CHOVANEC, Jan. Early Titanic Jokes : A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes? In 30th ISHS Conference - Humour : Positively (?) Transforming, 25-29 June 2018, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia. 2018. ISBN 978-9949-586-73-8.
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Basic information
Original name Early Titanic Jokes : A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?
Authors CHOVANEC, Jan.
Edition 30th ISHS Conference - Humour : Positively (?) Transforming, 25-29 June 2018, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia, 2018.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Conference abstract
Field of Study 60203 Linguistics
Country of publisher Estonia
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
Organization unit Faculty of Arts
ISBN 978-9949-586-73-8
Keywords (in Czech) humor; katastrofické vtipy; teorie humoru; Titanic; historické časopisy; historická pragmatika
Keywords in English humour; disaster jokes; humour theories; Titanic; historical periodicals; historical pragmatics
Tags rivok
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D., učo 39970. Changed: 5/2/2019 15:36.
Abstract
This paper seeks to challenge and revise Christie Davies’s theory of disaster jokes. Based on the discovery of several very early jokes on the Titanic disaster, all obtained from a contemporary Czech humoristic magazine, I suggest that Davies’ position that “there are no contemporary jokes” about pre-television disasters (2003: 17) is no longer tenable in view of the new data. Evidently, various forms of humor existed about current disasters even before the advent of television (and later the internet), which are otherwise considered as central to the production of sick humor and joke cycles on disaster events (cf. Ellis 2001; Kuipers 2002, 2005). While the lack of historical data makes it difficult to speculate on whether we can actually talk about “joke cycles”, the mere existence of contemporary Titanic jokes requires us to reconsider the privileged role of television, as propounded in Christie Davies’s model. Apparently, the mediatization of disaster news through early print media was quite sufficient to trigger the generation of sick humor – possibly serving as a counter-discourse to the official, mediatized narratives of negative news.
Links
MUNI/A/1003/2017, interní kód MUName: Profilace výzkumných zaměření v anglofonní lingvistické a literární vědě III (Acronym: PROVYZAN III)
Investor: Masaryk University, Category A
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