La Renaissance et le rire

Religion and sense of humor: An a priori incompatibility? Theoretical considerations from a psychological perspective

“…Nevertheless, an empirical science such as psychology should be prudent as to whether the reality of everyday life fits these theoretical, theological and ideological assertions. A deeper historical examination of the relationship between religion and the comic seems to justify the intuitive hypothesis of religion's suspicion of laughter and humor, and many scholars from different disciplines have demonstrated this historical mistrust (e.g., Eco 1983;Hausherr 1944;Le Goff 1990Me´nager 1995).…”

“Pure Joy”: Spinoza on Laughter and Cheerfulness

“…Joy is an expansion of the heart, of which the face bears testimony. Daniel Ménager argues that this doctrine anticipates the dialogue between Descartes and Spinoza: for the former, the soul does not laugh in its highest moments, whilst for Spinoza, laughter is pure joy, an increase of perfection (Ménager 1995, 35).…”

“…Yet noticing that laughter can sometimes be innocent, especially in babies, and maintaining that it is always pure joy are two different matters. All major Renaissance philosophers––Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas More, Desiderius Erasmus, Michel de Montaigne—make use of or praise laughter, often both, as do many other thinkers in that period (see Ménager 1995, 7–11). The Renaissance view of laughter differs from Spinoza’s, however: following the Platonic definition of laughter as a mixture of sadness and joy, Renaissance laughter is predicated on ambivalence or contradictory feelings.…”

“…Spinoza’s innovation is predicated on identifying a new object of laughter. Rather than a form of the ugly, as the Renaissance characterizes it, following a long tradition which begins with Aristotle and Cicero (Joubert 1579; see Ménager 1995), the object is laughter is something good: As noted above, Spinoza explicitly states in the Short Treatise that “laughter is not related to another, but only to the man that notices something good in himself.” Thus, Spinoza rejects the Aristotelian tradition as well, and with it, practically all former thought on laughter.…”

El humor como construcción discursiva de identidades sociales y conflicto ideológico. Un estudio desde la Retórica Constructivista y el análisis del discurso social

“…Por un lado, la historiografía francesa inspirada por la Escuela de los Annales, y particularmente su interés por la historia de las mentalidades, ha abierto un fecundo campo de estudio en la historia de la risa y del humor, capitaneado por Jacques Le Goff (1977Goff ( , 1999, que ha dado grandes estudios como la Histoire du rire et de la dérision, de George Minois (2000), una de las principales obras de referencia en este trabajo, y varios monográficos como los de Bertrand (1995) o Ménager (1995); la obra del helenista…”