Reality Play: A Sociological Analysis of Amusement

This report represents an attempt to learn how human beings provoke the emotion "amusement" within themselves or others. In the tradition of Georg Simmel, this task is undertaken through the distillation of that particular form of interpersonal relations which is employed invariably for the production of mirth. Literal conduct is juxtaposed with humor in an effort to grasp the unique properties of jocularity. Analytic induction is applied to ethnographic observations, and these data provide the empirical basis for the conceptualization of "reality play"--that special form of social interaction which is the universal medium for comedy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Flaherty, Michael Gregory

• Sociology, General

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8302859

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/70991