Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic

By Bergson, Henri

Book Id: WPLBN0000197965
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 0.9 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic
Author:	Bergson, Henri
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	World Ebook Library


Citation APA MLA Chicago Bergson, H. (n.d.). Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. Retrieved from https://self.gutenberg.org/

Excerpt
PREFACE: This work, by Professor Bergson, has been revised in detail by the author himself, and the present translation is the only authorised one. For this ungrudging labour of revision, for the thoroughness with which it has been carried out, and for personal sympathy in many a difficulty of word and phrase, we desire to offer our grateful acknowledgment to Professor Bergson. It may be pointed out that the essay on Laughter originally appeared in a series of three articles in one of the leading magazines in France, the Revue de Paris. This will account for the relatively simple form of the work and the comparative absence of technical terms. It will also explain why the author has confined himself to exposing and illustrating his novel theory of the comic without entering into a detailed discussion of other explanations already in the field. He none the less indicates, when discussing sundry examples, why the principal theories, to which they have given rise, appear to him inadequate. To quote only a few, one may mention those based on contrast, exaggeration, and degradation.

Table of Contents
· TRANSLATORS' PREFACE · 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