Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-215) and index
Calvinist humor -- Calvinist humor and the American puritans: "the just hand of God" -- Nathaniel Hawthorne: "that would be a jest indeed" -- Herman Melville: "in no world but a fallen one" -- Mark Twain: "the trouble about special providences" -- William Faulkner: "waiting for the part to begin which he would not like" -- Ernest Hemingway: "isn't it pretty to think so?" -- Nathanael West: "gloriously funny" -- Flannery O'Connor: "funny because it is terrible" -- Calvinist humor revisited
Though the phrase "Calvinist humor" may seem to be an oxymoron, Michael Dunne, in highly original and unfailingly interesting readings of major American fiction writers, uncovers and traces two recurrent strands of Calvinist humor descending from Puritan times far into the twentieth century. Calvinist doctrine views mankind as fallen, apt to engage in any number of imperfect behaviors. Calvinist humor, Dunne explains, consists in the perception of this imperfection. When we perceive that only others are imperfect, we participate in the form of Calvinist humor preferred by William Bra
Verlag:
Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge
;
EBSCO Industries, Inc., Birmingham, AL, USA
Though the phrase "Calvinist humor" may seem to be an oxymoron, Michael Dunne, in highly original and unfailingly interesting readings of major American fiction writers, uncovers and traces two recurrent strands of Calvinist humor descending from...
mehr
Though the phrase "Calvinist humor" may seem to be an oxymoron, Michael Dunne, in highly original and unfailingly interesting readings of major American fiction writers, uncovers and traces two recurrent strands of Calvinist humor descending from Puritan times far into the twentieth century. Calvinist doctrine views mankind as fallen, apt to engage in any number of imperfect behaviors. Calvinist humor, Dunne explains, consists in the perception of this imperfection. When we perceive that only others are imperfect, we participate in the form of Calvinist humor preferred by William Bra.
