35.1605, Calls: The Semiotics of Humor / Punctum (Jrnl)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-1605. Thu May 30 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.1605, Calls: The Semiotics of Humor / Punctum (Jrnl)

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Date: 21-May-2024
From: Evangelos Kourdis [ekourdis at frl.auth.gr]
Subject: The Semiotics of Humor / Punctum (Jrnl)


The Semiotics of Humor
Special issue of Punctum 11:1 (2025)
GUEST EDITORS: Villy Tsakona & Jan Chovanec

Instances of modern humor increasingly exist as multimodal signs,
which is most evident in the recent new format of digital memes, image
macros, funny videos, and other forms of humor widely circulated on
social media and online. However, the
meaning-potential of humor – whatever traditional or modern forms it
takes – is inseparably linked to the social context, which not only
provides the background for the un/successful deployment of humor but
also ends up being shaped by the humor used. From a semiotic
perspective, humor involves both the handling of complex socially
embedded and publicly shared meanings as well as individualized
personal motivations that underlie the interlocutors’ intentions and
the eventual communicative effects.

This special issue aims to collect studies on the semiotics of humor
in various genres, including (but not limited to) internet memes,
online videos and websites, online chat, TV shows, sitcoms, films,
animation, cartoons, sociopolitical satire, and graphic
novels. In this collection, we are interested in a broad range of
topics, which may address such issues as multimodality and the ensuing
ambiguity of discourse intended as humorous, as well as the
above-mentioned social embedding of humor and the related ideologies
of humor (see, e.g., Kramer 2011, Tsakona 2017). Concerning the
ambiguity of humor, it is by now common knowledge among humor scholars
that despite the variety of contextualization cues signaling humorous
intent, recipients’ reactions exhibit significant variation depending
on the recipients’ sociocultural background, ideologies, and
identities. Humor can thus be considered a floating signifier since it
manifests “results from the unfixity introduced by a plurality of
discourses interrupting each other” (Laclau 2000: 305). Concerning the
social dimension, according to Wiggins (2019: 33, 25), humor harbors
“a semiotic meaning which is itself tethered to an ideological
practice,” namely, it “expresses a view that is critical (even in an
overtly humorous way) of the political, social, economic, cultural,
etc. spheres.”

Proposals are invited for papers exploring the semiotic resources
exploited for producing humor and the multiple interpretations these
may engender, the relationship between humor and semiosis, semiotic
signification, and the broader semiopragmatics of humor. We look for
papers that engage with the existing theories of humor while
approaching a diverse range of humor-related semiotic phenomena and
adopting various analytical perspectives, e.g., pragmatics, discourse
analysis, social semiotics, and critical multimodal studies. We
welcome research papers addressing issues such as the following:

 - Humor and intertextuality
 - Humor and ideology
 - Sociocultural assumptions about the meanings and uses of humor
 - Reactions to humorous discourse
 - Internet memes as signs
 - Verbal/visual/aural/figural/multimodal signifiers of humor
 - Construction and indexing of social and national identities through
humor

Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract of 250-300 words
(not counting the references) by email to the guest editors Villy
Tsakona (villytsa at otenet.gr) and Jan Chovanec (chovanec at phil.muni.cz),
including their institutional affiliation and contact information.
Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, given that
all research articles will undergo peer review. After the approval of
the abstract, the papers for submission should be around 6,000-7,000
words.

For more information, see:
https://punctum.gr/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Punctum_CfP_HUMOR.pdf



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