• English & American cultural studies
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.185-219
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• 2009

This article aims to illuminate the comic characters and their humor in Dickens's novel David Copperfield in Bakhtinian point, and to clarify what the humorous characteristics are, and how they contribute to his reinforcement of socially critical messages in this novel. So far this novel has been called the only one of Dickens's comic novels, even though it includes lots of social critical meanings. But it is true that Dickensian critics couldn't make sure of the clear reasons why it is both very interesting and critical. Furthermore, it is also true that this novel has been criticized as a clumsy one in the realistic, psycho-analytic, dramatic angle. This approach to Dickensian comic characters through Bakhtinian fool, clown, and rogue concepts here could make up for or correct such criticisms, and reevaluate Dickens's humor and social criticisms in the context of general public culture. Bakhtin believes oppression by social ideologies prevent us from having good mutual relationships and divides our society. He thinks laughter liberates us from such oppression and restores our good relationships. As he applied his concepts based on the laughter of Middle Ages to Rabelais's novels, and examined what the authentically liberating power in Rabelais's laughter is, this article could clarify the liberating power of laughter by Dickens's comic characters, such as Mr and Mrs Micawber, Dick, Miss Betsey Trotwood and Miss Mowcher. In this novel, they often lead comic happenings, and such happenings are very similar to carnival-amusements including burning the dummy of the czar who has oppressed his or her citizenry. Especially, Dickens's comic characters's social criticisms, in the case of this novel, contain many complaints of social marginers, even though he has been labelled as being conservative politically. They always criticize the ideological absurdities in their society through the humorous words and behaviors in their comic happenings, like those of a carnival fool or clown in his or her amusements. This shows Dickens achieves both laughter and social criticism in David Copperfield by using Rabelaisian characterization-devices based on his general public culture. Like Bakhtin and Rabelais, Dickens seems to have believed that when we all truly liberate ourselves from the oppression of social ideologies, we can have desirable relationships between ourselves, and also solve social problems positively.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.75-89
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• 2021

In this paper, the results of analyzing the meaning of laughter in comedy movies of the late 1960s, focusing on comedians, Hee-Gap Kim, Bong-Seo Koo and Young-Chun Seo, are as follows. First, the narrative laughter of the comedians represents the generational conflict between the lower class and the upper class, the gender conflict between men and women, and the frustration of reality. Second the mechanism of creating laughter of the comedians shows ridicule of the conservative older generation, revelation of the immoral upper class, and caricature of the frustrated lower class. Third, the practical aspect of the comedians' laughter reveals cracks in tradition and modern, gaps in economic inequality, and expression of prohibited desires. Therefore, comedians Hee-Gap Kim, Bong-Seo Koo and Young-Chun Seo in comedy movies of the late 1960s show the semantic effect of laughter of internal/external boundaries and optimistic world views through the closed opening of informal culture and the conflict of characters/performers.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.101-114
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• 2015

Objectives: Find out how it affects anxiety situations and self-esteem targeting the critical period of development of self-esteem in the lower grades in elementary school based on laughter therapy in having a positive influence on physical health promotion and positive emotional cultivation. And to verify the effects of laughter activity was to provide preliminary data on mental health education and guidance of school life. Methods: By targeting Ulsan Y elementary school, second grade 7 class, 191 students conducted test self-esteem and anxiety. Homogeneous group of experimental and control groups were selected in each one class. Classified as experimental group carried out laughter activity programs and control group did not carried out. Also the separation of the application program before and after, then it were performed preliminary-post-further as same checklist. Program coverage period is 12 weeks and 30 minutes per session was conducted twice a week. Differences between the experimental group and the comparison group has conducted the independent samples t-test, and if the difference between the experimental group and the comparison group were verified by performing a variance analysis(Oneway ANOVA) and post multiple comparisons. Results: Analysis of the experimental group decreased anxiety in the post-test than the pre-test as a whole, in particular, sub-areas of concern, shame and shyness was shown to be effective, and decision of the difficulty was not significant by insignificant reduction. In addition, self-esteem was increased in overall score. The score of collective self-esteem and School life self-esteem were more increased, and domestic self-esteem was not significant by slight increases. In contrast, the comparison group showed no significant difference in all areas of anxiety and self-esteem of pre-test and post-test. Conclusions: In experiments on self-esteem and anxiety of lower grade in elementary school through laughter activity program, comparison group it did not show an effect by accident, and experimental group showed meaningful effects that self-esteem was increased and anxiety was reduced. Thus, laughter activity can be seen that improving self-esteem, anxiety reduction and etc, is very beneficial to mental health.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.205-217
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to understand the fundamental aspects of the laughter therapy using the Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological method. Participants of this study included twelve elderly people-four men and eight women-who agreed to participate in this study underwent laughter therapy at a senior citizen's center. Data were collected through focus interviews, a literary work, and a work of art. The essential themes of this study are a healthy life (restoration of health, refreshed feeling), a happy life (stress relief, put idle thoughts out of one's mind, vitality in daily routine, double pleasure through laughter, re-juvenescence with reminiscence), and a wishful life (became optimistic while leaving behind suffering, look forward to things). Healthy life was defined as experiencing the basic motive power of life, happy life was defined as experiencing delightfulness through relationships with others and empathy, and wishful life was defined as experiencing an affirmative life integration through overcoming suffering from losses. In conclusion, laughter therapy showed to improve health, personal relations and life integration for elderly people. Therefore, utilization of laughter therapy will help to improve independence and self-esteem in elderly people.

• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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• no.32
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• pp.261-285
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• 2016

Saseol-sijo, a form of sijo with longer verses, still affords pleasure to modern readers, even when it is read without the original performance context. In this study, I focused on Saseol-sijo that induces laughter through exaggeration and caricature while singing about eagerly waiting for a lover who has left. These texts describe concurrently the emotions that are contradictory to each other, such as nostalgia and laughter. In addition, this feature reflects human's inner emotions that are not unified but rather change dynamically. Craving creates a sense of nostalgia, and also produces a comical element in nostalgia, so that nostalgia and laughter can be co-exist without conflict. In this study, 'semiotic square' was applied as the framework for interpreting the Saseol-sijo, which demonstrates the coexistence of inconsistent meanings. As a result, a Saseol-sijo which sings about waiting for a lover can be interpreted through contraires such as prohibition and authorization, craving and concerns, exposure and concealment and concentration and dispersion. The nostalgic laughter in Saseol-sijo is generally based on the conflict between the craving self and the restrictive world. A character consumed by craving may seem ridiculous and pathetic in the view of others. However, people in general would find sympathetic humor and identify with characters who portray their weaknesses or repeat their mistakes. After all, this is the laughter of compassion and reflection which Saseol-sijo evoke.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.42
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• pp.291-319
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• 2021

In this paper, I looked for the parts where laughter appeared in the Mundoong, Yangban, Yeongno, and Grandfather and Grandmother of Tongyeong Ogwangdae and Dongrae Yaryu, and investigated the meaning of those parts. Laughter in mask play has made him more tolerant of human injustice and foolishness. I softened the critical content and naturally revealed what I thought should be hidden. Through a short and noisy plot, the opposing forces, the inner conflict of the Mundoong, Yangban, Yeongno, and Grandfather and Grandmother were shown in a realistic and realistic way. The worldview that creates the structure of realism is typically skeptical and ironic, and the worldview that creates the comical structure related to laughter aims for the ultimate emergence of a new order based on unity and harmony. Masking is thought to be a work in the stage of moving from the latter to the former. Therefore, it is judged that laughter in mask play served as an important medium for Korean art thought to have a realist view of the world. This is because various expression methods that induce laughter are working to reveal negativity, reveal the illusion of contemporary values, and naturally expose restraint and taboo suppression. In laughter, there is a path that transforms perception by fusing several elements. There was realism at the end of the pathway to new perception.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.221-230
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was done to examine how laughter therapy impacts serotonin levels, QOL and depression in middle-aged women and to perform a path analysis for verification of the effects. Methods: A quasi-experimental study employing a nonequivalent control group and pre-post design was conducted. Participants were 64 middle-aged women (control=14 and experimental=50 in 3 groups according to level of depression). The intervention was conducted five times a week for a period of 2 weeks and the data analysis was conducted using repeated measures ANOVA, ANCOVA and LISREL. Results: Results showed that pre serotonin and QOL in women with severe depression were the lowest. Serotonin in the experimental groups increased after the 10th intervention (p=.006) and the rise was the highest in the group with severe depression (p=.001). Depression in all groups decreased after the 5th intervention (p=.022) and the biggest decline was observed in group with severe depression (p=.007). QOL of the moderate and severe groups increased after the 10th intervention (p=.049), and the increase rate was highest in group with severe depression (p<.006). Path analysis revealed that laughter therapy did not directly affect depression, but its effect was indirectly meditated through serotonin variation (p<.001). Conclusion: Results indicate that serotonin activation through laughter therapy can help middle-aged women by lessening depression and providing important grounds for depression control.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.501-508
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a laughter therapy on depression, of elderly. Methods: A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group pretest posttest design was used. Participants (n=38) included elders. Data were collected from October 1 to 22, 2013. Experimental group (n=19) participated in laughter therapy four times, once a week for 50 min per session. Questionnaires were used to measure pretest and posttest levels of depression. Results: At the end of four-week intervention, depression score (z=-2.59, p= .017) was significantly decreased in the experimental group compared to control group. Conclusion: The study results suggest that the laughter therapy is an effective intervention to reduce the depression. It seems that this program can widely be utilized as one of nursing intervention programs for the elderly.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.347-355
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• 2018

A convergence study was conducted to identify effect size, intervention characteristics, and tendency of laughter therapies on depression for Korean older adults. Of the 486 studies searched in 10 databases, 20 studies in the inclusion criteria were selected. The risk of bias was assessed by SIGN's tool, and the data were analyzed using CMA 3.0 software. Overall effect size of laughter therapy on depression of older adults was medium (standardized mean difference [SMD]=-0.57, 95% CI: -0.70~-0.44, p<.001), and heterogeneity was small ($I^2=18%$). Subgroup analysis showed that the effect sizes of institutionalized group, mixed group, 4-6 weeks of duration, and group intervention were higher than the compared groups. Findings of this convergent meta-analysis would be helpful for health professionals to provide more effective laugher therapy sessions. Further replicative studies in long-term care facilities and more randomized controlled trials of laughter therapy are needed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.289-297
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of laughter therapy program on stress and depression in nursing college students. The design of this study is nonequivalent control group, quasi-experimental study. Data were collected from December 5, 2014, to January 9, 2015, with 75 nursing sophomores (40 in experimental group and 35 in control group) in Chungnam and Jeonbuk Province in Korea, using self-reported questionnaires. The experimental group participated in laughter therapy program four times, once a week for 120min per session. The data were collected prior and after the intervention using self-administered questionnaires. Data were analyzed using t-test and $X^2-test$. The results of the study showed that the levels of stress (t=-2.32, p=0.02) and depression (t=-4.87, p<0.001) were significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group. Based on the results, the laughter therapy program may be recommended as an useful intervention to effectively reduce the levels of stress and depression in nursing college students and anticipated to be developed and published continuously.