670 research outputs found
A small joke may go a long way
No full textThis paper reports and analyzes the author’s own experiences of implementing a “joke starting” strategy into the lecture format of a given course. The “joke starting” strategy meant that every lecture in the studied course was (jump) started with a small joke. Thus, we investigate one particular approach to consciously use humor in teaching, an area well represented in the literature. The ambition with the “joke starting” strategy was to improve classroom climate, increase student interaction and achieve a better learning experience. The study deals with a single course, which the author taught three times 2002-2004. The “joke starting” strategy was introduced in 2003 and used also in 2004. No other conscious changes were made to the course format or its content during these years. Hence, by investigating course evaluations and grade distributions we can quantitatively measure the overall impact of the “joke starting” strategy on students’ perceptions of the course and their learning results. This is complemented with anecdotal evidence from the author regarding the perceptions of changes in the classroom climate and students’ interaction levels. The results indicate that the “joke starting” strategy was quite successful. The students’ evaluations and the grade distributions improved across the board. Moreover, the anecdotal evidence speaks about a more open and interactive classroom climate. The conclusion from this small empirical study is therefore that a small joke may go a long way
A small joke may go a long way [Elektronisk resurs]
No full textThis paper reports and analyzes the author’s own experiences of implementing a “joke starting” strategy into the lecture format of a given course. The “joke starting” strategy meant that every lecture in the studied course was (jump) started with a small joke. Thus, we investigate one particular approach to consciously use humor in teaching, an area well represented in the literature. The ambition with the “joke starting” strategy was to improve classroom climate, increase student interaction and achieve a better learning experience. The study deals with a single course, which the author taught three times 2002-2004. The “joke starting” strategy was introduced in 2003 and used also in 2004. No other conscious changes were made to the course format or its content during these years. Hence, by investigating course evaluations and grade distributions we can quantitatively measure the overall impact of the “joke starting” strategy on students’ perceptions of the course and their learning results. This is complemented with anecdotal evidence from the author regarding the perceptions of changes in the classroom climate and students’ interaction levels. The results indicate that the “joke starting” strategy was quite successful. The students’ evaluations and the grade distributions improved across the board. Moreover, the anecdotal evidence speaks about a more open and interactive classroom climate. The conclusion from this small empirical study is therefore that a small joke may go a long way
Joke as a means of conflict settling
No full textThe article is devoted to the use of jokes as one of the verbal means of deintensification of confrontation. The examples from modern English works of art illustrating the use of jokes at different stages of the conflict are presented. As a rule, a joke can be used in open and post-conflict phases, the latent phase of the conflict is not expressed. The use of jokes on the open stage of the conflict can create a kind of tipping point to change the course of the conflict, and thereby help to resolve it. On the post-conflict stage, a joke helps to build relationships that can be important preventing renewed conflict. The article draws attention to the combination of other means of deintensification confrontation with a joke to achieve the best result in the conflict settlement process. The verbal means can be referred to the apology and change of subject, non-verbal gestures and kisses, para-verbal — soothing tone. All of these funds, if used in conjunction with a joke, contribute to a successful resolution of the conflict. They can also enhance the effect of the joke, which is especially important in the case of non-verbal means. The author notes that the effectiveness of the joke depends on both sides — how well one of the interviewees apply the tool and how the second would take it. In the case of a failed joke, the conflict is likely to increase
The narrative joke: Conceptual structure and linguistic manifestation
No full textThe research tackles the issue generally overlooked by scholars in humor research: how jokes are created by a joke-teller. Based on major findings in the leading trend in humor research—Semantic Script-based Theory of Humor and General Theory of Humor (SSTH-GTVH), the present author builds a framework within which one can describe how narrative jokes are constructed conceptually and fleshed out textually. The premise underlying the theory is that humorous texts—narrative jokes included—are derived from non-humorous element(stereotypical situations). Drawing heavily on GTVH, the present theory shows how the knowledge resources required for joke construction contribute to the actual process of generation. A two-stage model of the narrative joke generation is introduced. At the first stage, the conceptual structure of the narrative joke (defined cognitively and described by using the notational system developed by Ray Jackendoff) instantiates a specific semantic content (defined within the theory of scripts and described by using the notational system developed in the Ontological Semantics theory). The instantiation of the conceptual structure results in a template of the storyline of the narrative joke capturing all the elements necessary for the comical situation. At the second stage, the instantiated conceptual structure is manifested linguistically. The manifestation involves the selection of linguistic form appropriate for expressing the elements of the instantiated conceptual structure. The selection process in turn is regulated by two constraints—underspecification and overspecification constraints—which select the most appropriate linguistic units and rule out those too concrete or redundant semantically. Other issues pertaining to the organization of the conceptual structure are discussed. In particular, the cultural variations of the conceptual structure and cases of its multiple instantiation in a single joke are investigated. The appendix, containing analysis of a number of jokes, illustrates the presented theory
The Understood Author: A hermeneutical exploration of audiences interpretation of the author as productive practices behind a text
No full textin English This project builds on the tradition of audience research that theoretically and empirically established that meaning is formed in the negotiation between the text and the reader, that the audiences are agentic, their interpretation of media is contextual and situated, and that they have the potential to resist the media. It argues that it is important to explore people's attention to different sources: who is listening, to whom, and why - and asks how people understand the notion of an author that they encounter in the interpretation of factual media texts, and how this interpretation is brought back into the interpretative act. The thesis subscribes to philosophical hermeneutics as an overarching theoretical as well as methodological framework to devise a concept of an understood author that is a result of the interpretative act, where the author imagined and anticipated by the reader (in the form of prior knowledge and prejudices) is encountered and actualised by the author inscribed into the text. I carried out 28 in-depth face-to-face interviews with Czechs born between 1948-1963 to explore participants' experiences and relationship with media and media authors. Employing hermeneutical analysis, the focus is not to capture what is an author, but how it happened to be so. The..
