Past research interests
My PhD thesis investigates the use of humor in realist Victorian novels published between 1828–1868. My research aims have been to answer the following questions: (1) where does humor appear in these texts and how is it employed in the techniques of these narratives? And (2) why is humor used or in relation to which themes is humor employed? I argue that a version of incongruity theory is the fittest definition to use to understand humor’s presence and role in the texts of the Victorian period. Incongruity theory suggests that the essential, if not sufficient, condition for humor is the presence of the juxtaposition between an incongruity and present or implied congruity. To discuss the technical aspects of humor as incongruity and its role in narrative, this thesis also utilizes some of the vocabulary and theories of Narratology, Structuralism, and Formalism. The main hypothesis of this project is that the novelists of this time period rely on humor as a powerful tool not just to divert and amuse, but often as a central rhetorical device to create complex stories, to evoke compelling characters, to depict social problems, and to persuade. The ideas that my work explores are illustrated by analyses of texts by: Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Meredith, Margaret Oliphant, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and Frances Trollope.
