A Comic Road to Interiors, or the Pedagogical Matter of Gen Z Humor

Generation Z (Gen Z) represents something of a quintessence for the broken promises that now seem to make up the promise of higher education. But if despair indicates the dark side of generational malaise around things like civic engagement, community, and student learning, the dark humor that has emerged out of these generations points to modes of democratic citizenship that are more about reconciliation than resignation. This essay offers a critical reflection on Gen Z humor, its place in college and university classrooms, and its usefulness as a resource for reconsidering how teaching and learning might be tied to a comically examined life. It proceeds with a fresh look at pedagogies of hope as developed by Paulo Freire, Martha C. Nussbaum, bell hooks, Henry A. Giroux, and others. This examination allows for the conceptualization of a comic poësis for understanding how instructional practices that meet students on uncommon ground contribute to the production, creation, and care for personhood as well as public culture. Ultimately, this essay balances theories of a comic teaching praxis with actual activities from the classroom to meditate on a pedagogy of reconciling curricula with who and where students are, beginning and ending with feedback loops.

When dark humor and moral judgment meet in sacrificial dilemmas: Preliminary evidence with females

The influence of dark humor on moral judgment has never been explored, even though this form of humor is well-known to push the boundaries of social norms. In the present study, we examined whether the presence of dark humor leads female participants to approve a utilitarian response (i.e., to kill one to save many) in sacrificial dilemmas. The effects of two types of humorous contexts were compared (i.e., dark vs. nondark) on dilemmas, which differed according to whom benefits from the crime (i.e., oneself and others vs. others only). In addition to collecting moral responses, individuals’ emotional states were assessed at three critical steps: Before and after reading the jokes and also after performing the moral judgment task. Our results revealed that dark and nondark humor similarly elicited a positive emotional state. However, dark humor increased the permissiveness of the moral violation when this violation created benefits for oneself. In self and other beneficial dilemmas, female participants in the dark humorous condition judged the utilitarian response more appropriate than those in the nondark condition. This study represents a first attempt in deepening our understanding of the context-dependent nature of moral judgment usually assessed in sacrificial dilemmas.

Postmemory

This chapter addresses the links between memory, politics, and performance in the works of the so-called postmemory generations in Latin America, composed of those who were born or grew up during the dictatorships and internal conflicts that shattered the region during the second half of the twentieth century. It specifically discusses two plays: Villa+Discurso (Villa+Speech), written and directed by the Chilean dramaturge Guillermo Calderón, and Cuarto Intermedio: Guía práctica para juicios de lesa humanidad (Recess: A practical guide for trials of crimes against humanity), directed by the Argentine filmmaker Juan Schnitman and performed by the writer Félix Bruzzone, a son of disappeared parents, and Mónica Zwaig, a French lawyer and actress. Both Villa+Discurso and Cuarto intermedio touch upon Latin America’s bleakest crimes but without solemnity and with (dark) humor, and raise important and uncomfortable questions, such as who decides what to do with the material traces of the painful past, and what is our responsibility, our implication, to shared national traumas. Both plays claim that (post)memory is not merely a familial and private issue but is also a collective effort. Moreover (post)memory is presented here not so much as a representation, a recollection, or even a reenactment of the past, but as concrete actions and political interventions in the present. Thus the focus in this chapter is not only on the content of these plays (how postmemory is represented) but, more important, on the effects, and affects, that they produce on and beyond the stage.

Comparing Three Distinct Samples on Traumatic Events, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Dysfunctional Coping Styles

The purpose of this study was to compare three distinct United States (US) samples on traumatic events, dysfunctional coping styles and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The samples were: civilian (n = 97); non-combat military veterans (n=61) and combat military veterans (n = 91). An online survey was used to collect all the data. The average age across all participants was 29 years old. For the overall combined sample, three avoidance coping styles, venting, denial, and dark humor, were each positively related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Looking at differences between the three samples, the combat veteran sample had more traumatic events (TEs), with the most recent TE being longer ago, then the non-combat veteran and civilian samples. There were no sample differences in PTSD. However, the non-combat veteran sample had higher levels of denial, venting and dark humor in dealing with their most recent TE, than the other two samples. This research draws needed attention to helping non-combat military veterans cope in a more positive way with their most recent TE. Future research directions and study limitations are discussed.

