Fundamentalizm religijny muzułmańskich organizacji terrorystycznych a stan zagrożenia w Europie

Author(s): Barbara Kobzarska-Bar / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2014

Muslim fundamentalism is one of the movements of the Islamic social-political thought while Islamic terrorism is a method of acting chosen by radical supporters of warring extremism. Those two notions concerning different social phenomena are often confused. The author’s aim is to set the knowledge about fundamentalism and jihadism in order as well as to convince the reader that one should not perceive internally diversified Islam merely through those two notions. A new ethnic policy based on a well-thought-out integration strategy is a challenge for Poland. Two kinds of threat should be taken into account in the immigration policy planning: those related to Islamic terrorism developing in parallel societies, and otherscaused by the increase of social tension resulting from ignorance and xenophobia giving rise to islamophobia.

Różnice kulturowe w prowadzeniu wojny: dlaczego różne kultury różnie prowadzą wojny?

Author(s): Matej Cota / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2014

The paper gives insight into the subject of culturally different ways of war-making. The objective is to further examine armed conflict in different societies and cultures. By analyzing key parameters and variables of the concept of war and strategy, the paper puts into focus cultural differences between the ways of making war by prominent military organizations. Unlike other publications, which elaborated in detail key features of warfare between various culturally different societies throughout history, this paper puts stress on strategy. Strategic culture is the dominant factor which decides how the society wages war.

Affect philosophy meets incongruity:

Author(s): Mark Weeks / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The emergence of philosophical affect theory, sourced substantially in Continental philosophy, has intensified scholarly attention around affective potentials in laughter. However, the relationship between laughter’s affect and the comic remains a complicated one for researchers, with some maintaining that the two should be approached separately (Emmerson 2019, Parvulescu 2010). While there is a credible academic rationale for drawing precise distinctions, the present article takes an integrative approach to laughter and the comic. It analyses, then synthesises, points of convergence between key texts in affect philosophy and certain elements of incongruity-based humour theory. Specifically, the article seeks to demonstrate that some integration can bring insight and clarity to discussion of transformative potentials sometimes attributed to forms of comic laughter, especially within cultural studies and social science following the philosophy of Deleuze. This approach may also usefully complicate the concept of incongruity itself.

Disparagement humour and anti-obesity attitudes

Author(s): Jacob Burmeister,Robert Carels / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

People with obesity are often the target of disparaging humour. The typical derision of obesity found in everyday life also extends into the realm of the media. Many assumptions have been made about the effects this type of humour may have on the public’s attitudes toward people with obesity, but little empirical research exists. In the present research, two studies sought to uncover whether jokes and humorous media depictions of people with obesity affect individuals’ attitudes. In Study 1, participants (N = 271) either read a list of derogatory jokes about obesity, read a list of derogatory comments about obesity, or read a list of jokes that were unrelated to obesity. All participants were then asked to report their 1) attitudes toward people with obesity in several domains, 2) level of belief in stereotypes about obesity and 3) judgement of the social acceptability of jokes about obesity. Participants’ scores on these dependent measures did not differ across groups suggesting obesity jokes do not have an immediate impact on attitudes. In Study 2, participants (N = 146) were shown video clips from film and television programmes that featured derogatory humour targeting obese characters. Again, participants’ scores on dependent measures did not differ across groups. The results of these studies suggest that brief exposure to derogatory weight-related humour may not affect individuals’ attitudes toward people with obesity as might be assumed. Longer exposure to disparaging humour may be required to shift individuals’ attitudes about people with obesity.

Book review

Author(s): Jay Friesen / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Developing the humour repertoire concept to guide future tourism-humour research

Author(s): Anja Pabel,Philip L. Pearce / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2019

The central interest in this study is to develop and position the humour repertoire concept fortourism and leisure research. The term humour repertoire encompasses the totality of aperson’s abilities and skills to both appreciate and produce humour. Such skills include theindividual’s ability to tell/retell humorous (travel) stories, jokes from their life and travels, andthe ability to see travel and leisure situations as amusing. A framework outlining the role ofthe humour repertoire is presented and an online empirical study is reported to addressselected components of the conceptual scheme. The results show a weak association betweenhumour appreciation and production, indicating that researchers examining humour intourism need to be careful in building generic implications from selected work. Attention isthen given to the multiple social and contextual factors beyond the individual level that need tobe considered when assessing humour in diverse tourism contexts. Fresh research directionsare indicated by considering the richness of the repertoire framework and links to cognitiveschema research.

