Session Information
HPEF - Prophecy 2007 Conference
Click here to go to the previous page
Comic Relief: Is Humour Necessarily Funny?
Track : August 4, 2007
Program Code: 390
Date: Saturday, August 4, 2007
Time: 9:00 AM to 9:50 AM  EST
Location: Second Floor Civic Ballroom
SPEAKER (S):   Click the plus sign to see more detailed information about each speaker.
Description
"You see, the thing that really finishes a Boggart is laughter." This shape-shifting, terrifying being knows the secret fears of each and everyone. Emerging as a giant spider or as professor Snape or whatever the beholder fears the most, the only defence is to make it appear comical – and spelling it out: Ridiculous! Highly amusing in itself, professor Lupin's Boggart lesson gives a deep understanding of the workings of humour, of how it by reframing a distressful situation may dissolve it. In Potter humour really works. Rawling's "comic relief" shows the way: What would the Boggart appear as, confronted with a tyrant, an oppressor, a fanatic? As humour! Norwegian philosophers Øystein Sjaastad and Jørgen Gaare will share some perspectives from their book on Potter and Philosophy, for instance how understanding and humour are strikingly similar. Both imply a sudden, unexpected bridging of hitherto unrelated fields. Like Potter and philosophy.