@inproceedings{oai:kokubunken.repo.nii.ac.jp:00002085,
 author = {Hibbett Howard S and HIBBETT, Howard S},
 book = {国際日本文学研究集会会議録, PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE LITERATURE},
 issue = {8},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {pdf, "Humor, like beauty, has been said to lie in the eye of the beholder. Though it is possible to take a humorous view of any phenomenon, including a phenomenally dull or solemn work of literature, it is also possible to overlook, to ignore, to disdain or even to be off ended by an author's efforts to amuse. Still, the evidence of Japanese literary history suggests that humor, in many varieties, is a salient characteristic of the vast literature produced during the centuries of Tokugawa rule. Much of the humor in Edo literature can be easily enjoyed by modern readers, but its exploration remains a challenging task for scholars.
The laughter reflex is of course a striking though inadequate litmus te st for detecting humor. Subjective differences aside, it becomes increasingly difficult to measure physical response as the level of expression descends the scale from explosive laughter to subtler manifestations. Literary humor seems particularly hard to fathom. No doubt a discriminating reader may perceive a story or poem as humorous without being aware of reacting to it by even the faintest spontaneous smile. A reader distant in time and cultural background is inclined to ask what elements in the works themselves signify the presence of this elusive quality.
If the comic intent of hanashibon and kokkeibon authors can be taken for granted, surface features of such genres as haikai, kyōka, kyōshi, senryū, ukiyozōshi, sharebon, and kibyōshi provide an index of the possibilities for humorous effect envisioned by their authors. No reader can be expected to smile without adequate stimulation, under conditions which encourage a playful, receptive frame of mind. Hence, elements associated with these genres-stylistic levels, thematic patterns, titles, illustrations, format, even an author's pen name-tend to arouse humorous expectations.
Comic stimuli prepare the reader to accept the pleasant shock of further incongruities implicit in such generic models. Thus the traditional modes of imitation and pastiche give way to parody and burlesque: classical honkadori poetry to kyōka, romantic fiction to Saikaku's kōshoku-mono, cautionary tales to his wry chōnin-mono , sermons and guidebooks to satires and comic picaresque. Always the arousal and satisfaction of humorous expectations is crucial, whether by the mingling of elegant and incongruously vulgar language, the use of startling thematic juxtapositions (shukō), the purely visual aspect of a book, especially its illustrations, or by any other means. To be told, for example, that a certain work is ascribed to Fūrai Sanjin whets an appetite for satirical irreverence which the author Hiraga Gennai has presumably felt both eager and obliged to satisfy. Analysis of the complex dynamics of humor is therefore essential to a deeper understanding of the rich literature of the Edo period."},
 pages = {83--97},
 publisher = {国文学研究資料館},
 title = {公開講演　江戸文学のユーモア},
 year = {1985},
 yomi = {ヒベート, ハワード}
}