Bücher der Reihe Humor in Life and Letters Series

In this lively and fascinating analysis of humourists and their work, Will Kaufman breaks new ground with his irony fatigue theory. The Comedian as Confidence Man examines the humorist's internal conflict between the social critic who demands to be taken seriously and the comedian who never can be: the irony fatigue condition.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1985) was an Argentine writer of serious avant-garde poetry and prose. This work studies the humour embedded in the author. The author aims to show how Borges was concerned with making the humour in his work more apparent without abandoning the essential story line.

Providing both theory and praxis, this volume explains how to write humour, comedy, satire, parody, nonsense, and both the literary and the joke monologue. It includes the history and cultural background of each major genre, followed by an array of writing exercises and examples.