Redeeming laughter : the comic dimension of human experience / Peter L. Berger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berger, Peter L., 1929-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comedy--Religious aspects.

Comedy.

Wit and humor--Religious aspects.

Wit and humor.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Walter de Gruyter, [1997]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The author of numerous previous books of broad appeal and scholarly acclaim on subjects ranging from sociological theory to religious ethics in government and economic systems, and the coauthor of a vastly influential treatise on The Social Construction of Reality , Berger unfolds in Redeeming Laughter a new perspective on a classic domain. Berger's comic terrain is at once noble and amusing, the terrain of Erasmus and Swift. Like his predecessors', Berger's writing in these pages is bolstered with exemplary learning and wry observation.

Contents:

Self-Serving Explanations and Unsolicited Compliments

The Comic Intrusion

Philosophers of the Comic, and the Comedy of Philosophy

Laughing Monks: A Very Brief Sinitic Interlude

Homo Ridens: Physiology and Psychology

Homo Ridiculus: Social Constructions of the Comic

Interlude: Brief Reflections on Jewish Humor

The Comic as Diversion: Benign Humor

The Comic as Consolation: Tragicomedy

The Comic as Game of Intellect: Wit

The Comic as Weapon: Satire

Interlude: The Eternal Return of Folly

The Folly of Redemption

Interlude: On Grim Theologians

The Comic as a Signal of Transcendence.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed November 13, 2013).

ISBN:

9783110810660

3110810662

OCLC:

868974102