Humours of the Past (HOP) Network
Description
Humours of the past (HOP) is an international interdisciplinary research network funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. HOP brings together academic researchers, directors, translators, curators and others who have a professional stake in interpreting humour and laughter from cultures of the distant and more recent past.
Members work on the premise that thinking about humour illuminates cultural preoccupations and aspirations in new ways. Satire, for instance, can be an important means of public critique but it can also have terrifying and tragic consequences. Its impact relates to cultural values and context. Studying humour from a historical perspective can both illuminate past cultural values and reveal the ways in which they have changed.
HOP aims to create discussions that will throw light on the historical links between humour, identity and cultural values in order to better understand the past and to illuminate those links in contemporary contexts. Further, HOP seeks to enhance the way humour(s) of the past are accessed and used. HOP does this in two ways. First, members seek to clarify the methodologies by which researchers in academic history and other professionals interpret and make sense of humour from different cultural worlds across time. Second, members seek to create discussions between professionals inside and outside the academy that address the contemporary contexts in which humour from past cultures must be addressed.
A central part of HOP’s focus is to consider the relevance of historical humour in the present day. The discussions members seek to develop, for example, include: 1) how to translate historical humour for contemporary markets, 2) how to perform historical humour on contemporary stages and screens, 3) how to interpret and curate visual humour from the past, and 4) how longstanding comic stereotypes might be relevant to contemporary social conflicts and policy responses.
Offers funding
No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.
Contact details
Regent Walk
Aberdeen
AB24 3FX
United Kingdom
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Parent infrastructure(s)
Centre for Scandinavian Studies
The Centre for Scandinavian Studies at the University of Aberdeen specialises in the literature, history, language and culture of Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia (including Iceland and other parts… read more about Centre for Scandinavian Studies
University Of Aberdeen
Regent Walk
Aberdeen
AB24 3FX
United Kingdom
University affiliation(s)
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Last modified:
2023-09-20 14:59:54