendering the action space onto the cortex therefore results in a complex pattern, explaining the otherwise inexplicable details of motor cortex organization. This book includes a complete history of motor cortex research from its discovery to the present, a discussion of the major issues in motor cortex research, and an account of recent experiments that led to the book's “action map” view. Though focused on motor cortex, the book includes a range of topics from an explanation of how primates put food in their mouths, to the origins of social behavior such as smiling and laughing, to the mysterious link between movement disorders and autism.Less
This book offers a fundamental new theory of motor cortex organization: the rendering of the movement repertoire onto the cortex. The action repertoire of an animal is highly dimensional, whereas the cortical sheet is two-dimensional. Rendering the action space onto the cortex therefore results in a complex pattern, explaining the otherwise inexplicable details of motor cortex organization. This book includes a complete history of motor cortex research from its discovery to the present, a discussion of the major issues in motor cortex research, and an account of recent experiments that led to the book's “action map” view. Though focused on motor cortex, the book includes a range of topics from an explanation of how primates put food in their mouths, to the origins of social behavior such as smiling and laughing, to the mysterious link between movement disorders and autism.
Jerome Neu
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314311
- eISBN:
- 9780199871780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314311.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
Humor, like ritual, may sometimes license otherwise offensive insults. When and why? The special genre of insult humor, including roasts, is considered along with Freud's account of the role of ...
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Humor, like ritual, may sometimes license otherwise offensive insults. When and why? The special genre of insult humor, including roasts, is considered along with Freud's account of the role of collusion in tendentious humor broadly conceived. When is it wrong to laugh? Satire, teasing, and bullying sometimes take the ridicule in insult humor to the extremes of aggression.Less
Humor, like ritual, may sometimes license otherwise offensive insults. When and why? The special genre of insult humor, including roasts, is considered along with Freud's account of the role of collusion in tendentious humor broadly conceived. When is it wrong to laugh? Satire, teasing, and bullying sometimes take the ridicule in insult humor to the extremes of aggression.
Theodore Zeldin
- Published in print:
- 1977
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198221258
- eISBN:
- 9780191678424
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221258.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter begins with a discussion of why happiness has held such an ambiguous place in French life. In the eighteenth century, the French were as keen on happiness as the Americans. On the ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of why happiness has held such an ambiguous place in French life. In the eighteenth century, the French were as keen on happiness as the Americans. On the theoretical and literary levels, indeed, they could probably claim to have been the world's experts on it, for they then, suddenly, published about two hundred treatises on the subject. In the process, however, they discovered, or rediscovered, many of the complications that happiness involves; and their longing for it was therefore balanced by vigorous arguments about its nature and much uncertainty about how it could be achieved. The chapter considers the history of friendship to provide an idea of the way changing social conditions bore upon the problem of being happy, for the ordinary man. It looks at the manifestations of happiness, particularly dancing, and works from them to the social relationships with which they were linked. The discussion then turns to the different kinds of humour seen in the history of laughing, of eating, and of drinking.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of why happiness has held such an ambiguous place in French life. In the eighteenth century, the French were as keen on happiness as the Americans. On the theoretical and literary levels, indeed, they could probably claim to have been the world's experts on it, for they then, suddenly, published about two hundred treatises on the subject. In the process, however, they discovered, or rediscovered, many of the complications that happiness involves; and their longing for it was therefore balanced by vigorous arguments about its nature and much uncertainty about how it could be achieved. The chapter considers the history of friendship to provide an idea of the way changing social conditions bore upon the problem of being happy, for the ordinary man. It looks at the manifestations of happiness, particularly dancing, and works from them to the social relationships with which they were linked. The discussion then turns to the different kinds of humour seen in the history of laughing, of eating, and of drinking.
Tony James
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151883
- eISBN:
- 9780191672873
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151883.003.0019
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, European Literature
The title of Hugo's novel L'Homme qui rit, literally translated, would be ‘The Laughing Man’. It was in fact translated into English almost immediately as By Order of the King, the title of part ii. ...