Art as a Joke. From Francis Picabia to Maurizio Cattelan
No full textDada movement stripped art of seriousness, turned art into a joke, a sophisticated
fun. Where there were Dadaists, there was laughter, as Hans
Richter once said. Dadaists formed an opposition: bour-geois false values,
over which hovered the stench of death and money – versus life. They stood
on the side of life; on the side of art stripped of bourgeois seriousness.
But the Dadaists also found liberated joke – a joke that served no purpose,
fought against nothing and attacked nothing. ‘Entracte’ by Francis Picabia
and ready-mades by Marcel Duchamp were in fact the jokes, which formed
a new concept of art – art liberated from the domination of taste. Readymades
had all the attributes of artwork : author, title, year of creation,
audience, critics, etc., but did they become works of art? The artists are
the ones who choose and force us to follow their choices, who reject good
taste and that is the way they take control over art – by separating good
art from bad. The joke is changing the way we think about art, pointing to
the ambivalence adopted by our assumptions about the world. In an interview,
Duchamp said that the public treated very seriously contemporary
art. Did he want to say that it was too serious? Fluxus developed dada-like
ambiguity. Where the audience expected to see art, often they received
something that could be perceived as joke. The ambiguity was attributed
not only to Fluxus, but virtually to the entire art of the 1960’s, as evidenced
by the Kamp aesthetics. Kamp is ‘the seriousness that fails’. Kamp means
a change with respect to bad art and it shows that we can play with it. In
the 1960’s and the 1970’s, in the second wave of feminism, laughter returns
as a weapon, as a tool to combat patriarchal culture
Irony and Joke in Byzantine Epistolography
No full textСреди многочисленных достоинств Александра Германовича Герцена хотелось бы отметить одно качество, не связанное напрямую с его научной деятельностью, но относящееся к его человеческой сути - искрометное чувство юмора, которым виртуозно владеет юбиляр. Поэтому позволим себе посвятить А.Г. Герцену небольшую зарисовку о свойствах византийской иронии и шутки.Культура смеха не была чужда византийскому обществу, но изучением этого «несколько странного феномена человеческой культуры», коим является смех, долгое время в византинистике незаслуженно пренебрегали. К сожалению, в византинистике тема смеха и гротеска пока не получила должного развития.The article is dedicated to the research of some aspects of the so-called «laughter problem» in Byzantine culture. The subject of this study is irony and joke which are traced in the letters of the late Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425). The origin of the author, the level of his education as well as circle of his personal contacts determined the nature of his joke and style of humorous communication with partners. Undoubtedly the emperor belonged to intellectuals and this fact indeed defined the moderate character of the emotional expressions and more delicate sense of humor
“Why so serious?” – The joke as a means of expression in architecture
No full textThe paper presents the joke as a means of expression used in architecture. The author debates whether the architecture should always be serious. The paper describes and gives historical and contemporary examples of how the comical effect is achieved in architecture. The paper is also an attempt to explain and understand what the jokes in architecture are used for
The Joke in Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen (v. 21–23)
No full textThe article deals with the history of interpretation of the joke in v. 21–23 of Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen. There is no consensus among researchers about the meaning of the passage under consideration, what order of verses is preferable, and what role these verses play in the opening scene of the comedy. The textual and contextual analysis allows the author to interpret the obscure passage so that the proposed interpretation suits the poetics of Aristophanes’ comedies best. The author of the article argues against the change in the manuscripts’ order of the verses. The passage in question should be understood as follows: Aristophanes quotes a certain Phyromachus, who in public space made a speech mistake and instead of ἑτέρας ἕδρας ʽother places’ said ἑταίρας ἕδρας, which approximately means ‘hetairas’ seats.’ Since the context implies that the female characters ought to ʽtake their places,’ the quotation of Phyromachus’ mistake turns out to be suitable. In addition, the reduction of the paratragic pathos of the opening scene of the comedy with the help of a joke based on physiological humor is characteristic for the poetic toolkit of Aristophanes and allows him to gain the favor of viewers of different cultural levels
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