Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour

Description

From Thomas Hobbes' fear of the power of laughter to the compulsory, packaged "fun" of the contemporary mass media, Billig takes the reader on a stimulating tour of the strange world of humour. Both a significant work of scholarship and a novel contribution to the understanding of the humourous, this is a seriously engaging book' - David Inglis, University of Aberdeen

This delightful book tackles the prevailing assumption that laughter and humour are inherently good. In developing a critique of humour the author proposes a social theory that places humour - in the form of ridicule - as central to social life. Billig argues that all cultures use ridicule as a disciplinary means to uphold norms of conduct and conventions of meaning.

Historically, theories of humour reflect wider visions of politics, morality and aesthetics. For example, Bergson argued that humour contains an element of cruelty while Freud suggested that we deceive ourselves about the true nature of our laughter. Billig discusses these and other theories, while using the topic of humour to throw light on the perennial social problems of regulation, control and emancipation.







Thanks for the book!

Disclaimer:
Contents of this page are indexed from the Internet. All actions are under your responsability. Email us to report illegal contents or external links and we'll remove them immediately.

Please check the description for download links if any or do a search to find alternative books.

Can't Download?
Please search mirrors if you can't find download links for "Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour" in "Description" and someone else may update the links. Check the comments when back to find any updates.

Search Mirrors
Maybe some mirror pages will be helpful, search this book at top of this page or click here to find more info.

1. Ebooks list page : 2072
2. Bringing Capitalism Back for Critique by Social Theory (Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Vol. 21)
3. Social Amnesia A Critique of Conformist Psychology
4. Social.Amnesia.A.Critique.of.Conformist.Psychology
5. Critique Today (Social and Critical Theory)
6. Social amnesia: A critique of conformist psychology from Adler to Laing
7. Russell Jacoby - Social Amnesia: a Critique of Contemporary Psychology
8. Social amnesia: A critique of conformist psychology from Adler to Laing
9. The Social Authority Of Reason: Kant's Critique, Radical Evil, And The Destiny Of Humankind
10. Welfare Research: A Critique Of Theory And Method (Social Research Today)
11. Time to Tell ‘Em Off! A Pocket Guide to Overcoming Peer Ridicule
12. The Power of Humour at the Workplace
13. [share_ebook] The psychology od Humour
14. Underground Humour in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945
15. The Little Book of Essential Foreign Swearwords (Summersdale Humour)
16. Grammar with Laughter