Of Corpse Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture

Laughter, contemporary theory suggests, is often aggressive in some manner and may be prompted by a sudden perception of incongruity combined with memories of past emotional experience. Given this importance of the past to our recognition of the comic, it follows that some "traditions" dispose us to ludic responses. The studies in Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Cultureexamine specific interactions of text (jokes, poetry, epitaphs, iconography, film drama) and social context (wakes, festivals, disasters) that shape and generate laughter. Uniquely, however, the essays here peruse a remarkable paradox---the convergence of death and humor.Narvaez, Peter is the author of 'Of Corpse Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture', published 2003 under ISBN 9780874215595 and ISBN 0874215595.