"Have we lost our Sense of Humor?!”Affective Senses of Racial Joking in Danish Schools

TY - JOUR

T1 - "Have we lost our Sense of Humor?!”Affective Senses of Racial Joking in Danish Schools

AU - Vertelyté, Manté

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - Posing the rhetorical question ‘Have we lost our sense of humour?’ this article analyses senses of racial humour through the use of affect theory. Despite the common use of the idiom ‘a sense of humour’ within everyday speech, there is a lack of social and cultural analysis of the senses that guide understandings of whether or not something is funny. Through the lens of affect theory, this article explores sensory experiences of humour, showing how senses of humour are both affective corporeal experiences – such as laughter – and an affective relational flow between and among bodies. Drawing on interview material gathered in diverse schools in Denmark, the article analyses how students negotiate the use of racial humour with particular focus on tonalities of humour and the affective stakes involved in laughter and unlaughter. The article argues that affect theory can help bridge a gap in the literature on humour, which either reduces humour to bodily, mental and cognitive predispositions, or to social and cultural functions.

AB - Posing the rhetorical question ‘Have we lost our sense of humour?’ this article analyses senses of racial humour through the use of affect theory. Despite the common use of the idiom ‘a sense of humour’ within everyday speech, there is a lack of social and cultural analysis of the senses that guide understandings of whether or not something is funny. Through the lens of affect theory, this article explores sensory experiences of humour, showing how senses of humour are both affective corporeal experiences – such as laughter – and an affective relational flow between and among bodies. Drawing on interview material gathered in diverse schools in Denmark, the article analyses how students negotiate the use of racial humour with particular focus on tonalities of humour and the affective stakes involved in laughter and unlaughter. The article argues that affect theory can help bridge a gap in the literature on humour, which either reduces humour to bodily, mental and cognitive predispositions, or to social and cultural functions.

KW - Denmark

KW - Racial humour

KW - affect theory

KW - school

KW - youth

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85156155080

U2 - 10.1080/13504630.2023.2208067

DO - 10.1080/13504630.2023.2208067

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1350-4630

VL - 29

SP - 205

EP - 219

JO - Social Identities

JF - Social Identities

IS - 2

ER -