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The title of Hugo's novel L'Homme qui rit, literally translated, would be ‘The Laughing Man’. It was in fact translated into English almost immediately as By Order of the King, the title of part ii. The story goes thus: by order of King James II an infant was subjected to an operation which cut his mouth from ear to ear, and then abandoned. The French title refers to the result of the operation: Gwynplaine gives the appearance of laughing permanently; in fact he never laughs but he does cause hilarity in others. These, however, are facts which we pick up slowly as we read. This chapter presents a summary of L'Homme qui rit to illustrate how the themes of memory and dream are embodied within it.Less
The title of Hugo's novel L'Homme qui rit, literally translated, would be ‘The Laughing Man’. It was in fact translated into English almost immediately as By Order of the King, the title of part ii. The story goes thus: by order of King James II an infant was subjected to an operation which cut his mouth from ear to ear, and then abandoned. The French title refers to the result of the operation: Gwynplaine gives the appearance of laughing permanently; in fact he never laughs but he does cause hilarity in others. These, however, are facts which we pick up slowly as we read. This chapter presents a summary of L'Homme qui rit to illustrate how the themes of memory and dream are embodied within it.
Ian Brodie
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628461824
- eISBN:
- 9781626740921
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461824.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This book uses a folkloristic approach to stand-up comedy, engaging the discipline's central method of studying interpersonal, artistic communication and performance. Because stand-up comedy is a ...
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This book uses a folkloristic approach to stand-up comedy, engaging the discipline's central method of studying interpersonal, artistic communication and performance. Because stand-up comedy is a rather broad category, people who study it often begin by relating it to something they recognize—“literature” or “theater”; “editorial” or “morality”—and analyze it accordingly. This book begins with a more fundamental observation: someone is standing in front of a group of people, talking to them directly, and trying to make them laugh. So this book takes the moment of performance as its focus, that stand-up comedy is a collaborative act between the comedian and the audience. Although the form of talk on the stage resembles talk among friends and intimates in social settings, stand-up comedy remains a profession. As such, it requires performance outside of the comedian's own community to gain larger and larger audiences. How do comedians recreate that atmosphere of intimacy in a roomful of strangers? This book regards everything from microphones to clothing and LPs to Twitter as strategies for bridging the spatial, temporal, and socio-cultural distances between the performer and the audience.Less
This book uses a folkloristic approach to stand-up comedy, engaging the discipline's central method of studying interpersonal, artistic communication and performance. Because stand-up comedy is a rather broad category, people who study it often begin by relating it to something they recognize—“literature” or “theater”; “editorial” or “morality”—and analyze it accordingly. This book begins with a more fundamental observation: someone is standing in front of a group of people, talking to them directly, and trying to make them laugh. So this book takes the moment of performance as its focus, that stand-up comedy is a collaborative act between the comedian and the audience. Although the form of talk on the stage resembles talk among friends and intimates in social settings, stand-up comedy remains a profession. As such, it requires performance outside of the comedian's own community to gain larger and larger audiences. How do comedians recreate that atmosphere of intimacy in a roomful of strangers? This book regards everything from microphones to clothing and LPs to Twitter as strategies for bridging the spatial, temporal, and socio-cultural distances between the performer and the audience.
Susan G. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042614
- eISBN:
- 9780252051456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042614.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Legman completed and published two volumes of his studies of sexual humor, The Rationale of the Dirty Joke and No Laughing Matter. In these books he presented ...
