Toward a Theoretical Framework for the Study of Humor in Literature and the Other Arts

by Jerry Farber

With a clearer understanding of the way humor works, we might be better able to give it the attention it deserves when we study and teach the arts. But where do we turn to find a theoretical framework for the study of humor—one that will help to clarify the role that humor plays in the arts and that will help us as well to understand differences in the way individual perceivers respond to humor in art?