Humour in the Media


Humour in the Media: Voicing Agendas, Communicating Laughter
European Society for the Study of English, Torino (Italy), 24-28 August 2010
Deadline: 31.01.2010

Humor in the Media, European Society for the Study of English, Torino (Italy), 24-28 August 2010.

From cartoons and comic strips, through internet gags and humorous adverts, to sitcoms and funny remarks in editorials and opinion articles, the media thrive in linguistic manifestations of humour. Whether or not it serves as a playful distraction, a marketing strategy, or an instrument to make a point, attack indirectly or voice the unspeakable, humour in the media deserves attention both as a discoursal device and a sociolinguistic phenomenon. This seminar invites papers that look into the various roles humour plays in print and audiovisual media, as well as the forms it takes, the purposes it serves, the butts it targets, the implications it carries and the differences it may assume across cultures.
We welcome 15-minute papers (followed by discussion) on any of the various linguistic and discursive roles which humour plays in print and audiovisual media. Research areas include, but are not limited to, (critical) discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, intercultural studies, semantics, pragmatics, semiotics, rhetoric and communication studies.
200-word abstracts (with a short cv) should be sent as Word attachments to (both) the seminar’s convenors before 31 January 2010 :

Isabel ERMIDA (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal) :
iermida@ilch.uminho.pt ;
Jan CHOVANEC (Masaryk University / Masarykova univerzita, Brno, Czech Republic) chovanec@phil.muni.cz

Acceptance notification deadline : 28 February 2010.

Please check the conference website at :
http://www.unito.it/esse2010/home/index.php?contenuto=call_for_papers