Humor In Their Eyes Were Watching God And Mules And Men

This thesis attempts to analyze the function of humor in two books by Zora Neale Hurston,Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules and Men,and to reveal humor as essential in helping conveying and strengthening the themes of these two books.The main body of this thesis includes three chapters and a conclusion.Chapter 1 is a literature review on the author and her humor,and an introduction to three traditional theories of humor—superiority theory,incongruity theory and relief theory—and various critics' opinions on women's humor and ethnic humor.The next two chapters are detailed textual analysis of humor and its function in these two books.The textual analysis is structured according to Henri Bergson's classification of humor into humor in language,humor in situation and humor in characterization. The thesis first analyzes the linguistic humor in these two books mainly concentrating on the development of Janie's verbal humor and hyperbolic tales in Mules and Men. Then the situational humor is analyzed,including humor about/by Janie,two funerals and courtroom scene as well as humorous situations in etiological tales in Mules and Men.In this chapter,there is also a brief discussion about the relation between situational humor and carnival through instances of carnival elements in these two books.Finally,the thesis concentrates on humorous characterization of comic types in Their Eyes Were Watching God and on humorous characterization in Mules and Men including images of Ole Massa,John,Noah and God.The analysis lastly concludes that Hurston's humor—which is closely related to the themes of her works—performs such functions as enlightening force in black women's achievement of voice and self-fulfillment,as a subversive weapon of the black community against racism,and also as a symbol of intelligence and racial health of the whole black community.The critical theories adopted in this thesis are the three basic theories of humor: superiority,incongruity and psychoanalytic theory.Theories concerning humor, ethnic humor and women's humor are interwoven in the analysis.