Table Of ContentPosthumorism
ii
Posthumorism
The Modernist Affect of Laughter
Frances McDonald
9781350264618_txt_print.indd 3 24/09/2021 15:52:29
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First published in Great Britain 2022
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To my mum and dad
vi
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Gestalt Looking: Nathanael West’s “Ha Ha” 35
2 George Bataille’s Affectology 61
3 The Grain of Hélène Cixous’s Laugh 87
4 Atomic Laughter 115
Digital Posthumorism 143
Bibliography 159
Index 172
Illustrations
1 “E = MC3” by Forrest Myers © 1963. Reproduced with the
permission of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York 1
2 “Atomic Laughter” by Andreas Müller-Pohle © 2002. Reproduced
with the permission of the artist 115
Acknowledgments
This project started life as a dissertation at Duke University. I could draw a map
of all the places I wrote it—the tiny nook on the third floor of Lilly Library, the
table with the sparking outlet at The Federal, Whitney’s back porch. And along
with the geography, the soundtrack: every album by The National, and, when
things got particularly dire, my “everything will be okay” playlist, which starts
with “No Questions Asked” by Fleetwood Mac and ends with the live version of
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” I want to thank all my friends who typed
opposite me during those years, and especially to Brenna Casey, Sean Mannion,
and Gordon Getzinger. I also need to thank my mentors at Duke, whose early
guidance helped shape this project in ways large and small. I am extremely
grateful to Tom Ferraro, who first sparked my interest in laughter by pressing
a copy of The Day of the Locust into my hands. My sincere thanks, too, to my
dissertation director Priscilla Wald. Our conversations about laughter, which
took place in corridors and forests, across Thanksgiving dinner and the Atlantic
Ocean, were a distinct pleasure that I shall not forget.
At the University of Louisville, I took the dissertation apart and rebuilt it,
sentence by sentence. I could not have done so without the encouragement of
Aaron Jaffe, who not only convinced me to submit this manuscript to publishing
houses but also came up with the term “posthumorism.” I owe him an enormous
intellectual debt, which I shall try to repay in the form of strong Bloody Marys
and weak karaoke performances. I am thankful, too, for my friends here. I feel
terribly lucky to know Kristi Maxwell—she’s one of those people who deeply
commits to everything she does, from itinerary-building to cruciverbalism. It’s
this quality, I think, that makes her such an exceptional friend, poet, teacher,
and scholar. My love and gratitude too to Beth Henson, Zoe Bridges-Curry, John
Bigbooté, and Sarah Martin—it’s impossible to record all the gifts I’ve received
from you, but here are a few: the long Cherokee walks that we started taking once
we knew I was leaving; the wedding planner that I’ve used either zero or three
times, depending on how you look at it; a new appreciation for the inexplicable
lives of fruit; and basically half my wardrobe.
The University of Louisville has been a wonderful place to complete my
research. I would like to thank my colleagues, and in particular Susan Ryan and