Gender stereotypes depicted in online sexist jokes

Author(s): Anastasia Nelladia Cendra,Teresia Dian Triutami,Barli Bram / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

This research aimed to explore gender stereotypes depicted in online sexist jokes collectedfrom laughfactory.com. Linguistically speaking, jokes as a subtype of humour have become acommon phenomenon in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, not all jokes can bring positivevibes for everyone. Yet, these forms of jokes are still commonly found, especially on theInternet. Some online sources, including websites of jokes, present a lot of collections of jokesfor fun, but a number of the jokes are categorized as sexist jokes, which might also beregarded as offensive in a certain context. Data were collected from the laughfactory.comwebsite and then were analysed by using the three-dimensional model of Critical DiscourseAnalysis (CDA) and the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH). Results showed that themajority of the jokes observed were targeted at women (90%) and a small number wastargeted at men (10%). Women were stereotyped as sexual objects, emotionally expressivebeings, homemakers, being talkative, being stupid or brainless, and belonging to a lower classthan men. Men, on the other hand, were stereotyped as worse than women.

Performing gender through stand-up comedy in Spanish

Author(s): Leonor Ruiz-Gurillo / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

The aim of this paper is to examine Eva Hache’s humorous gender-related monologues,broadcast in the show El Club de la Comedia [The Comedy Club] in Spain between 2012 and2013. The corpus comprises 24 stand-up monologues, which have been analysed bothquantitatively and qualitatively. The present paper offers a case study in three different ways.First, an analysis of different humorous sequences makes it possible to distinguish arepresentation of both feminine and masculine identities, as well as a confrontation betweenthe two genders. In fact, Eva Hache’s style supports the feminine identity and facilitates theteasing and mockery of men. Second, a polyphonic study of men as speakers (locutors) andutterers (Ducrot 1996) will serve to differentiate certain features of their identity from adiscursive perspective. Finally, a detailed examination of humorous sequences shows howthese performative sequences can prove useful to maintain hierarchy, to reinforce an in-group,i.e. a women’s group, to solidify men’s group boundaries, and even to subvert gendernormativity (Bing 2004). As it will be demonstrated in our analysis, humorous markers andindicators play an important role in the construction of jab lines and the final punch line ofthese sequences. Furthermore, the results show that there are few strategies aimed atchallenging the status quo in this corpus, although they illustrate an ongoing movementtowards a feminist humour that has been almost non-existent in Spain so far.

Hybrid humour as cultural translation:

Author(s): Merouan Bendi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

Humour is a phenomenon that is pervasive in the human heritage in all its different ethnic andcultural diversity; however, humorous effects might exceed the mere pleasure or laughter toserve as a strategy of survival. Hybrid humour has an important societal role in breakingpsychological barriers between people as well as in denouncing dominant discourses,criticising realities, and promoting resistance. This paper investigates hybrid humour ascultural translation, particularly Beur verbal humour in France. The first section of this paperexplores the notion of cultural translation. The second part is devoted to investigating thehybridisation of cultures from a postcolonial perspective, and subsequently interpreting thenotion of hybrid humour as a translational act. Finally, I analyse a set of hybrid jokes made bythe Franco-Algerian humourist Fellag.

Incongruous liaisons:

Author(s): Izuu Nwankwọ / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

Nigerian humourists have always told risible jokes within myriad pre-colonial satirical acts.Following on their heels in recent times, stand-up comedy has emerged as one of the mostprevalent art forms in the country, providing entertainment through laughter-eliciting jokes.Accompanying this development also, is an increasing attitude of offence-taking which hasseen post-mortem criticisms and castigation of comedians. Not much scholarly attention hasbeen paid to this menacing backlash against ostensible “inappropriate jokes” and the fact thatstand-up humour is primarily derived from causing offence. What happens is that jokeperformances take place within liminal moments, which allows for audience’s suspension ofoffence and the performer’s unwritten consent to stay within socially accepted bounds of goodhumour. Through performance analysis, this paper sets out to study how four randomlyselected Nigerian comics—I Go Dye, Basket Mouth, Klint da Drunk and AY—deploy selfcensorshipin averting offence within their joke routines. The essay finds that despite thespecificities of stand-up arts, which place peculiar demands on artists’ joking capabilitiesespecially in its dependence on courting audiences’ participation and familiarity, thesecomedians have devised specific means through which they circumvent the stringency ofeliciting mirth through insult. Hence, their jokes and those of others who have learned theirtrade well, often elicits hilarity rather than offence.

