| Description |
viii, 212 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Laughter "from below" -- Authoritative voices speak : philosophers and theologians weigh-in on laughter -- "God's mistake" : Holocaust laughter in Elie Wiesel's Gates of the forest -- Believing apostates : laughter in Shusaku Endo's Silence -- Flowers in the dark : African American consciousness, laughter, and resistance in Toni Morrison's Beloved -- Toward a theology of laughter |
| Summary |
"What is the theological and ethical significance of the laughter of the oppressed and what does it mean to laugh at the horrible - to laugh while one suffers? The majority of ethical philosophical theory and western theology maintains that laughter is nihilistic and irresponsible. The Laughter of the Oppressed argues that the dominant social location of these theologians and theorists has led to a failure to consider laughter "from below." The laughter of these oppressed peoples is uncharted terrain that Bussie travels by examining the fiction of Elie Wiesel, Toni Morrison, and Shusaku Endo. In these authors' well-respected texts, Bussie discovers the laughter of the Jews during the Holocaust, the laughter of African Americans both slave and free, and the laughter of the persecuted religious minority of Japanese Christians |
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The Laughter of the Oppressed concludes that laughter functions as an invaluable ethical and theological mode of resistance in the face of radically negating oppression."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016. Portes de la forêt
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Morrison, Toni. Beloved.
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Endō, Shūsaku, 1923-1996. Chinmoku.
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Oppression (Psychology) -- In literature.
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Laughter -- Religious aspects -- Christianity
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Laughter in literature.
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| LC no. |
2007020176 |
| ISBN |
9780567026774 (hbk.) |
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0567026779 (hbk.) |
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9780567026781 (paperback) |
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0567026787 (paperback) |
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