Why Is a Talking Bird Funny? Aspects of Humor in The Jewbird by Bernard Malamud

Authors

  • Rumena Bužarovska
  • Rumena Bužarovska

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2011.3.10

Keywords:

Jewbird, Bernard Malamud, humor, comic, incongruity, superiority, society, culture

Abstract

This paper explores the humor in Bernard Malamud’s story “The Jewbird”. Humor is analyzed through two aspects: the universal and the socio-cultural. The universal refers to the mechanisms that render something comic regardless of their sociocultural setting, i.e the culture from which they originate. Two existing theories of humor are used to describe this: the incongruity theory and the superiority theory. The socio-cultural aspect is a description of the elements of humor whose creation and perception depend on the local culture from which they originate. Finally, the paper reviews the significance of the elements that create an appropriate atmosphere for the comic.

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Published

2011-11-13

How to Cite

Bužarovska, R. ., & Bužarovska, R. . (2011). Why Is a Talking Bird Funny? Aspects of Humor in The Jewbird by Bernard Malamud. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, 3(1), 175–185. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2011.3.10

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011): BELLS - volume 3

Section

LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Rumena Bužarovska, Rumena Bužarovska

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