Laughter [ Communication ]
… (or A Pleased Audience)’, © National Portrait Gallery, NPG D21374, 1733. Abstract Laughter was considered fundamental to sociability in eighteenth-century Britain, but it was a complex social signal: as Samuel Johnson observed, ‘you may laugh … by a ‘lowbrow’ joke – was anything but. Laughter was scrutinised with vigour by notable thinkers and theorists of sociability; broaching issues of wit, sincerity, taste and bodily control, nothing exposes the anxieties and aspirations inherent in sociability quite like laughter. Practices > Communication Keywords Humour Impoliteness Laughter Manners Politeness Taste …
Humour | Impoliteness | Laughter | Manners | Politeness | Taste | Wit
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