211521

A Cognitive Stylistic Approach to Humor in <i>Norsemen</i>: Mental Wellbeing in the Viking Age

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Humor is rooted within being human. According to Nash (1985), humor is a fundamental trait of humanity, he goes on to equate it with “the power of speech, the mathematical gift, the gripping thumb, the ability to make tools," humor is a trait of being human (p. 1). Humor is examined in many fields, including psychology and linguistics (Attardo, 1994). This paper uses a cognitive stylistic approach to study humor by observing its building blocks or “narrative worlds" also known as “humorous worlds" (Marszalek, 2013). This study explores the humorous worlds in Norsemen, in which previous knowledge of the Vikings is required to unlock and grasp humor in this series. Norsemen is a Norwegian series that depicts the Vikings in a humorous manner showing them as men and women who are very skilled at raiding and killing but often failing at navigating their emotional and mental wellbeing. This study utilizes the premise that prior knowledge of culture, age, objects, characters, etc. has a great impact on understanding and appreciating humor. This paper argues that humor in Norsemen stems from an incongruity in these Norsemen's lives between pillaging and raiding on the one hand and mitigating issues of mental wellbeing and inclusion on the other. This incongruity tests our usual schema of the Vikings, and it refreshes this schema causing a humorous effect. 

DOI

10.21608/ttaip.2021.211521

Keywords

Cognitive Stylistics, <i>Norsemen</i>, humorous worlds, schemata, disruption and repetition, Incongruity

Authors

First Name

Manar

Last Name

El-Wahsh

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Faculty of languages, October University for Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA), Egypt.

Email

manar.r.elwahsh@gmail.com

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Volume

3

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

29732

Issue Date

2021-12-01

Receive Date

2021-05-16

Publish Date

2021-12-29

Page Start

127

Page End

139

Print ISSN

2636-4069

Online ISSN

2735-3451

Link

https://ttaip.journals.ekb.eg/article_211521.html

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https://ttaip.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=211521

Order

7

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,357

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Textual Turnings: An International Peer-Reviewed Journal in English Studies

Publication Link

https://ttaip.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

A Cognitive Stylistic Approach to Humor in <i>Norsemen</i>: Mental Wellbeing in the Viking Age

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Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023