humor literature

Humorous Literary Genres

by Don L. F. Nilsen and
Alleen Pace Nilsen

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Two Important Literary Journals
for High School Teachers

2


Writers vs. Readers

3


Literature with Fan Bases
Riorden
Meyers &
Rowling

Trekkies &
Nerdfighters

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Nerdfighters and DFTBA:

“Don’t Forget To Be Awesome”

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Two Literary Conundrums:

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HUMOR IS NOT A GENRE
• David Lubar, an author of humorous books
for teenagers, pointed out in a recent
interview that just as humor fits into most
areas of art and entertainment, it fits into
literature “where it brings pleasure, eases
pain, and makes the world a better place.”
• And although many of us speak of humor as
if it were a genre, “it’s really an element—
actually—make that an assortment of
elements.”
(VOYA Aug. 2012, p. 217)
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FOUR MODES OF LITERATURE
• An alternative to talking about genres is to look at
the modes of literature.
• Modes can be communicated through all kinds of

symbols as illustrated by the Giuseppe Archimboldo
paintings from the 1500s where he used plants to
represent the four seasons of the year.
• Even though weather patterns differ around the
world, the four seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter)
are recognized and celebrated as universal symbols
of our overall life experiences.
• This inspired Northrup Frye to divide different kinds
of literary works into four modes symbolized by the
four seasons.
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Northrup Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism

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SPRING = ROMANCE
• Symbolically, Romance
is connected to spring,
babies, sunrise, and
other new beginnings.
• The popular culture ties
romance to love, while in
literary criticism it is tied
in with a quest and
exaggerations in which
the fears of nightmares
are changed to the

happiness of daydreams.
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SUMMER = COMEDY
• Symbolically, comedy is
connected to summer,
youth, bright and active
parts of the day, and other
happy representations of
vigor and strength.
• The popular culture ties
comedy in with smiles and
laughter, while literary
criticism ties it to the
optimistic idea that chaos
and disruption will be
changed to order and hope.
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AUTUMN = MIMETIC/REALISM
• Mimetic is cognate with
remind and mime. It
refers to “realism” but can
also be applied to fantasy.
• It is less optimistic than
romantic and comedic
writing and symbolically
ties to adulthood or

middle-age, and to
evening and a decrease in
energy, vigor, or prestige.
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WINTER = TRAGEDY, IRONY
• Tragedy is connected to
old age, winter, night time,
fear, discouragement,
darkness, and death.
• It lacks optimism and is
filled with irony and
pessimism.
• The pop culture idea is
that audiences come away
from tragedies (e.g. King
Lear) with renewed faith in
the human spirit’s ability
to survive.
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Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons
Spring:
/>Summer--Presto:
/>Autumn:
/>Winter:
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So What Does This Mean to
Humor?

• Let’s brainstorm and see if we can figure out what
kinds of animals, weather, food, or geological
formations an author would likely use if he or she
wanted to establish one of these four modes.
• Try thinking of examples from television, film, or
literature that clearly fit into one of the four
categories.
• Then let’s look a little deeper and think of examples
that move from one mode to the other.
• The phrase “A Happy Ending,” shows that readers
expect modes to change. See the next slide for a
more dramatic example.
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A Mode Change from Comedy to
Tragedy
• A good example occurs in Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is wounded
in a sword fight and Romeo says, “Courage,
man, the hurt cannot be much.”
• Mercutio responds, “No, ‘tis not so deep as a
well, nor so wide as a chuch-door, but ‘tis
enough, ‘twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow,
and you shall find me a grave man.”

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Another Mode Change from Comedy
to Tragedy
• Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax begins with beautiful,
pastel-colored illustrations of a pleasant
village and surrounding meadow.
• But as the story progresses, and people get
greedier and greedier about harvesting what
the trees produce, the pictures get darker
and darker, and so does the future of the city.
• It’s enough to just thumb through the
pictures to document the change in mode.
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Spoiler Alert:

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The Harry Potter Guide to the U.K. :

/>he-harry-potter-guide-to-the-u-k

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THE VALUE OF HUMOR FOR THE

FOUR DIFFERENT MODES
ROMANCE (SPRING): Romances present idealized
and exaggerated worlds with plots focusing around
what Joseph Campbell called “The Journey.”
•The journey does not have to be literal, but it does
have to incorporate some psychological distancing
from family or authority figures.
•Archetypal figures who play a role in journey stories
include a Hero on a Quest, a Villain or a Trickster, a
Challenge, a Prohibition, a Sacrifice, a Sage, and at last
some kind of an Accomplishment or Success.
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Why A Journey?
When author Richard Peck spoke to one of our classes,
he said that in his novels he always includes some kind
of a journey because:
•The characters can meet and interact with new people,
which offers opportunities for new experiences and
new humor.
•On almost any trip there are bound to be
complications which adds excitement to the plot.
•Because he writes for teenagers, who are looking
forward to “leaving” their families as they go off to
college or “move out,” young people “relate” to the
idea of a journey.
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ROMANCE continued
•

The accomplishment might be symbolically shown through a
physical accomplishment, but the reward is really an emotional
or intellectual epiphany. Well-known examples include The
Divine Comedy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lord of
the Rings, and Paradise Lost.

•

One of the symbolic expectations in basic stories is that the
epiphany connects Heaven and Earth, which is why epiphanies
often come to characters on a mountain top, a tower, a
lighthouse, a ladder, or a staircase.

•

Examples in famously humorous stories include Jack’s
beanstalk, Rapunzel’s tower, and Yertle’s stack of turtles in the
Dr. Seuss book. Famous characters who go on journeys
include Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland,
Charlotte and Wilber in Charlotte’s Web, and most recently
Harry Potter in J. K. Rowling’s books.

•

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COMEDY (summer)
• In the classical sense, “comedy” isn’t necessarily funny,
but in contrast to “tragedy” it has a happy ending.
• “High comedy (what we now call ‘smart comedy’ or
‘literary comedy’) relies for its humor on wit and
sophistication, while low comedy relies on burlesque,
crude jokes, and buffoonery.”
• Jessica Milner Davies says that “whether it be English,
medieval Dutch, Spanish, French, Viennese, Russian,
improvised “commedia dell-arte,” or even Japanese
kyògen or nò theater, farce is both the most violent and
physically shocking of dramatic forms of comedy…, but it
is almost the most innocent in that unlike satire or
burlesque it does not offend either individuals or society.
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There are Two Main Types of
Comedies, 1. Comedy of Manners
•

In these stories characters work to outwit the establishment or
the upper class. The traditional Comedy of Manners was
based on an unfair law, which the common person had to
defeat.

•

For example, in Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of Figaro, the
unjust law was that the Lord of the Manor had the right to take

the virginity of any woman marrying one of the Lord’s serfs.

•

In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the unjust “law” was
that Shylock was approved to take a pound of flesh. But
Portia, the smart (woman) lawyer, outwitted the situation by
proving that Shylock had not been approved to take a drop of
blood; therefore he could not take the flesh.
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Comedy of Manners (CONTINUED)
• In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
Jack (who represents the common man) responds
affirmatively to Lady Bracknell’s question of whether
he smokes. Her response is, “I am glad to hear it. A
man should have an occupation of some kind.”
• Later, Jack answers one of her questions by saying
he “doesn’t know,” to which she cheerfully
responds, “I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve
anything that tampers with natural ignorance.
Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and
the bloom is gone.”
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