Humour in Times of Confrontation, 1901 to the Present

by Shun-Liang Chao (Editor), Vivienne Westbrook (Editor)

Overview

Humour in Times of Confrontation: 1901 to the Present examines the various and surprising ways in which humour has been powerfully employed, through a wider range of media than possible at any other time in history, as a response to conflict.

With no earlier century undergoing more diverse, more extensive, and more intense conflicts than the period in question, the last twelve decades provide a unique landscape to explore the farthest edge of humour: its darkest side. This book argues that such conflict has not only traumatically shaped the modern psyche but created a fertile ground for humour to grow and evolve with the advent of new representations and technologies. The chapters in this volume focus on international conflicts that have been reported widely through news media but seldom regarded as material for serious humour studies. Each chapter begins by engaging with a particular form of confrontation before providing a case study of how it has contributed to the creation, enjoyment, and/or sharing of humour via different media.

This volume is a valuable resource to students and scholars of humour studies, modern cultural and social history, the history of technology, and media studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367208769
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/22/2025
Series:	Humor in Literature and Culture
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Shun-Liang Chao is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He has authored Rethinking the Concept of the Grotesque: Crashaw, Baudelaire, Magritte (awarded the Anna Balakian Prize of the ICLA) and co-edited Humour in the Arts: New Perspectives and Romantic Legacies: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Contexts.

Vivienne Westbrook is Professor of English and Cultural Studies. She holds honorary research positions in The School of Humanities and the Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, and in The School of Life Sciences at La Trobe University, Australia. She is a General Editor of Humour in Literature and Culture and Oceans, Seas and Shorelines: Cultural, Environmental and Natural Histories.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Introduction: “[W]hen the world is torn apart by so much conflict and division”

Shun-Liang Chao and Vivienne Westbrook

Chapter One: Caricaturising the City: Humour and Racial Difference in New York City at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Meaghan M. Walsh

Chapter Two: Red in the Face: The Great Depression, Nathanael West, and Cynical Humour

Richard Aldersley

Chapter Three: Juro Kubicêk’s Mein K(r)ampf: Derision, Dissent, and Denazification in Post-War Berlin

Camilla Smith

Chapter Four: The Power and Limitations of Humour in State Socialist Hungary in the Aftermath of the 1956 Revolution

Lili Zách

Chapter Five: “A demonstration is also FUN”:
/ Folk Humour and Play as Tactics to Disrupt the Rational State during the 1968 Protests

Laura Bowie

Chapter Six: Confronting Patriarchy: Humour and the British Women’s Liberation Movement, 1968-1992

Sarah Crook

Chapter Seven: Riotous Laughter: LGBTQ+ Humour in the Age of Stonewall

Sarah Chant

Chapter Eight: Survivalist Humour: Improvising at the Turn of the Millennium

Gabe Beckhurst

Chapter Nine: Confronting China’s “Little Pinks”: Political Humour in Namewee’s Love Song “Fragile”

Shun-Liang Chao

Index