Are We Having Fun Yet? Humor in the English Class
1999; National Council of Teachers of English; Volume: 88; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/822423
ISSN2161-8895
Autores Tópico(s)Humor Studies and Applications
ResumoIn all of my English classes, from AP to remedial, as well as in my creative writing workshop, my students learn that humor is an important means of discovering profound truths. They are often fascinated to see that some of the most serious works, in particular Shakespeare's dramas, contain so many funny scenes. They become aware that comedy is often serious business. We read together, interpret, and then view the graveyard scene in Hamlet. They are well aware that death, and especially poor Ophelia's death by suicide, is no joke. Yet they can still appreciate the humor of the irreverent grave digger and his proprietary attitude toward his grave. They often act out this scene and, through the banter of the two clowns, recognize Shakespeare's point concerning the leveling effect of death. Gallows humor, they discover, can be poignant and comical as well. They also study the use of the pun in this tragedy and in a short exercise create their own. (Students are quick to understand why the pun is one of the lowest forms of humor.) While Macbeth s certainly a grim play, I even manage to provide a brief respite from all the bloodletting. I draw from an old musical we performed in college called When Shakespeare's Ladies Sing (George n.d.). (This is not a particularly great musical; but, since we were an all girls' school, we were pretty limited.) I belt out the Lady Macbeth solo Somnambulistic Lady. This always takes a bit of nerve, considering my voice; yet if I expect the students to take risks (especially in the humor department), I must take them, too. Due to this performance, my students never forget the sleepwalking scene or the meaning of somnambulistic. One of the unusual sources of classroom humor comes from the great epic Paradise Lost. I work with this long poem on all academic levels. In f ct, it's one of my remedial class's favorite units. What's so funny about the loss of Eden? On the day I begin the lesson, I put up a sign outside my door that says, Welcome to hell. To some of my students this is a given, but they are all curious. We begin reading aloud, and slowly we work our way out of the burning lake to the wonderful debate in hell in which Satan and his colleagues try to figure out how to recover from their defeat in the war in heaven. Students love acting out this scene. They
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