Black Humor.ppt

Black_HumorBlack Humor
Contents
Definition
Development
Purpose and themes
Joseph Heller
is Black Humor?
Black humor is a type of modern humor that is caused by anger. It often describes gruesome(可怕的) events, which are normally associated with pleasant occasions, thus producing the congruous effect for humor. Black humor attacks on social mores through shocking language and offensive imagery. Black humor is a kind of desperate humor. It is the laughter at tragic things. In this meaningless world, according to Black Humorists, man’s fate is decided by prehensive powers. We can’t do anything about it; therefore we may as well laugh.
黑色幽默
所谓“黑色幽默”,实际上是一种用喜剧的形式来表现悲剧内容的新的文学形式。“黑色”是指可怕而又滑稽的客观现实;“幽默”,是指有自由意志的个性对这种现实所采取的嘲讽态度。在英语里,“黑色”常用来形容阴暗、神秘的事物,作为死亡的代名词。“黑色”“幽默”加在一起,即是阴惨凄凉、悲观绝望的幽默。西方评论家也把这种幽默叫作“绞刑架下的幽默”或“大难临头时的幽默”。20世纪60年代美国重要的文学流派。1965年3月,弗里德曼编了一本短篇小说集,收入12个作家的作品,题名为《黑色幽默》,“黑色幽默”一词即由此而来。它是60年代美国小说创作中最有代表性的流派之一。进入70年代后,“黑色幽默”的声势大减,但不时仍有新作出现,它在美国文学中至今仍有相当深远的影响。它的主要作家有约瑟夫·海勒、库尔特・冯内古特、托马斯·品钦、约翰·巴斯、詹姆斯·珀迪、布鲁斯·杰伊·弗里德曼、唐纳德·巴赛尔姆等。
Black humor
What: dark humor, grotesque or morbid
humor
Where: literature, drama, and film
Function: to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world.
Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony.
Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce(悲剧性的闹剧).

(1) Coinage(创造) in France
Black humor is a term coined by Surrealist theoretician André Breton in 1935, to designate a sub-genre edy and satire in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism, often about the topic of death.
(2) Adoption in American literature
An English-language anthology(文集) edited by Bruce Jay Friedman, titled Black Humor, imported the concept in the ., labeling with it very different authors and works, arguing that they shared the same literary genre.
Writers: Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Jo