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During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Legman completed and published two volumes of his studies of sexual humor, The Rationale of the Dirty Joke and No Laughing Matter. In these books he presented thousands of jokes on sexual and bodily topics, framed by his own version of a Freudian approach to humor. This chapter lays out Legman’s organization of the materials dredged up in his decades of joke collecting, outlines his theories of humor, and places his books in the expansion of scholarly interest in humor in the 1960s and 1970s. Legman was almost alone in emphasizing aggression as a largely unconscious motive in joke telling and in emphasizing that jokes expressed unresolved psychic conflicts. The Rationale of the Dirty Joke was more warmly received than Legman’s second volume of jokes, in large part because No Laughing Matter dealt with the nastiest jokes in Legman’s collection. The chapter also examines the academic and popular reactions to both books and details Legman’s difficulties with publishers, especially around the issue of royalties for his work.Less
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Legman completed and published two volumes of his studies of sexual humor, The Rationale of the Dirty Joke and No Laughing Matter. In these books he presented thousands of jokes on sexual and bodily topics, framed by his own version of a Freudian approach to humor. This chapter lays out Legman’s organization of the materials dredged up in his decades of joke collecting, outlines his theories of humor, and places his books in the expansion of scholarly interest in humor in the 1960s and 1970s. Legman was almost alone in emphasizing aggression as a largely unconscious motive in joke telling and in emphasizing that jokes expressed unresolved psychic conflicts. The Rationale of the Dirty Joke was more warmly received than Legman’s second volume of jokes, in large part because No Laughing Matter dealt with the nastiest jokes in Legman’s collection. The chapter also examines the academic and popular reactions to both books and details Legman’s difficulties with publishers, especially around the issue of royalties for his work.
Jane Manning
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780199390960
- eISBN:
- 9780199391011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199390960.003.0063
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies, Popular
This chapter examines Robert Saxton’s The Beach in Winter: Scratby (for Tess) (2007). This piece, originally commissioned for the NMC Songbook, is now to be found as the last song of a major ...
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This chapter examines Robert Saxton’s The Beach in Winter: Scratby (for Tess) (2007). This piece, originally commissioned for the NMC Songbook, is now to be found as the last song of a major seven-movement baritone cycle Time and the Seasons. Its idiom is a far cry from Saxton’s earlier modernist works. The music is mellifluous, basically tonal, and beautifully turned, with voluptuously expressive vocal phrases that cover a wide range. The composer gives the baritone plenty of scope to span spacious phrases and articulate contrasting emotions, amid continual changes of key signature. Lines dart around the registers a good deal and the singer will need to control dynamics and vary timbre throughout his range. The pianist propels the music along with a continuous, ever-shifting texture of wave patterns—first rippling, then surging and pounding, or quite suddenly scattering in spray. Rhythms are pliable and there are many instances of irregular divisions, pitting fours against threes in the piano part.Less
This chapter examines Robert Saxton’s The Beach in Winter: Scratby (for Tess) (2007). This piece, originally commissioned for the NMC Songbook, is now to be found as the last song of a major seven-movement baritone cycle Time and the Seasons. Its idiom is a far cry from Saxton’s earlier modernist works. The music is mellifluous, basically tonal, and beautifully turned, with voluptuously expressive vocal phrases that cover a wide range. The composer gives the baritone plenty of scope to span spacious phrases and articulate contrasting emotions, amid continual changes of key signature. Lines dart around the registers a good deal and the singer will need to control dynamics and vary timbre throughout his range. The pianist propels the music along with a continuous, ever-shifting texture of wave patterns—first rippling, then surging and pounding, or quite suddenly scattering in spray. Rhythms are pliable and there are many instances of irregular divisions, pitting fours against threes in the piano part.
Brett Mills
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637515
- eISBN:
- 9780748671229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637515.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter argues the sitcom is an especially important genre for thinking about television audiences because comedy is a form of communication that relies on audience response for its effect. The ...
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This chapter argues the sitcom is an especially important genre for thinking about television audiences because comedy is a form of communication that relies on audience response for its effect. The chapter examines sitcom tropes such as the laugh track, to examine how the audience is signalled within the genre. It also explores audience reactions via complaints, and examines what such complaints tell us about audience expectations for the genre. This is also linked to issues of broadcasting regulations. The chapter draws on primary research with comedy audiences carried out for this book.Less
This chapter argues the sitcom is an especially important genre for thinking about television audiences because comedy is a form of communication that relies on audience response for its effect. The chapter examines sitcom tropes such as the laugh track, to examine how the audience is signalled within the genre. It also explores audience reactions via complaints, and examines what such complaints tell us about audience expectations for the genre. This is also linked to issues of broadcasting regulations. The chapter draws on primary research with comedy audiences carried out for this book.
