[URBANTH-L]CFP AAA 2008: ROTFL? Humor Within and Out of Bounds

[Jamie Sherman]

CFP AAA 2008: ROTFL? Humor Within and Out of Bounds

ROTFL? Humor Within and Out of Bounds


Humor, perhaps more than other forms of human interaction, rests on  
the collaboration of participants in maintaining what Gregory Bateson  
called “the play frame.” Yet it can also be used in the service of  
aggression, or resistance, and can result from feelings of  
degradation, pain, hurt, and anger. Likewise, responses to humor can  
be as diverse as a beautiful melodic laugh or a menacing wheeze. This  
panel explores frameworks of humor, broadly conceived, in a range of  
use-contexts. In what contexts do the framing(s) of humor and joking  
themselves become objects of play? How are such frames established  
and maintained (or broken) in contextually specific ways? What is  
enabled through the marking and unmarking of humor as such? How are  
power, pain, resistance, aggression and collaboration used in a given  
comedic context? What kinds of sociality are managed and/or enabled  
through the use humor? What is precluded? Is there such a thing as  
funny just for the sake of pleasure? And finally, when does humor  
enable speech, and when does it cover silence?


We welcome submissions of papers that address humor, jokes, and  
comedic contexts from a broad range of theoretical and disciplinary  
perspectives.

Please send 250 word abstracts to Jamie Sherman: jsone at princeton.edu