How to understand the so-called "black humor" Thanks in advance!

Black humor, English name: Black Humor is also translated into morbid humor.

background

The emergence of black humor, which developed in the 1960s and flourished in the 1970s, has its specific background. At that time, after the end of the Korean War in the United States, on the one hand, social contradictions and labor-capital contradictions occurred frequently, on the other hand, McCarthyism made the whole society form a depressed and suffocating atmosphere; In the early 1960s, the United States was involved in the Vietnam War. The defeat of the war and the tragic casualties of the American army have made the national anti-war sentiment high, the situation turbulent and the social situation chaotic. Western democratic ideas are doubted by some people in the face of reality, traditional moral concepts are abandoned, and the authenticity of life and thoughts is questioned. In this case, the middle and small bourgeoisie in the United States ridiculed, attacked, exposed and satirized the reality out of their innate fear of the proletarian revolution, and the combination of fantasy and negation was "black" and "humorous". [Edit this paragraph] originated in the 1920s, when André Breton, a French surrealist, compiled a book called Collection of Black Humor. 1965, American writer Bruce Jay Friedman compiled the works of 12 writers with black humor style published in American newspapers and periodicals since 1960s into a small book for publication. In the same year, Nick Burke, an American critic, published the article "Humor with Fatal Sting", which clearly called such writers "black humor", so the modernist literary school named after "black humor" was born in the United States. [Edit this paragraph] School is an important literary school in the United States in the 1960s. 1In March, 965, Friedman compiled a collection of short stories, which included the works of 12 writers. The title was Black Humor, from which the word "black humor" came. It is one of the most representative schools of American novel creation in the 1960s. After entering the 1970s, the momentum of "black humor" was greatly reduced, but new works still appeared from time to time, which still had a far-reaching influence in American literature. Its main writers are joseph heller, Kurt Wernig, Thomas Pinchin, John Bass, James Poe's brother, Bruce Jay Friedman, Donald Basim and cormac mccarthy. [Edit this paragraph] The novelist who analyzes "black humor" highlights the absurdity of the world around the characters and the oppression of individuals by society, and expresses the disharmony between the environment and individuals (that is, "self") with a helpless mocking attitude, and magnifies and distorts this disharmony, making it more ridiculous and at the same time making people feel heavy and depressed. Therefore, some critics refer to "black humor" as "humor under the gallows" or "humor before disaster". "Black humor" writers often create some eccentric "anti-heroes", and use their ridiculous words and deeds to insinuate social reality and express their views on social problems. In terms of description techniques, "black humor" writers also break the tradition, and the plot of the novel lacks logical connection. They often mix narrative real life with fantasy and memory, and mix serious philosophy with gag. For example, Heller's Catch-22, Pinchin's Gravitational Rainbow, and Wernig's First-class Breakfast. Some "black humor" novels laugh at the spiritual crisis of human beings, such as the tobacco agent in Bath and cabot Wright in Bodie.

As an aesthetic form, "black humor" belongs to the category of comedy, but it is also a kind of abnormal comedy with tragic color. The appearance of "black humor" is related to the turmoil in the United States in the 1960s. Absurd things and "comic" contradictions in contemporary capitalist society are not created by writers' subjective will, but reflect that kind of social life. Although this kind of reflection has certain social significance and cognitive value, writers have also attacked all authorities, including the ruling class, but they stressed that the social environment is difficult to change, so their works often reveal pessimism and despair [edit this paragraph]. The difference between black humor and general humor is that its absurdity, cynicism and cynicism contain heaviness and anguish, tears and pain, melancholy and cruelty, so its bitter laughter contains. Later, people usually used the word "black humor" in this sense.

Characteristics of "Black Humor"

First, a particularly humorous style. Black humor is different from humor in traditional literature. In western traditional literature, generally speaking, the distinction between tragedy and comedy is very clear. Comedy satirizes the ugliness and deformity of the villain, while tragedy shows the pain and misfortune of the positive protagonist. However, the "black humor" literature broke this boundary, and the content of tragedy adopted the artistic technique of comedy, and the pain and misfortune also became the object of jokes, that is, the content of tragedy was expressed in the form of comedy.

Second, "anti-hero" characters. These anti-hero images doubt and deny all traditional values, have a sense of loneliness that everyone is drunk and I am awake alone, and also have certain pursuits. For example, Billy, the hero of vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, is a crazy character. Alderman believes that these people are "forced to play the role of clowns". The soil that produces such morbid deformed figures is a morbid deformed society.

Thirdly, the narrative structure method of "anti-fiction". Traditional novels adopt the narrative method of "telling stories", which generally has a complete story structure, a beginning and an end, and the plot development should conform to the internal logical relationship. "Black humor" literature completely abandons the old storytelling method and creates a new dramatic method by using hints, contrasts, metaphors and symbols. It breaks the limitation of time and space and exaggerates the vastness of the inner world of the characters; It is no longer limited by time and space, and can transcend society, morality, customs and concepts.

Fourth, special themes. In order to keep consistent with the overall theme of "black humor", writers are also different from traditional novels in material selection. It is embodied in two aspects: one is to explore the theme of science and technology. The authors of "black humor" are mostly university teachers. They are knowledgeable and like to introduce the essence of natural science into literary works. [Edit this paragraph] The artistic feature of black humor is a kind of humor that can't laugh or cry. Its central content is a mixture of tragic content and comedy form, which shows the absurdity of the world, the alienation of people by society, the confusion after the disillusionment of rational principles and the futility of self-struggle. In the face of all this, people cynically distance themselves from reality with a humorous attitude towards life, so as to safeguard the dignity of the victims, which is called "black humor".

"Anti-hero" characters: The spiritual world of characters tends to split and become an "anti-hero" with double colors of tragedy and comedy. Their absurd words and deeds allude to social reality and express the author's views on social problems.

The narrative structure method of "anti-fiction": express the confusing plot through hints, comparisons and symbols. Breaking the rational time sequence, speeding up the rhythm jump, the plot lacks logical connection, often mixing narrative real life with fantasy memories, and mixing serious philosophy with gag. The brushwork is full of irony, and language often breaks the general grammatical rules and the inherent collocation habits of words.

This is moral.