Jane Manning
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199391028
- eISBN:
- 9780199391073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199391028.003.0041
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies, Popular
This chapter introduces an extended scena by Earl Kim—Letters Found Near a Suicide. Kim sets three poems in a continuous span, so the work can be counted as a song cycle. The chapter reveals Kim's ...
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This chapter introduces an extended scena by Earl Kim—Letters Found Near a Suicide. Kim sets three poems in a continuous span, so the work can be counted as a song cycle. The chapter reveals Kim's intimate understanding and love of the human voice, which is amply demonstrated by the comfortable lie of vocal lines which cover an extremely wide range of dramatic colours. Words are always audible, and emotions conveyed with concise poignancy. Key moments in the text are often set in a fairly low tessitura so that the singer is able to vary the vocal palette and enunciate the texts without strain. The piano part is full of fine detail, and there are plenty of pitch cues to help the singer. The textures are expertly balanced and well integrated in style.Less
This chapter introduces an extended scena by Earl Kim—Letters Found Near a Suicide. Kim sets three poems in a continuous span, so the work can be counted as a song cycle. The chapter reveals Kim's intimate understanding and love of the human voice, which is amply demonstrated by the comfortable lie of vocal lines which cover an extremely wide range of dramatic colours. Words are always audible, and emotions conveyed with concise poignancy. Key moments in the text are often set in a fairly low tessitura so that the singer is able to vary the vocal palette and enunciate the texts without strain. The piano part is full of fine detail, and there are plenty of pitch cues to help the singer. The textures are expertly balanced and well integrated in style.
Kenneth R. Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199657803
- eISBN:
- 9780191771576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657803.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
In 1792, Thomas Beddoes, Sr. was nominated by the Oxford University chancellor to become the first holder of its Regius chair in Chemistry. But political blacklisting by anonymous detractors ...
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In 1792, Thomas Beddoes, Sr. was nominated by the Oxford University chancellor to become the first holder of its Regius chair in Chemistry. But political blacklisting by anonymous detractors responding to the King’s proclamation against seditious writings doomed his chances. He moved to Bristol, where he set up an independent Pneumatic Institute for study of therapeutic uses of nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas’) and other elemental gases, assisted by Humphry Davy. He joined the brilliant circle of intellectuals gathered around the philanthropic Wedgwood family at Cote House, working with Coleridge and others to support the cause of parliamentary reform. He wrote five pamphlets on reform issues between 1795 and 1797, including an Essay on the Public Merits of Mr. Pitt. His scientific work was increasingly associated with his political liberalism by his opponents, leading to losses in private funding. His own health suffered from the strain, leading to an early death.Less
In 1792, Thomas Beddoes, Sr. was nominated by the Oxford University chancellor to become the first holder of its Regius chair in Chemistry. But political blacklisting by anonymous detractors responding to the King’s proclamation against seditious writings doomed his chances. He moved to Bristol, where he set up an independent Pneumatic Institute for study of therapeutic uses of nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas’) and other elemental gases, assisted by Humphry Davy. He joined the brilliant circle of intellectuals gathered around the philanthropic Wedgwood family at Cote House, working with Coleridge and others to support the cause of parliamentary reform. He wrote five pamphlets on reform issues between 1795 and 1797, including an Essay on the Public Merits of Mr. Pitt. His scientific work was increasingly associated with his political liberalism by his opponents, leading to losses in private funding. His own health suffered from the strain, leading to an early death.
Sara Crangle
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640850
- eISBN:
- 9780748651955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640850.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter examines Gertrude Stein's authorial attention to individual moments, which may be influenced by her narrative desire to laugh. It studies her first work, Q.E.D.; observes that her ...