An Austrian in Hollywood:

Author(s): Delia Chiaro,Giuseppe De Bonis / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This paper examines the work of Billy Wilder whose rich cinematic production frequentlyinvolves the collision of different languages as well as the clash of dissimilar cultures. As anAustrian living in the USA, the director had the privilege of gaining insight into his adoptedculture from the point of view of an outsider – a bilingual “other” who made 25 films inalmost 40 years of working in Hollywood. His films recurrently depict foreign characters atwhich Wilder pokes fun whether they are English, French, German, Italian, Russian or eventhe Americans of his adopted country. More precisely, the paper offers an overview of themulti-modal portrayals of diverse “foreigners,” with examples taken from a small butsignificant sample of Wilder’s films. The subtitling of dialogue in the secondary language forthe target English-speaking audience and the specific translation solutions are not within thescope of this discussion, instead we focus on the comic collision of two languages and moreimportantly, on the way Wilder implements humour to highlight the absurdity of culturaldifference. In other words, our main goal is to explore two or more languages in contrastwhen they become a humorous trope.

One text, two varieties of German:

Author(s): Mary Catherine Frank / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

A heterolingual text is characterised by the presence of two or more different languages, or two or more varieties of the same language (Corrius & Zabalbeascoa 2011: 115). This article discusses possible methods of translating into English of a text containing two varieties of German: Ottokar Domma’s Der brave Schüler Ottokar [The Good Schoolboy Ottokar]. In these stories, about a schoolboy growing up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the 1960s, Domma creates a zone of friction between child narrator Ottokar’s everyday German and the language of GDR officialdom (“official discourse”). This article first shows that following a conventional method of translating a literary text into English does not allow this satire to be conveyed to the reader. It then presents two alternative translational methods — “thick” and creative — that demonstrate how it is helpful, indeed in some cases necessary, for the translator to adopt a broad understanding of “translation” in respect of texts that exploit multilingualism for humorous purposes. It is argued that methods of translating in which effect is privileged over form — which here included introducing multimodality — can serve well to open up heterolingual humour for speakers of other languages.

Book review

Author(s): Konrad MAGDZIARZ / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Book review

Author(s): Heather Vincent / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Narrating self and topicality in AY and Elenu’s stand-up comedy

Author(s): Azeez Akinwumi Sesan / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

The narrative pattern and discursive strategies of stand-up comedy in Nigeria reveal sometropes and motifs that are contemporary to the socio-political realities of the country. Thesenarrative/discursive strategies demonstrate three discourse types: salutation/greetingdiscourse, reporting discourse, and informing discourse. With these discourse types, stand-upcomedians use themselves as the victims of the jokes in order to evoke laughter in the audience.The performances of stand-up comedy, however, have not been accorded due recognition ofthe functional arts that can be used to critique the failure of the ruling elite in the NigerianState. This is because stand-up comedy is class-selective and occasion-driven. To evokelaughter in the audience and to comment on the reality of existence, stand-up comediansdeploy language aesthetics, kinesics, and atmosphere. The modal transition from pure oralstage to the technological phase of performance informs the conceptualisation of mediamediated performance (MMP) through recorded VCDs/DVDs and social media. Data on thestand-up comedy of AY and Elenu are collected through media mediated performances (MMP)on VCD. Data on the subject matter, topicality, and discursive strategies of AY and Elenu’s(who are among ace stand-up comedians in Nigeria) jokes are analysed and discussed. Withthe subject matter and topicality of the jokes, this paper suggests that stand-up comedyperforms the utilitarian functions of literary and performing arts. It entertains, moralises,satirises, and educates members of heterogeneous audiences on some values and ethos of thecontemporary Nigerian society.

Humour, satire and the emergent stand-up comedy:

Author(s): Bernard Eze Orji / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

Masking is a phenomenon that is traced to almost all human ages, from its prehistoric andprimitive narratives in Africa, its dramatic beginnings in ancient Greece and Rome, to its useas forms of character delineation in the commedia dell’Arte of the 16th and 18th centuryEurope, as well as its age long association with carnivals due largely to its analogous relationto humour and entertainment. Masking, as comic as it may seem, has been critical ofhumanity’s social dispositions from time past. As humans, the façade of the mask is a leewayto speak truth to power and also an opportunity for the performance of self in ways that are atvariant with the real self. As topical as the activities of the masquerade are to the society, noacademic quest has been directed to investigate how humour and satire have always beenassociated with the masquerade. Following the social criticism, humour and entertainmentwhich have become evidently inherent in the emergent stand-up comedy, scholars havedirected their critical attention towards this new live theatre without considering thehumorous functions of the masquerade for an academic enquiry. It is against this backdropthat this paper has decided to investigate and re-establish historically the humorouscontributions of the masking art in almost all facets of human conditions. The resources forthe paper are a combination of library and historical research. The paper establishes thatsatire and humour, as enjoyed in all venues of stand-up comedy acts in Nigeria, are just acontemporary addition to what masks had done in the past but for dearth of properdocumentation of these contributions. The masking tradition has been a source of humour andsarcasm to issues bordering on human relations all over the world.

