Laughter, Humor, and the (Un)making of Gender : Historical and Cultural Perspectives

Humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. Throughout history, it has played a crucial role in defining gender roles and identities. This collection offers an in-depth thematic examination of this relationship between humor and gender, spanning a variety of historical and cultural backdrops. Humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. Throughout history, it has played a crucial role in defining gender roles and identities. This collection offers an in-depth thematic examination of this relationship between humor and gender, spanning a variety of historical and cultural backdrops. Bringing together a medley of case studies diachronically and across cultures, the book examines gendered humorous expressions from classical antiquity to the late eighteenth century and across visual culture, literature and performance in both European and Asian premodern contexts Review: "I find Laughter, Humor, and the (Un)making of Gender to be a brilliant manifestation of the innovative power of the cultural history of emotion and its ability to create fresh perspectives that transcend disciplinary, cultural, and regional boundaries. The authors have compiled a stimulating collection of papers that range over the cultures of the globe and cast new light on the much-studied topic of gender by illuminating the constitutive power of what makes us laugh." - Walter G. Andrews, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Washington, Seattle, USA "How is it possible that we have for so long missed the ways in which humor constructs, maintains, and undermines gender stereotypes? With essays spanning the pre-modern period and touching on non-Western cultures, this book offers a dynamic way to reconsider humor's key role in human lives." - Barbara H. Rosenwein, Loyola University Chicago, USA "A fresh look at longstanding questions, across a temporal range (classical antiquity to the early modern) and a geographical range (Asia to Europe, Islam to Christendom) too rarely spanned; not the usual suspects, either. The optimistic investigators find gender subversion, women's agency, and men's self-criticism in comic forms from high (Homer) to low (folklore, burlesque, jokes, cartoons), imagining a complex audience. A valuable resource." - Amy Richlin, Professor, Classics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA "This excellent collection of essays ranges across space and time from early medieval China through medieval Iceland to seventeenth-century Sweden. The authors draw on a wide range of visual and literary evidence including images on classical Greek vases, medieval French fabula, and early modern English jest-books, but also engage with a rich and varied historiography. Anyone interested in cultural history before 1800 will learn something from this volume." - Tim Reinke-Williams, University of Northampton, UK Cover -1 Laughter, Humor, and the (Un)Making of Gender 4 Contents 6 List of Figures and Table 8 Acknowledgments 10 General Introduction 11 Part I Laughter, Humor, and Misogyny—Reconsiderations and New Perspectives 14 1 Laughing at Ourselves: Gendered Humor in Classical Greece 21 2 Is the Comic World a Paradise for Women? Medieval Models of Portable Utopia 38 3 Taking Women’s Work Seriously: Medieval Humor and the Gendering of Labor 53 4 Gender Subversion and the Early Christian East: Reconstructing the Byzantine Comic Mime 70 5 Gossips’ Mirth: Gender, Humor, and Female Spectators in Ben Jonson’s The Staple of News (1626) 89 6 The Magic of a Joke: Humor and Gender in Islamicate Ottoman Aesthetics 107 Part II Humor, Laughter, and the Rhetoric of Manhood 125 7 Laughter, Sex, and Violence: Constructing Gender in Early Modern English Jestbooks 135 8 Horny Priests and Their Parishioners 152 9 Humor, Women, and Male Anxieties in Ancient Greek Visual Culture 164 10 Hegemony and Humor: Class and Hegemonic Masculinities in Three Premodern Chinese Humorous Texts 191 11 Gender, Humor, and Power in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature 210 12 Laughing at the Unmanly Man in Early Modern Sweden 228 Contributors 248 Index 250 Front Matter....Pages i-ix General Introduction....Pages 1-3 Front Matter....Pages 5-12 Laughing at Ourselves: Gendered Humor in Classical Greece....Pages 13-29 Is the Comic World a Paradise for Women? Medieval Models of Portable Utopia....Pages 31-45 Taking Women’s Work Seriously: Medieval Humor and the Gendering of Labor....Pages 47-63 Gender Subversion and the Early Christian East: Reconstructing the Byzantine Comic Mime....Pages 65-83 Gossips’ Mirth: Gender, Humor, and Female Spectators in Ben Jonson’s The Staple of News (1626)....Pages 85-102 The Magic of a Joke: Humor and Gender in Islamicate Ottoman Aesthetics....Pages 103-120 Front Matter....Pages 121-131 Laughter, Sex, and Violence: Constructing Gender in Early Modern English Jestbooks....Pages 133-149 Horny Priests and Their Parishioners....Pages 151-162 Humor, Women, and Male Anxieties in Ancient Greek Visual Culture....Pages 163-189 Hegemony and Humor: Class and Hegemonic Masculinities in Three Premodern Chinese Humorous Texts....Pages 191-209 Gender, Humor, and Power in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature....Pages 211-228 Laughing at the Unmanly Man in Early Modern Sweden....Pages 229-248 Back Matter....Pages 249-256