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This chapter examines Gertrude Stein's authorial attention to individual moments, which may be influenced by her narrative desire to laugh. It studies her first work, Q.E.D.; observes that her explorations move from self to other through a series of philosophically informed narratives set primarily in the private sphere; and determines that this shift in Steinian narrative laughter coexists with the modernist theory on risibility.Less
This chapter examines Gertrude Stein's authorial attention to individual moments, which may be influenced by her narrative desire to laugh. It studies her first work, Q.E.D.; observes that her explorations move from self to other through a series of philosophically informed narratives set primarily in the private sphere; and determines that this shift in Steinian narrative laughter coexists with the modernist theory on risibility.
Gabriel Miller
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813142098
- eISBN:
- 9780813142371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813142098.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter focuses primarily on Wyler's first prestige project, Counselor-at-Law, starring John Barrymore. It recounts the director's behind-the-scenes problems with the star actor, but also ...
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This chapter focuses primarily on Wyler's first prestige project, Counselor-at-Law, starring John Barrymore. It recounts the director's behind-the-scenes problems with the star actor, but also analyzes Wyler's successful transformation of a hit play by the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Elmer Rice for the screen. In what was the first of a dozen Broadway hits that Wyler brought to the screen, he displays early-on his gifts for making a play look and feel cinematic. The chapter also touches on his attempts (with John Huston) to bring Laughing Boy to the screen, as well as briefly discussing his film Tom Brown of Culver, which was made in part on location.Less
This chapter focuses primarily on Wyler's first prestige project, Counselor-at-Law, starring John Barrymore. It recounts the director's behind-the-scenes problems with the star actor, but also analyzes Wyler's successful transformation of a hit play by the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Elmer Rice for the screen. In what was the first of a dozen Broadway hits that Wyler brought to the screen, he displays early-on his gifts for making a play look and feel cinematic. The chapter also touches on his attempts (with John Huston) to bring Laughing Boy to the screen, as well as briefly discussing his film Tom Brown of Culver, which was made in part on location.
Joseph P. Ansell
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774945
- eISBN:
- 9781789623314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774945.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter analyses more of Arthur Szyk's artworks during his time in Paris. It reveals the particularities of Szyk's artistry which would remain with him for the rest of his career, such as his ...
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This chapter analyses more of Arthur Szyk's artworks during his time in Paris. It reveals the particularities of Szyk's artistry which would remain with him for the rest of his career, such as his tendency to produce in miniatures. His art also demonstrates a wide variety of formats and subject-matter, ranging from stories drawn from Jewish history to a formal portrait of M. de Monzie. The chapter focuses in particular on his pieces for Gustave Flaubert's La Tentation de Saint Antoine (The Temptation of St Anthony). It also looks into the publication of Le Juif qui rit (The Jew Who Laughs), which were small, paperbound volumes containing pen and ink drawings to illustrate brief jokes. Finally, the chapter studies Szyk's illumination of the Statue of Kalisz, which can be considered an indication of his re-entry into the political life of his homeland.Less
This chapter analyses more of Arthur Szyk's artworks during his time in Paris. It reveals the particularities of Szyk's artistry which would remain with him for the rest of his career, such as his tendency to produce in miniatures. His art also demonstrates a wide variety of formats and subject-matter, ranging from stories drawn from Jewish history to a formal portrait of M. de Monzie. The chapter focuses in particular on his pieces for Gustave Flaubert's La Tentation de Saint Antoine (The Temptation of St Anthony). It also looks into the publication of Le Juif qui rit (The Jew Who Laughs), which were small, paperbound volumes containing pen and ink drawings to illustrate brief jokes. Finally, the chapter studies Szyk's illumination of the Statue of Kalisz, which can be considered an indication of his re-entry into the political life of his homeland.
Rachel Trousdale
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780192895714
- eISBN:
- 9780191916274
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192895714.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Brown’s sense of humor provides guiding principles for real-world action while making the Black tradition of private anti-racist laughter public. Brown examines the violence of traditional ...
