A Source Book of Literary and Philosophical Writings about Humour and Laughter

In Thankful Acknowledgment to Dr. Figueroa-Dorrego & Dr. Larkin-Galiñanes

As most of you perceptive blogviewers may have noticed, Dr. Jorge Figueroa-Dorrego and Dr. Cristina Larkin-Galiñanes' comprehensive anthology--A Source Book of Literary and Philosophical Writings about Humour and Laughter--has been the backbone of my blog and my first contact with the humor study up till now.

In chronological order, the Source Book is not only edited beginner-friendly but also academically exhaustive. It does help along my first navigation into the realm of humor and does equip me with a sense of direction in this study. Even in time of extreme fatigue, I'd like to re-read and share some passages from the Source Book by posting them intact without my own critique. Some examples among my blog posts, I believe, can best justify my act of sharing. The terse expressions, the pertinent choice of words, the classical attitude that speaks a modern mind...all these conspire together to egg me on to share their words and efforts.

This often leads to my beginning my blog post with a quasi-disclaimer, as long as I post  passages taken intact from the Source Book. Still, I have scruples. Until 10 days ago (January 10), my scruples were killed when I received a message. IT WAS FROM DR. FIGUEROA-DORREGO! He wrote to tell me I don't have to remove any article with his words in it. He believes more people can know about and hence benefit from the Source Book as a result. His reassuring and encouraging words are so rewarding to me in my first attempt at  humor study. I record here my warmest acknowledgments to him for his permission.

※ A note from Dr. Figueroa-Dorrego:

 http://alvindahn.blogspot.com/2011/01/lodovico-castelvetro-on-art-of-poetry.html#comments

※ A review of the Source Book:

 http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7805&pc=9

※ Dr. Figueroa-Dorrego's current projects at Universidade de Vigo:

http://webs.uvigo.es/angelestome/start.html

Translation Project: Biographies of Jesters (Guji Liezhuan 滑稽列傳) from The Record of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史記)

Picture joined with graphics taken from:
(upper left) 淳于髡 http://hanyu.iciba.com/wiki/342688.shtml;

(upper right) 西門豹 http://www.jpcai.com/Html/yuwen3_46_8368.html;

(lower left) 東方朔 http://www.epochtimes.com.au/b5/10/4/5/n2867151.htm;

(lower right) 優孟 http://bbs.voc.com.cn/archiver/tid-2031406-page-2.html.

January 18, 2011.

In the West, fools and jesters have enlivened numerous masterpieces of  literature; in the East, witty courtiers have dubbed the history with diverse humorous tones. While the former display the functions of humor in fiction, the latter have humor put to use in fact.

In Sima Qian's Shiji (史記), or The Record of the Grand Historian as often known in the West, a whole section is devoted to guji (滑稽), an equivalent for humor in Chinese (cf. http://alvindahn.blogspot.com/2010/09/sima-qian-biographies-of-jesters-or.html). This section is therefore entitled "Guji Liezhuan" (滑稽列傳), literally a series of biographies of the humorists, and is often translated into English as "Biographies of Jesters." Composed of biographies of seven witty historical figures, almost all directly related to the court, "Guji Liezhuan" actually comes in one single chapter instead of several. With its paragraphs echoing each other, a figure can be depicted in one paragraph as the main character and later mentioned in another as a contrast. A clear-cut separation of one specific humorous figure from another is impossible.

Because a translation of "Guji Liezhuan" is often requested, and because a complete, fully annotated on-line version is hard to find, I decided to come up with my own translation, neither because I am confident nor because I am competent, but because there is a need and I am, as a student of humor, obliged. My translation will come in the original paragraphing in case of any misunderstanding or mistakes. All text will be covered in the hope of a faithful, complete translation.

