From Joke Tales to Demotivators. A Diachronic Look at Humorous Discourse in Folklore

Authors

  • Liisi Laineste Department of Folkloristics, Estonian Literary Museum, 50003 Tartu, Estonia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2016450302

Keywords:

humorous discourse, old folk jokes, punch-lined jokes, internet humor, folklore studies // duhovit diskurz, stare ljudske šale, internetni humor, folkloristika

Abstract

Humor is a trans-genre phenomenon that functions above the established genre rules, challenging them through parody and other subversive practices. At the same time, genre rules have an influence on humorous discourse, but this often works in the negative: the rules are distorted in the process. Humor can thus be seen as counter-discourse, continuously and playfully deconstructing and reconstructing the text through adding new layers of meaning and context. Similarly to discarding genre rules, humor discards taboos and sabotages non-humorous discourse through performing the unexpected and the forbidden.

***

Humor je nadžanrski pojav, ki deluje mimo ali proti uveljavljenim pravilom žanra, saj jih spodbija s parodijo in drugimi subverzivnimi praksami. Hkrati navidezna raba žanrskih pravil vpliva na šaljiv govor; to pogosto učinkuje kot zanikanje žanra, saj so pravila v samem procesu izkrivljena. Humor je tako mogoče razumeti kot proti-diskurz, kot stalno in igrivo dekonstrukcijo in rekonstrukcijo besedila z dodajanjem novih plasti pomenu in kontekstu. In tako kot humor ovrže pravila pravila žanra, zavrže tudi tabuje in sabotira ne-humorni diskurz z rabo nepričakovanega in prepovedanega.

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Published

15.12.2016

How to Cite

Laineste, L. (2016). From Joke Tales to Demotivators. A Diachronic Look at Humorous Discourse in Folklore. Traditiones, 45(3), 7–25. https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2016450302

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Section

Estonia Online