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Brown’s sense of humor provides guiding principles for real-world action while making the Black tradition of private anti-racist laughter public. Brown examines the violence of traditional superiority humor in poems like “Sam Smiley,” in which Black laughter is silenced by lynching. Rather than simply rejecting such humor, Brown gives readers alternatives: his anti-hierarchical approach in the “Slim Greer” poems inverts Bergson’s logic, making humor a precondition for empathy. The partial resemblance we see between ourselves and the object of laughter can teach us to recognize our commonality even with our enemies. For Brown, the ethical underpinnings of art lie in artists’ awareness of contingency, complexity, and the subjectivities of unlike others. Empathic humor turns laughter from a zero-sum game to a game everyone can win by rejecting not just racism but hierarchical thinking as a whole. Brown shows how empathic laughter can reframe our knowledge of other people and upend the way we systematize that knowledge.Less
Brown’s sense of humor provides guiding principles for real-world action while making the Black tradition of private anti-racist laughter public. Brown examines the violence of traditional superiority humor in poems like “Sam Smiley,” in which Black laughter is silenced by lynching. Rather than simply rejecting such humor, Brown gives readers alternatives: his anti-hierarchical approach in the “Slim Greer” poems inverts Bergson’s logic, making humor a precondition for empathy. The partial resemblance we see between ourselves and the object of laughter can teach us to recognize our commonality even with our enemies. For Brown, the ethical underpinnings of art lie in artists’ awareness of contingency, complexity, and the subjectivities of unlike others. Empathic humor turns laughter from a zero-sum game to a game everyone can win by rejecting not just racism but hierarchical thinking as a whole. Brown shows how empathic laughter can reframe our knowledge of other people and upend the way we systematize that knowledge.
John Patrick Diggins (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226148809
- eISBN:
- 9780226148823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226148823.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama
Eugene O'Neill's encounter with religion was as much personal as philosophical, and it is understandable that he would be attracted to Friedrich Nietzsche and think that he could regard the ...
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Eugene O'Neill's encounter with religion was as much personal as philosophical, and it is understandable that he would be attracted to Friedrich Nietzsche and think that he could regard the once-shocking saying “God is dead” as a celebration. O'Neill felt deeply the dualisms of philosophy, particularly between matter and spirit, experience and meaning, and the individual and society. The conflict between science and religion divides two families in O'Neill's Dynamo. During the years immediately preceding Lazarus Laughed and The Great God Brown, O'Neill was confronted by sickness and death. Death is a meditative dread to O'Neill during the writing of Lazarus Laughed, and a possible answer to facing death becomes the central theme. He made his last effort at treating religion on the stage in Days Without End. It can be stated that O'Neill may have used the theater to deal with religious questions.Less
Eugene O'Neill's encounter with religion was as much personal as philosophical, and it is understandable that he would be attracted to Friedrich Nietzsche and think that he could regard the once-shocking saying “God is dead” as a celebration. O'Neill felt deeply the dualisms of philosophy, particularly between matter and spirit, experience and meaning, and the individual and society. The conflict between science and religion divides two families in O'Neill's Dynamo. During the years immediately preceding Lazarus Laughed and The Great God Brown, O'Neill was confronted by sickness and death. Death is a meditative dread to O'Neill during the writing of Lazarus Laughed, and a possible answer to facing death becomes the central theme. He made his last effort at treating religion on the stage in Days Without End. It can be stated that O'Neill may have used the theater to deal with religious questions.
Maria DiBattista
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300088151
- eISBN:
- 9780300133882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300088151.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter explores the phenomenon of Garbo's laughter and why it was touted as so remarkable an event in the annals of film. Its praise as a historic occasion was a savvy promotional gimmick that ...