MILITARY DARK HUMOR AS A FORM OF ADAPTIVE PROCESSES AND THE INDIVIDUAL�S RESPONSE TO FEAR OF DEATH (PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ASPECT)

The aim of the article is to examine military black humor as a form of adaptive processes and the individual�s response to the fear of death in the system of psychological defense mechanisms and coping strategies. A more complete results in this study can be gotten through the integration of discourse analysis and psychoanalytic interpretation. Discourse analysis has the most empirically oriented approach and allows to focus on extensive psychological issues such as cognition, emotions, attitudes, values, prejudices, memory, motives. Psychoanalytic interpretation focuses on the symbolism of the unconscious, universal meanings and psychological mechanisms that are important material to analyze totality of derived psychological meanings present in dark humor patterns. The material for this empirical, inductive study is text fragments, memes and photographs, which are posted on the website of �Military service� Ukrainian group. Results and discussions. One of the thematic dominants of military dark humor is the threat to life and fear of it. The fear of death itself is one of the human existence conditions. Such amount of fear fits into bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate that does not destroy or paralyze activity. In order to protect his psyche from the destructive effects of traumatic situation during which the norms of fear exceed the standards, a military man often seeks to restore the functional state of his body and reduce emotional stress. Considering this perspective as a pragmatic aspect of humor it can be argued that the creation of the game reality of death in dark humor depends, first of all, on those coping strategies and psychological defense mechanisms, which are most appropriate for a person�s psyche. According to the terror management theory an individual uses certain coping strategies and defense mechanisms depending on whether or not he is aware of the inevitability of death. Analysis of the dark humor patterns created by the Ukrainian military and actualizing the theme of death and everything associated with it make it possible to outline the following range of adaptive mechanisms ranked in a descending order according to their relative importance in the total sample: �Desacralization�, �Regression�, �Desensitization�, �Positive re-evaluation�, �Displacement�, �Sublimation�, �Denial�. Conclusions. Being natural human emotion fear of death during combat activates defense mechanisms and coping strategies. The study of the projection of these occurrences in dark humor have made it possible to conclude that the military dark humor is the result of frustrating life experiences and aimed to reduce sensitivity to fears and improve their psychological state. This is achieved owing to changing the modal evaluation and the capability to be emotionally withdrawn.

With dark humor about a dark future

This article analyses the relationship between black humor and dystopian literature. In dystopia, humor can appear on the surface as language or situational comics, but there is also a deeper link between these two literary phenomena: they confront the reader with an unexpected notion in order to bring him to a critical reflection. There are many dystopias in the Nordic literature that use comic elements. Three of them are discussed in this article: Axel Jensens Epp (1965), Lena Anderssons Duck City (2006) and Kaspar Colling Nielsens Den danske borgerkrig 2018–24 (2013). The analysis shows that classic black humor is enriched with other tragicomic, satirical or surrealistic elements and significantly contributes to the critical tone of the text. In all cases humor is used for the same purpose, and this is a critique of superior power (the so-called superiority theory). Therefore, humor can be considered not only as a stylistic means, but also as a principle of construction of the dystopian works.

