Cover Image

Calvinist humor in American literature / Michael Dunne.

Show other versions (1)

Though the phrase "Calvinist humor" may seem to be an oxymoron, Michael Dunne, in highly original and unfailingly interesting readings of major American fiction writers, uncovers and traces two recurrent strands of Calvinist humor descending from Puritan times far into the twentieth centur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full Text (via ProQuest)
Main Author: Dunne, Michael, 1941-
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, ©2007.
Subjects:
American wit and humor > History and criticism.
American literature > History and criticism.
Calvinism in literature.
Wit and humor > Religious aspects > Christianity.
Comic, The > Religious aspects.
American literature.
American wit and humor.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Table of Contents:
  • Calvinist humor
  • Calvinist humor and the American puritans: "the just hand of God"
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne: "that would be a jest indeed"
  • Herman Melville: "in no world but a fallen one"
  • Mark Twain: "the trouble about special providences"
  • William Faulkner: "waiting for the part to begin which he would not like"
  • Ernest Hemingway: "isn't it pretty to think so?"
  • Nathanael West: "gloriously funny"
  • Flannery O'Connor: "funny because it is terrible"
  • Calvinist humor revisited.

Similar Items