CONTENTS.
James Sully
CHAPTER I.
I
NTRODUCTORY.
Objections to serious study of laughter •
1
Previous treatment of subject by philosophers •
4
Their way of dealing with facts •
6
Examination of an illustration given by Dr. Lipps •
9
Common defects of theories •
17
Difficulties of attempt to treat subject scientifically •
19
Scope of inquiry •
20
CHAPTER II.
T
HE
S
MILE
AND
THE
L
AUGH.
Need of studying the bodily process in laughter •
25
Characteristics of the movements of the smile •
26
Expressive function of the smile •
27
Continuity of processes of smiling and laughing •
27
Characteristics of the movements of laughter •
30
Concomitant organic changes during laughter •
33
Physiological benefits of laughing •
34
Effects of excessive laughter •
37
The laugh as expression •
39
Relation of expression to feeling in laughter •
40
Interactions of joyous feeling and organic concomitants •
44
Deviations from the normal type of laugh •
48
CHAPTER III.
O
CCASIONS
AND
C
AUSES
OF
L
AUGHTER.
1. Laughter as provoked by sense-stimulus: tickling •
50
Ticklish areas •
52
Characteristics of the sensations of tickling •
53
Motor reactions provoked by tickling •
56
How far attributes of sensation determine laughter of tickling •
57
The mental factor in effect of tickling •
59
Objective conditions of successful tickling •
60
Tickling as appealing to a particular mood •
62
2. Other quasi-reflex forms of laughter •
64
Varieties of automatic or “nervous” laughter •
65
Common element in these varieties: relief from strain •
67
3. Varieties of joyous laughter •
70
Prolonged laughing fit •
73
The essential element in joyous laughter •
75
Occasions of joyous laughter •
76
(
a
) Play •
76
(
b
) Teasing as provocative situation •
77
(
c
) Practical joking and laughter •
78
(
d
) Laughter as an accompaniment of contest •
78
(
e
) Occasions of unusual solemnity as provoking laughter •
79
Physiological basis of laughing habit •
80
CHAPTER IV.
V
ARIETIES
OF THE
L
AUGHABLE.
The objective reference in laughter •
82
Universal element in the laughable •
83
Groups of laughable things •
87
(1) ices •
280
Laughing away effete customs •
281
Influence of mirthful spirit on social changes •
283
Effect of evolution of culture groups •
283
Effect of minuter subdivision of sets •
285
Effect of progress in breaking down group-barriers •
286
Droll aspects of transition of society to a plutocratic form •
287
Refining effect of culture-movement on hilarity •
288
Decline of older voluminous merriment •
290
Conflict between popular mirth and authority •
291
Combination of standards in popular estimate of laughable •
293
Preparation for individual laughter •
295
CHAPTER X.
L
AUGHTER
OF
THE
I
NDIVIDUAL:
H
UMOUR.
Definition of humour •
297
Characteristics of humour •
298
Intellectual basis of humorous sentiment •
300
Humorous contemplation as binocular •
301
The field of the laughable for the humorist •
302
Modification of the conative attitude in humour •
304
Complexity of humour as feeling •
305
Problem of fusion of dissimilar feelings •
307
Facts explained by our analysis of humour •
310
Variations of humour with race and nationality •
311
Temperament and individuality in humour •
313
Humour as enlarging range of laughing activity •
315
The finer detection of the amusing in character •
315
The appreciation of unfitness of men to circumstances •
317
Character-study as a pastime •
318
Laughter as permeating sphere of serious •
319
Effect of kindliness in extending range of laughter •
320
Scope for amusing form of self-scrutiny •
321
Laughter as mode of self-correction •
322
How humour aids a man in dealing with others •
325
Laughing away the smaller troubles •
326
Service of humour in the greater troubles •
328
Humorous contemplation of social scene •
330
Amusing aspects of the fine world •
331
The journal as medium of amusing self-display •
334
The social spectacle of the past and of the present •
337
Humour in contemplation of social scene in seasons of stress •
337
The manifestations of war-temper as humorous spectacle •
338
CHAPTER XI.
T
HE
L
AUGHABLE
IN
A
RT:
C
OMEDY.
Source of impulse of comic art •
343
Scope for laughter in art as a whole •
345
Origin of jocose literature •
346
The dawn of comedy •
346
Comic incidents as development of child
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