Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic

by Henri Bergson, Cloudesley Brereton, Fred Rothwell

Overview

What does laughter mean? What is the basal element in the laughable? What common ground can we find between the grimace of a merryandrew, a play upon words, an equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene of high comedy? What method of distillation will yield us invariably the same essence from which so many different products borrow either their obtrusive odour or their delicate perfume? The greatest of thinkers, from Aristotle downwards, have tackled this little problem, which has a knack of baffling every effort...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781877527241
Publisher:	The Floating Press
Publication date:	01/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
File size:	172 KB

About the Author

Henri-Louis Bergson (18 October 1859 - 4 January 1941) was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that the processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented". In 1930, France awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.

Table of Contents

Chapter I The Comic in General—The Comic Element in Forms and Movements—Expansive Force of the Comic
Chapter II The Comic Element in Situations and the Comic Element in Words
Chapter III The Comic in Character