What is sick humor?

Black Humor

"Black Humor", English name: black humor

Origin

As early as the 1920s, a French superman The realist writer Andre Breton once compiled a book called "Anthology of Black Humor". In 1965, the American writer Bruce Jay Friedman (Bruce Jay Friedman) described the United States since the 1960s. The works of 12 writers with black humor style published in newspapers and periodicals were compiled into a small book and published, named "Black Humor". In the same year, the American critic Knickerbocker published an article "The Humor of a Fatal Sting", clearly calling this type of writers the "black humor" school, and thus the modernist literary genre named after "black humor" was born in the United States.

An important literary school in the United States in the 1960s. In March 1965, Friedman compiled a collection of short stories, including the works of 12 writers, titled "Black Humor", which is where the term "black humor" comes from. It is one of the most representative genres in American novel creation in the 1960s. After entering the 1970s, the momentum of "black humor" has greatly diminished, but new works still appear from time to time. It still has a profound influence in American literature. Its main writers include Joseph Heller, Kurt Voynig, Thomas Pinchin, John Bass, James Purdy, Bruce Jay Friedman, Donald Barthelme, etc. .

"Black humor" novelists highlight the absurdity of the world around the characters and the oppression of individuals by society, and express the mutual discord between the environment and the individual (i.e. "self") with a helpless and ironic attitude. Coordinate, and amplify, distort, and deform this incoordinated phenomenon, making them appear more absurd, comical, and at the same time heavy and depressing. Therefore, some critics call "black humor" "humor under the gallows" or "humor in times of disaster." "Black humor" writers often create some eccentric "anti-hero" characters, using their ridiculous words and deeds to allude to social reality and express the writer's views on social issues. In terms of description techniques, "black humor" writers also break with tradition. The plots of their novels lack logical connections. They often mix narratives of real life with fantasy and memories, and mix serious philosophy with gags. For example, Heller's "Catch-22", Pinchin's "Gravity's Rainbow", and Voynig the Younger's "A First-Class Breakfast". Some "black humor" novels mock the spiritual crisis of mankind, such as Bass's "The Tobacco Broker" and Purdy's "Capital Wright Begins."

As an aesthetic form, "black humor" belongs to the category of comedy, but it is also a perverted comedy with a tragic color. The emergence of "black humor" is related to the turmoil in the United States in the 1960s. The ridiculous things and "comedy" contradictions in contemporary capitalist society are not created by writers' subjective will; they are reflections of that social life. Although this kind of reflection has certain social significance and cognitive value, and although writers also criticize all authorities, including the ruling class, they emphasize that the social environment is difficult to change, so their works often reveal a mood of pessimism and despair

An important literary school in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1940, the French surrealist writer Breton published the book "Anthology of Black Humor", but the term did not become popular until the 1960s. In March 1965, Friedman compiled a collection of short stories, including the works of 12 writers, titled "Black Humor", which is where the term "black humor" comes from. It is one of the most representative genres in American novel creation in the 1960s. After entering the 1970s, the momentum of "black humor" has greatly diminished, but new works still appear from time to time. It still has a profound influence in American literature. Its main writers include Joseph Heller, Kurt Voynig, Thomas Pinchin, John Bass, James Purdy, Bruce Jay Friedman, Donald Barthelme, etc. .

The "black humor" novelist highlights the absurdity of the world around the characters and the oppression of the individual by society, and expresses the mutual discord between the environment and the individual (i.e. "self") with a helpless and ironic attitude. Coordinate, and amplify, distort, and deform this incoordinated phenomenon, making them appear more absurd, comical, and at the same time heavy and depressing. Therefore, some critics call "black humor" "humor under the gallows" or "humor in times of disaster." "Black humor" writers often create some eccentric "anti-hero" characters, using their ridiculous words and deeds to allude to social reality and express the writer's views on social issues. In terms of description techniques, "black humor" writers also break with tradition. The plots of their novels lack logical connections. They often mix narratives of real life with fantasy and memories, and mix serious philosophy with gags. For example, Heller's "Catch-22", Pinchin's "Gravity's Rainbow", and Voynig the Younger's "A First-Class Breakfast". Some "black humor" novels mock the spiritual crisis of mankind, such as Bass's "The Tobacco Broker" and Purdy's "Capital Wright Begins."

As an aesthetic form, "black humor" belongs to the category of comedy, but it is also a kind of humor that is full of pathos and conspiracy! Ang Jian? Na? Barium Mou? Coward? Related to the turmoil in the United States in the 1900s. The ridiculous things and "comedy" contradictions in contemporary capitalist society are not created by writers' subjective will; they are reflections of that social life. Although this kind of reflection has certain social significance and cognitive value, and although the writers also criticized all authorities, including the ruling class, they emphasized that the social environment is difficult to change, so their works often reveal a pessimistic and despairing mood.

What makes black humor different from ordinary humor is that its absurdity, cynicism, and cynicism contain heaviness and anguish, tears and pain, melancholy and cruelty. Therefore, in its bitter laughter The voice contained tears and even anger. Later, people usually used the term "black humor" in this sense.