1st Edition
Transgressive Humor in Classrooms Punching Up, Punching Down, and Critical Literacy Practices
Foreword by Hilary Janks
Prologue: Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One
1. The Gremlin’s Work in the World
2. Humor as a Tool for Sensemaking and Nonsense-Making: The Doubly Obligatory Chapter
3. Punching Up and Punching Down: A Sorta Conceptual Framework
4. “A Most Strange Revision”: Gremlins, Transgressive Humor, and Critique in/of School
5. Fight the Power! (This Message Brought to You by the Power): Teachers, Transgressive Humor, and Framings of Critical Literacy
6. Dehumanizing Humor as a Catalyst for Institutional Reckoning
7. No Laughing Matter?: Rupturing the Solemnity of Critical Literacy Education
Acknowledgments
Biography
David E. Low is an associate professor of literacy education at California State University, Fresno, USA.
“It’s a hell of a thing how potently the insights of Transgressive Humor in Classrooms land. The eye-opening punchlines—empowering and infuriating alike—land one after another in Dr. Low’s analysis, illustrating the 'radical promise' of humor as a tool for transformation.”
-Antero Garcia, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, USA“If you’ve ever been the class clown, or envied one, or been afraid of one, this book is for you. David E. Low connects humor to social justice and transformation, and does so with compassion for every English teacher out there.”
-Jessica Zacher Pandya, Dean of the College of Education, California State University, Dominguez Hills, USA“Through a crafty analysis of his experiences working with students in three schools in California, David E. Low invites us to open spaces for humor and comedy as possibilities for discomfort and transgression, and to make better schools. His work reminds us that when comedians are not gremlins or tricksters, they are nothing less than court jesters, happy to make oppressors smile.”
-Raúl Alberto Mora, Associate Professor, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia
