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The Language of Humour and Its Transmutation in Indian Political Cartoons

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  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Vinod Balakrishnan

    1. Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India

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  2. Vishaka Venkat

    1. Linguistics and Literary Studies, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Kochi, India

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  • Develops a multimodal model to examine the language of humour
  • Accounts for the possibility of transmutation performed through editorial cartoons
  • Examines the 2012 NCERT cartoon dispute as a case study

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
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  2. Understanding Humour

    • Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat
    Pages 1-33

  3. Performance of Humour in Political Cartoons

    • Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat
    Pages 35-57

  4. A Communicative Framework of Humour

    • Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat
    Pages 59-92

  5. Metaphor: The Rhetorical Frame of Humour

    • Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat
    Pages 93-118

  6. Application of the Model

    • Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat
    Pages 119-163

  7. Language, Context and Operation of Humour

    • Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat
    Pages 165-169

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 171-211
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Keywords

About this book

This book develops a model to examine the language of humour, which is multimodal and accounts for the possibility of transmutation of humour as it is performed through editorial cartoons. By transmutation is meant the transition in the language of humour when it crosses its own boundaries to provoke unprecedented reactions resulting in offensiveness, disappointment or hurt sentiment. The transmutability about the language of humour points to its inherently diabolical nature which manifests in the performance of controversial cartoons. The model is built by borrowing theoretical cues from Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The integrated model, then, is developed to examine the cartoons which were recommended for deletion by the Thorat Committee, following a cartoon controversy in India. Through the cartoon analysis, the model discerns the significance of context and temporality in determining the impact of humour. It also examines how the ethics of humour;the blurred lines of political correctness and incorrectness are dictated by the political atmosphere and the power dynamics.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India

    Vinod Balakrishnan

  • Linguistics and Literary Studies, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Kochi, India

    Vishaka Venkat

About the authors

Vinod Balakrishnan is a Professor in English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India. He is a practising poet, motivational speaker, reviewer of books and a yoga enthusiast. His research interests include somaesthetics, politics of representation, film studies, life writing and narratives about India. Currently, he is working on “The Role of the Public Intellectual and the Future of the Humanities”.

Vishaka Venkat is an Assistant Professor in English in the School of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth, India. Her primary research interests include humour, Indian aesthetics, children’s literature, popular culture and mythology.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Language of Humour and Its Transmutation in Indian Political Cartoons

  • Authors: Vinod Balakrishnan, Vishaka Venkat

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32836-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-32835-0Published: 14 July 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-32838-1Due: 14 August 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-32836-7Published: 13 July 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIX, 211

  • Number of Illustrations: 15 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Applied Linguistics, Comedy Studies, Asian Culture, Literature, general, Political Communication

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