The Victorian Comic Spirit

Download or read book The Victorian Comic Spirit written by Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-22 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2000: "Comedy" and "humour" are not words most associate with the Victorian period, yet their culture was rife with laughter and irony. The 12 essays in this volume reanimate this "comic spirit" by exploring the humour in its social context. While previous studies of humour in the period focus on the age's own ongoing interest in the old distinction in comic theory between wit and humour, this volume aims to show how inadequate this distinction is in accounting for the many types of Victorian comic representation. The essays turn from linguistic or psychological analyses of humour towards the social production of humour and the cultural dynamics which underlie it.