Humours of the Past

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Humour plays a vital role in our everyday lives. It strengthens relationships and identities and enables us to critique our political and social structures. It connects us with others and helps us cope with tragedy. Humour is an essential part of being human, but it is not the same for all humans. The attack on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo highlighted how connected humour is to our culturally specific view of the world. Just as contemporary humour reveals much about our own lived experience, understanding the humour of past cultures has the potential to open up new perspectives on the social values of the societies that produced it. The Humours of the Past Network (HOP) will enhance the way we access and use the humour of historical cultures. Exploring historical humour allows us access to an emotional history of those that take part in it as well as to evolving social attitudes that have ramifications for the shaping of our own society. Better understanding past humour can enrich our own cultural lives by providing a framework for a greater appreciation of the comic in historical texts, images and performances. Moreover, a sharper understanding of the interrelation between humour and cultural values in historical communities could help us to understand that connection better within our own communities. But how do we hear the laughter of the past? HOP will bring academic researchers into dialogue not only with each other but also with performers, curators, translators, policy makers, and others who have a professional stake in working on better understanding the humour of the past, and its cultural contexts and ramifications. The Network is driven by the conviction that a careful comparison of the modes by which we access the cultural specificity of past humour, and a collaborative merging of those modes, will help all participants to sharpen their understanding of the historical humours relevant to their work. Many of the tools used to study contemporary humour, such as audience response studies and cognitive testing, are not available to researchers of past humour. Our understanding of humour from the past must therefore bring together the different tools of cultural analysis and the experience of a wide range of practitioners. Such a large-scale collaborative approach to the study of humour in the past has never happened in a focused way before . The Network will run two linked forums for discussion. The first will involve a carefully focused exchange of methodological approaches to the cultural specificity of different historical humours. The second will involve the practical application of these findings, giving academic, industry and community participants the opportunity to share their projects through mutually enriching discussions. We will also run a number of events to engage with the wider community, including an experimental performance evening and a public discussion of the historical censorship of humour and its consequences for today. The Network's results will culminate in the publication of 'Approaching Humour in the Past: A Handbook', which will be a multidisciplinary guide to the field with chapters targeted towards the needs of researchers, students, teachers, performing arts professionals, academic and commercial translators, curators and others.