The seven humorists, or jesters, are (in Guji Liezhuan's original order): Chunyu Kun (淳于髡), You Meng (優孟 ), You Zhan (優旃), Guo Sheren (郭舍人), Dongfang Shuo (東方朔), Wang Xiansheng (王先生), and Ximen Bao (西門豹).* The annotated Chinese edition of Shiji my work of translation relies on will be:
司馬遷. 韓兆琦 注譯. 新譯史記, 第八冊. 臺北市：三民, 2008. (ISBN: 978-95-14-5001-8)
(Sima Qian. Ed. Han Zhaoqi. New Translation Shiji. vol.VIII. Taipei: Sanmin, 2008.)

*It is to be noted that some of these names are part name and part title, or part name and part honorific address. Instead of giving a detailed explanation to each, I shall explain later in the annotation to the first-mentioned paragraph.

Lodovico Castelvetro: On the Art of Poetry (1570)

Picture taken from "Dizionario del pensiero cristiano alternativo." ERESIE.IT.

http://www.eresie.it/it/id574.htm. January 8, 2011.

※ The following is taken intact from Figueroa-Dorrego & Larkin-Galiñanes's book, A Source Book of Literary and Philosophical Writings about Humour and Laughter (Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. 198-200), without any of my personal critique. This blog post is therefore subject to immediate removal upon notice. ※

[...] as he [Castelvetro] intends to search for the proper kind of ludicrous matter for comedy, he believes that "the proper objects for comedy to imitate are stupid or (end of Page 198) ugly persons who are neither harmed nor pained by their stupidity or ugliness." In his analysis of the risible, Castelvetro asserts that "[l]aughter is provoked by pleasurable things apprehended by the senses or the imagination," and that these may be divided into four classes. The first has nothing to do with humour, because it is the laughter produced by the pleasure of meeting beloved people again after a long absence or by the recovery of valuable things. The second type of "pleasurable things" that raise laughter is a recurrent humoristic device in comedy: deception. The reason Castelvetro gives for the pleasure caused by the representation of deceit is that the original sin corrupted our nature so much that we delight in the ills of others as we do in our own good fortune.

And no human ills delight us more than those which proceed from the faculty peculiar to man, namely, the reason; for when others are deceived in our presence we assume that we are superior to them, and superior in the very faculty which makes man akin to God and sets him far above all other creatures. (On the Art of Poetry)

Castelvetro's explanation of why people laugh when others are deceived is not, therefore, very different from that given by what will later be called the Superiority Theory of Humour. Yet Castelvetro expands on the subject and distinguishes four kinds of deception, depending on whether it is produced by: 1) ignorance, drunkenness, dreams, or delirium; 2) self-ignorance; 3) unexpected turns; or 4) machinations or chance; which is a quite good classification of the different kinds of deceits that produce risible situations in comedy.

The third category of things that give us pleasure and provoke our laughter are wickedness of soul and physical deformity. As this may sound bizarre, Castelvetro explains that it is so due to, once again, the original sin, which has made us take pleasure in the defects of others, because it contributes to our self-esteem, pride, and joy. However, we only laugh when the defects are somehow disguised and we can attribute our laughter to something else, because we are aware that such pleasure is opprobrious. And, finally, the fourth class of pleasurable things that raise laughter are sexual issues. As these lewd comments (end of Page 199) or situations are shameful, we again only laugh at them if they are somehow hidden or we are unobserved by others. Therefore, Castelvetro considers laughter too related to sinful matters, such as deception, wickedness, arrogance, and obscenity not to be kept in check. His attitude to humour then is not too different from that of Plato, the Church Fathers, the Puritans, or Hobbes. He lists many topics that may produce laughter in comedies, but ignores many other issues and devices that were pointed out by rhetoricians and that were common in contemporary plays such as mistaken identities, the conflict between appearance and reality, misunderstanding, rhetorical and dramatic irony, linguistic humour, and so on.

-- Figueroa-Dorrego, Jorge and Cristina Larkin-Galiñanes. A Source Book of Literary and Philosophical Writings about Humour and Laughter: The Seventy-Five Essential Texts from Antiquity to Modern Times. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. 198-200. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-4730-1; ISBN-10: 0-7734-4730-X.