Problems of Laughter and the Comic by Vladimir Propp (translated from Russian into English and Introduction by Professor Harish Vijra)

The monograph ‘Problems of Laughter and the Comic’, published posthumously in 1976, is deals extensively with one of the cardinal problems in aesthetics and literary theory, i.e. the problem of the humour and the comic. He classifies comic into various types and subtypes.  Propp also examines the genesis and nature of laughter and classifies it into six main types: kind laughter, vicious laughter, cynical laughter, cheerful laughter, ritual laughter, wild laughter. In support of his classification, Propp extensively cites examples from the works of Chekhov, Gogol, Pushkin Saltykov-Shchedrin, Tolstoy, Moliere, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Bakhtin, Rabelais and many others. The hallmark of this monograph, undoubtedly, is the in-depth analysis of factual material, critical reasoning, simplicity and pithiness of the formulations.