Modernism and Postmodernism in Chinese Literature

Modernism and postmodernism are highly contested terms, both in theory and in academic practice. Both are understood here primarily as a mixture of literary styles and agendas, of times and/or areas of flourishment, and of canon (i.e., a selection of typical texts and authors through journals, criticism, or the academy). While the advent of modernity in China can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century, modernism as such does not gain momentum in Chinese literary discourses until the second decade of the 20th century and was adopted in a relatively short time. Therefore, the scope of literary techniques and attitudes deemed “modernist” was usually broad and included competing, sometimes oppositional, trends, but is often characterized by a sense of individualism and of crisis, and by a critique of the concepts of realism, progress, and linear time, as well as by a self-referential style. Aspects of both linguistic and formal playfulness opened modernism to influences from traditional literature and thus brought modernist literature into contact with other realms than in the West. Modernism flourished at different times and in comparable but different environments in various localities in the Sinophone world. Postmodernism was introduced to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China around the mid-1980s, whereas postmodern literature and discourse emerged primarily in the 1990s. Postmodernism rejects the claims to legitimacy of modern logocentrism, stable identities, essentialism, and linear and developmental conceptions of time, as well as concluding ideologies and power structures. In literary practice, it is characterized by techniques such as metafiction, fabulation or hyperreality, fragmentation, bricoleur, pastiche, playfulness, nonlinear or spatial arrangements, intertextuality, parody, and dark humor. It highlights multiple interpretations, or even no coherence, in a single literary text. In China, modernism and postmodernism are simultaneous and overlapping phenomena. Various scholarly debates have evolved regarding chiefly the adoptability of both West-originated terms. They are critically negotiated as (semi-, neo-)colonial, as nationalist literature, as independent and own developments of both concepts, and as an indigenization. The question remains whether these Western terms can be meaningfully applied to describe Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kongese cultural/literary phenomena. In any case, different sociohistorical settings resulted in an adaptation of these highly conscious and independent Western styles. (Post)modernism in the Sinophone world has boundaries different from those of its Western counterpart. It often comprises other forms and own manifestations.

Funny but aversive: A large-scale survey of the emotional response to Covid-19 humor in the Italian population during the lockdown

We often see an upsurge of humor inspired by tragic circumstances: this happened also during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak. However, little is known about the emotional response to tragedy-triggered humor, let alone Covid-19 humor. With a large-scale survey completed during the early stages of Italy’s lockdown, we studied the appreciation (funniness and aversiveness) of different formats of Covid-19 humor shared on social media. Results of an analysis of the role of demographic, personality, and psychological distance factors with linear mixed models showed that Covid-19 humor lacks a “signature” of funniness, but displays a mark of aversiveness. Among demographics, age and gender were key factors: with increasing age and in women, Covid-19 humor was judged as more aversive. Individuals using humor to cope with uneasy circumstances judged Covid-19 humor as funnier and less aversive. Furthermore, the perceived risk of infection amplified Covid-19 humor aversiveness, while kilometrical distance from the first Italian contagion hotspot raised the amusement in global terms. These findings expand our knowledge about dark humor and should raise awareness of the great variation in the emotional impact of Covid-19 humor and of the need to ponder where and with whom to share the laugh about the pandemic.

Uncovering Hidden Curricula: Use of Dark Humor in Anatomy Labs and its Implications for Basic Sciences Education

Humor is subjective within most settings, but within the anatomy laboratory, it is likely to be significantly more contentious. While humor may be considered a component of the hidden curriculum of medical education, it has yet to be studied specifically from a basic sciences perspective. This study sought to understand if, when, how, and why humor may be used in anatomy labs and the implications this may have in basic sciences education. A survey consisting of demographic and qualitative items was designed to sample widely from academics, students, and health professionals with anatomy laboratory experience. A total of 185 respondents, representing 9 countries participated following purposive sampling and snowball recruitment. Findings of significance were 72% of respondents who had experienced dark humor within the anatomy lab. Themes identified from free-text pertained to the use of internal and external barometers to ascertain the appropriateness of humorous remarks and the use of humor as a mechanism for diffusing stress. Polarity in responses concerning the acceptability of dark humor and rude mnemonics was also observed. This study highlighted that while dark humor may be a perceived tension release, many individuals make use of very specific internalized gauges to determine when and what humor may be appropriate. The data emphasized the need for not only future humanistic-focused anatomy but also basic sciences, education research, to better understand and have ideal educational experiences for all. Finally, this study provided further evidence of the impact of the hidden curriculum associated with the use of humor within educational and professional settings.