A multimodal generic perspective on Nigerian standup comedy

Author(s): Felix N. Ogoanah,Fredrick O. Ojo / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

Studies in stand-up comedy in Nigeria have recently begun to gain serious attention. Several articles that describe the psychological and socio-cultural contexts of joke texts of stand-up comedy in Nigeria have appeared within the last few years (Orhiunu 2007; Imo 2010;Adetunji 2013; Filani 2015, 2016, among others.). However, one aspect of the phenomenon that is yet to be explored is the function of a multimodal generic framework and its contributions to the humorous content of the genre. While it is important to maintain the spoken text as many writers have done, the “multiple embodied modes” (Norris 2008: 13) that amplify the spoken text must be given due consideration. This study, therefore, examines the Nigerian stand-up comedy from the perspective of a multimodal-ESP theory to genre analysis.This theory takes cognisance not only of joke-texts, but also of the visual features that enhance the performance. The material for analysis is videoed data of a popular stand-up comedy show in Nigeria, A Nite of a Thousand Laughs. The study demonstrates that stage management, nonverbal cues (e.g. gesture, movements, and gaze), speeches, body postures, and music/sounds contribute to the communicative value and the production of the genre. Also, it shows how plausible multimodal-ESP approach to genre is in the description of stand-up comedy in the Nigerian context.

Phonological distortion as a humorous strategy in Folarin Falana’s comedy skits

Author(s): Ronke Eunice Adesoye / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

Various studies exist on the social functions of humour and such studies have been carried outin diverse fields that range from the humanities to the sciences. In linguistics, specifically,research shows that humour has been studied from the perspectives of syntax, pragmatics, andsemantics; moreover, there is a dearth of studies on the creation of humour throughphonological processes. Therefore, this study aims to investigate humour and how it isachieved using phonological processes. The study engages mainly qualitative methods ofanalysis. Five comedy skits were purposively selected from Folarin Falana’s (Falz the BahdGuy) eleven collections. These were chosen on the basis of their internet popularity amongNigerians; this popularity was determined on the basis of the rates of downloading the skits.McGraw & Warren’s (2010) Benign Violation Theory was used to account for thephonological violations in the comedies. The various phonological processes that wereviolated include liaison, deletion, insertion, monophthongisation, coalescence, and vowelstrengthening. It is argued that the phonological distortions are deliberately made to achievehumour in these Nigerian comedies, especially when the high educational level of the artist isconsidered. Also, there anti-Anglicism and pro-Nigerianism in the data as the artist identifieshimself with Nigeria(ns) and creates a niche for himself in the entertainment industry usingthe phonological peculiarities among Nigerians’ language use, especially the Yoruba tribe. Healso creates different personalities to project different messages which are not only peculiar toNigeria but to the world, using these personalities to portray people’s feelings and views ofthe world and how these influence their attitudes.

The relation between teaching the Arabic language using humour and reading comprehension at Elementary School in the Arab Sector in Israel

Author(s): Arie Sover,Giohgah Nur El Din / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2018

This research examines the extent to which the integration of humorous literary texts in teaching the Arabic language affects achievement in reading comprehension among Grade 4pupils in the Arab sector in Israel. This research is the first one in the field. Research on the integration of humour in the study of Arabic language as first language does not exist so far.There are very few studies dealing with the integration of humour in the learning process of Arabic as a second language (only three were found). Hence, there are no studies dealing with the integration of humour in the educational field in the Israeli Arab sector. The research took place in one school in the Bedouin sector in the South of Israel. It was based on one experimental class and one control class The study examined the level of the pupils’ knowledge in all components of comprehension: explicit and implicit content, interpretation and integration, evaluating texts and drawing conclusions. The experimental classes studied six humorous stories whereas the control classes studied six stories without humour. The results of the experiment show that the achievements of pupils who learned comprehension using humorous stories was much higher than those in the control classes. In addition, a more positive learning environment was reported in the experimental classes.

Book review

Author(s): João Paulo Capelotti / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018