Humor is an index of culture. That is, what people find humorous at any moment in history tends to go well beyond standards of comic judgement, revealing insights into social trends, shared beliefs among in-groups (and out-groups), and conventional wisdom about what matters (or not) and why. This course will consider various ways in which humor represents a cultural zeitgeist - or, a spirit of the times - particularly in the U.S., but also, where appropriate, in transnational contexts. More specifically, it will highlight how humor represents personal frames of mind as well as generational or collective mindsets in specific times and places. It will therefore enable an examination of humor that locates what is funny, comical, laughable, etc. in certain forms of expression in public life. Such an examination will begin with a critical reflection on what students consider to be their own senses of humor and end with a robust notion of what it can be to recognize a comic spirit as a shared sensibility associating any single self to others.
ENG 130 and ENG 140