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This chapter explores the phenomenon of Garbo's laughter and why it was touted as so remarkable an event in the annals of film. Its praise as a historic occasion was a savvy promotional gimmick that predated the making of Ninotchka, the 1939 film that it was publicizing. It explores the historic significance of Garbo's face, as director Ernst Lubitsch contemplates with great delicacy in Ninotchka. The chapter also studies and analyzes her unique relation to language, her unsteady command of the idioms of everyday life, that betray her anti-modernity. Furthermore, it looks at the manners through which Garbo was hailed as the spiritual vessel in which Hollywood of the 1930s decanted its highest ideals of womanhood. Her incarnation as Ninotchka, for example, represents an instructive example of how America implicated the sexual fate of women in its own historical triumphalism. Thus, the chapter explores the character and roles that Garbo would take and how they influenced America.Less
This chapter explores the phenomenon of Garbo's laughter and why it was touted as so remarkable an event in the annals of film. Its praise as a historic occasion was a savvy promotional gimmick that predated the making of Ninotchka, the 1939 film that it was publicizing. It explores the historic significance of Garbo's face, as director Ernst Lubitsch contemplates with great delicacy in Ninotchka. The chapter also studies and analyzes her unique relation to language, her unsteady command of the idioms of everyday life, that betray her anti-modernity. Furthermore, it looks at the manners through which Garbo was hailed as the spiritual vessel in which Hollywood of the 1930s decanted its highest ideals of womanhood. Her incarnation as Ninotchka, for example, represents an instructive example of how America implicated the sexual fate of women in its own historical triumphalism. Thus, the chapter explores the character and roles that Garbo would take and how they influenced America.
Mairéad Hanrahan
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748642281
- eISBN:
- 9781474406352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748642281.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter indirectly connects with the question for which Cixous remains best known today, the notion of écriture feminine developed in her short text ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, through ...
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This chapter indirectly connects with the question for which Cixous remains best known today, the notion of écriture feminine developed in her short text ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, through consideration of the fiction she wrote at the same time, Souffles. It focusses on the figure of the mother, investigating especially how the mother is a metaphor. Souffles is a hymn of praise to two writers who can only metaphorically be considered mothers, the homosexual male writer, Jean Genet, and the celibate nun, St. Theresa of Avila. The position of mother is available to anyone able and willing to invent it, notably ‘poets’ who are not threatened by a porous border between self and other. The generosity that Cixous had considered a ‘feminine’ property in ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ is here a characteristic of the ‘mother’ but also of the ‘nègre’. Already in 1974, Souffles proposed a visionary harnessing of sexual and postcolonial politics.Less
This chapter indirectly connects with the question for which Cixous remains best known today, the notion of écriture feminine developed in her short text ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, through consideration of the fiction she wrote at the same time, Souffles. It focusses on the figure of the mother, investigating especially how the mother is a metaphor. Souffles is a hymn of praise to two writers who can only metaphorically be considered mothers, the homosexual male writer, Jean Genet, and the celibate nun, St. Theresa of Avila. The position of mother is available to anyone able and willing to invent it, notably ‘poets’ who are not threatened by a porous border between self and other. The generosity that Cixous had considered a ‘feminine’ property in ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ is here a characteristic of the ‘mother’ but also of the ‘nègre’. Already in 1974, Souffles proposed a visionary harnessing of sexual and postcolonial politics.
William E. Ellis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813173986
- eISBN:
- 9780813174792
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813173986.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
As Cobb’s career hit rock bottom, his health declined, as did daughter Buff’s second marriage. However, he started to write his life story in the late 1930s, titled Exit Laughing. Cobb’s opposition ...
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As Cobb’s career hit rock bottom, his health declined, as did daughter Buff’s second marriage. However, he started to write his life story in the late 1930s, titled Exit Laughing. Cobb’s opposition to the New Deal and a third term for Roosevelt led him to campaign for Willkie in 1940. These exertions exacerbated Cobb’s diabetes and intestinal problems, and his health was severely affected. Cobb managed to finish his autobiography, but his condition deteriorated and he died in March 1944. Ellis concludes by remarking on Cobb’s career and legacy. Less
As Cobb’s career hit rock bottom, his health declined, as did daughter Buff’s second marriage. However, he started to write his life story in the late 1930s, titled Exit Laughing. Cobb’s opposition to the New Deal and a third term for Roosevelt led him to campaign for Willkie in 1940. These exertions exacerbated Cobb’s diabetes and intestinal problems, and his health was severely affected. Cobb managed to finish his autobiography, but his condition deteriorated and he died in March 1944. Ellis concludes by remarking on Cobb’s career and legacy.
