Dark humor PDF
Preview Dark humor
Bloom's Literary Th emes f Alienation Th e American Dream Civil Disobedience Dark Humor Death and Dying Enslavement and Emancipation Exploration and Colonization Th e Grotesque Th e Hero’s Journey Human Sexuality Th e Labyrinth Rebirth and Renewal Sin and Redemption Th e Sublime Th e Taboo Th e Trickster BBLLTT DDaarrkk HHuummoorr ffiinnaall ppaassss..iinndddd ii 1111//1100//22000099 1111::2299::1111 AAMM BBLLTT DDaarrkk HHuummoorr ffiinnaall ppaassss..iinndddd iiii 1111//1100//22000099 1111::2299::3399 AAMM Bloom’s Literary Th emes DARK HUMOR BBLLTT DDaarrkk HHuummoorr ffiinnaall ppaassss..iinndddd iiiiii 1111//1100//22000099 1111::2299::3399 AAMM BBLLTT DDaarrkk HHuummoorr ffiinnaall ppaassss..iinndddd iivv 1111//1100//22000099 1111::2299::3399 AAMM Bloom’s Literary Th emes DARK H UMOR Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University Volume Editor Blake Hobby BBLLTT DDaarrkk HHuummoorr ffiinnaall ppaassss..iinndddd vv 1111//1100//22000099 1111::2299::4400 AAMM Bloom’s Literary Themes: Dark Humor Copyright ©2010 by Infobase Publishing Introduction ©2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any infor- mation storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bloom’s literary themes. Dark humor / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom ; volume editor, Blake Hobby. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-440-7 (hc : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4381-3102-3 (e-book) 1. Black humor. 2. Humor in literature. I. Bloom, Harold. II. Hobby, Blake. III. Title: Dark humor. PN56.H83B56 2010 809.7—dc22 2009038091 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Series design by Kerry Casey Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Composition by IBT Global, Inc. Cover printed by IBT Global, Inc., Troy NY Book printed and bound by IBT Global, Inc., Troy NY Date printed: January 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. , . Contents Series Introduction by Harold Bloom: Th emes and Metaphors xi Volume Introduction by Harold Bloom xv Th e Plays of Aristophanes 1 “Aristophanes’ Comic Apocalypse” by Louise Cowan, in Th e Terrain of Comedy (1984) Th e Plays of Samuel Beckett and the Th eatre of the Absurd 29 “Th e Th eatre of the Absurd” by Martin Esslin, in Th eatre in the Twentieth Century (1956) Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) 47 “Catch-22 and Angry Humor: A Study of the Normative Values of Satire” by James Nagel, in Studies in American Humor (1974) Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut) 57 “Dark Humor in Cat’s Cradle” by Blake Hobby A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) 67 “A Clockwork Orange and the Metaphysics of Slapstick” by Matthew J. Bolton On Dark Humor in Literature 79 “Th e Comedy of Entropy: Th e Contexts of Black Humour” by Patrick O’Neill, in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature (1983) BBLLTT DDaarrkk HHuummoorr ffiinnaall ppaassss..iinndddd vviiii 1111//1100//22000099 1111::2299::4411 AAMM viii Contents Contents Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri) 105 White Noise (Don DeLillo) 229 “Elements of Dark Humor in Dante’s Divine Comedy” “The Dark Humor of White Noise” by Joseph Dewey by Lauren P. De La Vars Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee) 241 The Dumbwaiter (Harold Pinter) 115 “Dark Humor in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of “When Farce Turns into Something Else: Harold Virginia Woolf ? ” by Kate Falvey Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter” by Scott Walters “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) 251 The Stories of Nikolai Gogol and Lolita “ ‘Too Terribly Good to Be Printed’: Charlotte (Vladimir Nabokov) 127 Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ ” by Conrad “Observations on Black Humor in Gogol and Shumaker, in American Literature (1985) Nabokov” by Woodin W. Rowe, in The Slavic and East European Journal (1974) Acknowledgments 263 “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (Flannery O’Connor) 139 Index 265 “Clichés, Superficial Story-Telling, and the Dark Humor of Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ ” by Robert C. Evans Henry IV, Parts One and Two (William Shakespeare) 149 “The Rejection of Falstaff” by A.C. Bradley, in Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909) “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Thomas Stearns Eliot) 171 “ ‘Almost Ridiculous’: Dark Humor in Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ ” by Robert C. Evans A Modest Proposal (Jonathan Swift) 181 “Wood’s Halfpence” by Leslie Stephen, in Swift (1882) The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain) 197 “The Mysterious Stranger and ‘3,000 Years Among the Microbes’: Chimerical Realities and Nightmarish Transformations” by Patricia M. Mandia, in Comedic Pathos: Black Humor in Twain’s Fiction (1991) Reservation Blues (Sherman Alexie) 219 “The Saddest Joke: Sherman Alexie’s Blues” by James A. Crank BLT Dark Humor final pass.indd 8 12/4/09 11:39:15 AM Contents Contents ix Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri) 105 White Noise (Don DeLillo) 229 “Elements of Dark Humor in Dante’s Divine Comedy” “The Dark Humor of White Noise” by Joseph Dewey by Lauren P. De La Vars Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee) 241 The Dumbwaiter (Harold Pinter) 115 “Dark Humor in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of “When Farce Turns into Something Else: Harold Virginia Woolf ? ” by Kate Falvey Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter” by Scott Walters “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) 251 The Stories of Nikolai Gogol and Lolita “ ‘Too Terribly Good to Be Printed’: Charlotte (Vladimir Nabokov) 127 Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ ” by Conrad “Observations on Black Humor in Gogol and Shumaker, in American Literature (1985) Nabokov” by Woodin W. Rowe, in The Slavic and East European Journal (1974) Acknowledgments 263 “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (Flannery O’Connor) 139 Index 265 “Clichés, Superficial Story-Telling, and the Dark Humor of Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ ” by Robert C. Evans Henry IV, Parts One and Two (William Shakespeare) 149 “The Rejection of Falstaff” by A.C. Bradley, in Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909) “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Thomas Stearns Eliot) 171 “ ‘Almost Ridiculous’: Dark Humor in Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ ” by Robert C. Evans A Modest Proposal (Jonathan Swift) 181 “Wood’s Halfpence” by Leslie Stephen, in Swift (1882) The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain) 197 “The Mysterious Stranger and ‘3,000 Years Among the Microbes’: Chimerical Realities and Nightmarish Transformations” by Patricia M. Mandia, in Comedic Pathos: Black Humor in Twain’s Fiction (1991) Reservation Blues (Sherman Alexie) 219 “The Saddest Joke: Sherman Alexie’s Blues” by James A. Crank BLT Dark Humor final pass.indd 9 12/4/09 11:39:15 AM
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