Gábor Gergely
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474454513
- eISBN:
- 9781474495363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474454513.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
“Misfitting in America” offers an analysis of The Man Who Laughs that suggests the film’s importance in four key areas: (1) as a transitional piece between silent cinema and the talkies, (2) as the ...
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“Misfitting in America” offers an analysis of The Man Who Laughs that suggests the film’s importance in four key areas: (1) as a transitional piece between silent cinema and the talkies, (2) as the last instalment of the Universal super productions, (3) as a thematic precursor to Universal’s famous horror cycle, and (4) as one of the most complete Hollywood attempts to adopt and co-opt German filmmaking practices and personnel. Moreover, this chapter focuses on the star of The Man Who Laughs, Conrad Veidt, as representative of an exilic body. Analysing Veidt’s physicality, performance, makeup, and costuming as Gwynplaine, this contribution looks at the corporeal inscription of the character’s permanent disfiguration, which underpins Gwynplaine’s understanding of himself and his peripheral position in society. With its intrinsic linking of disfigurement and dislocation in an endless cycle where one leads seamlessly into the other, the film becomes a way to understand how Hollywood studios situated their European émigré stars in the years following World War I.Less
“Misfitting in America” offers an analysis of The Man Who Laughs that suggests the film’s importance in four key areas: (1) as a transitional piece between silent cinema and the talkies, (2) as the last instalment of the Universal super productions, (3) as a thematic precursor to Universal’s famous horror cycle, and (4) as one of the most complete Hollywood attempts to adopt and co-opt German filmmaking practices and personnel. Moreover, this chapter focuses on the star of The Man Who Laughs, Conrad Veidt, as representative of an exilic body. Analysing Veidt’s physicality, performance, makeup, and costuming as Gwynplaine, this contribution looks at the corporeal inscription of the character’s permanent disfiguration, which underpins Gwynplaine’s understanding of himself and his peripheral position in society. With its intrinsic linking of disfigurement and dislocation in an endless cycle where one leads seamlessly into the other, the film becomes a way to understand how Hollywood studios situated their European émigré stars in the years following World War I.
Bruce Henderson
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474454513
- eISBN:
- 9781474495363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474454513.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
“Masculinity and Facial Disfigurement” examines Leni’s film through the lens of disability studies in film. This chapter offers a reading of The Man Who Laughs that addresses the creative liberties ...
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“Masculinity and Facial Disfigurement” examines Leni’s film through the lens of disability studies in film. This chapter offers a reading of The Man Who Laughs that addresses the creative liberties that Leni took when adapting the Hugo novel to the screen and that accounted for the representation of physical disfigurement otherwise lost in Hugo’s original text. As the chapter shows, the cinematic representation of Gwynplaine’s disability, in contrast to that in the novelization, “restores a kind of lost masculinity to Gwynplaine, reminding us, in ways the novel never quite does, that Gwynplaine’s body was as ‘fit’ as any other man’s,” in Henderson’s words. This chapter thus reconceptualizes Leni’s adaptation as a positive portrayal of disability, finding equilibrium between Gwynplaine’s contrasting characteristics of masculinity-femininity and ability-disability that are absent in both the novel and other films in this era.Less
“Masculinity and Facial Disfigurement” examines Leni’s film through the lens of disability studies in film. This chapter offers a reading of The Man Who Laughs that addresses the creative liberties that Leni took when adapting the Hugo novel to the screen and that accounted for the representation of physical disfigurement otherwise lost in Hugo’s original text. As the chapter shows, the cinematic representation of Gwynplaine’s disability, in contrast to that in the novelization, “restores a kind of lost masculinity to Gwynplaine, reminding us, in ways the novel never quite does, that Gwynplaine’s body was as ‘fit’ as any other man’s,” in Henderson’s words. This chapter thus reconceptualizes Leni’s adaptation as a positive portrayal of disability, finding equilibrium between Gwynplaine’s contrasting characteristics of masculinity-femininity and ability-disability that are absent in both the novel and other films in this era.
