Humorous novel is not a designation of a certain school or an induction of a certain genre, but a classification of the whole stylistic features of the text. Humorous literature, different from sense of humor, is one of the various literary manners of expression. And ways of distinguishing a humorous novel can be pided into three parts as follows: 1) through its pespectives from which the theme of a text is viewed: For men of letters, life is an objective target and with respect to the same thing, different writers will discover different themes. A writer with a strong sense of tragedy, he/she is most sensitive to the tragic elements, whereas, a writer with sense of humor, he/she is preferable to savor the life in spite of its bitterness. Then what the latter pursues is not describing the tragedy of the subject, but transcending presentation and grasping the nature of humour. 2) through its ways in which the theme of a text is described: exaggeration and absurdity. Humor is closely connected to “exaggeration”, from which effect of humor is obtained. And here “exaggeration” is not pompous without evidence, but a way in which writers view subjects. “Exaggeration” not only reveals the nature of things, but also creates the effect of humor through exaggerated facts. 3) through its language in which the work is organized. In an air of ridicule and mock, or in a colloquial language or local dialects.
2.3 American Humorous Literature
The American humour is “of distinctive native features in both themes and techniques.” (Blair, 1960: 1) And the peculiarity of native Ameircan humorous literature is embodied in three main aspects: 1）its subjects: frontier humor. American humor is mainly categorized into two sections: “down east humor” centering on New England and “frontier humor”, also called “southwest humor” or “southern humor”, which specifically means folk tales with absurdity and exaggeration. (Zhu Zhenwu, Cheng Qinghua, 2008: 73) An important origin of American humor is from early migrant pioneers who create a large number of ridiculous stories in an exceedingly overstate method. Many well-known writers like Emerson, Ivring, Whitman, etc. are influenced by those folk tales. 2) its narrative patterns: the first person. From The Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper, Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving to Augustus Longstreet’s Georgia Scenes, these are all typical native American literatures focusing on frontier and west. And what we can find is that they have similar narrative patterns, that is, in face of a funny yet horrible plot, the narrator seems to remain as a standby. He/She is inclined to hold a calm and objective attitude towards the terrific and absurd details he/she describes without personal emotions. And narrator often employs the first person as his/her point of view in order to keep a certain distance from the protagonist and thus retain the truth of a story. 3) its ways of characterization: parody. American humorous masters are skilled in portraying main characters who as a matter of fact are prototypes from the real life and the depiction of these characters is aimed at making a comment on these real people. For instance, in 1830, the humorous novelist Seba Smith shaped a humorous character Jack Downing in a sarcastic way. And by means of this character as well as this article, Smith made many comments on Jackson Government, politicians and authorities in power. Language used in this article was funny, humorous and full of mockery and irony.
2.4 Poe’s Inheritance and Innovation
Edgar Allan Poe has written many humorous stories with his talents and inheritance of early native American humor. In the writing of these stories, Poe takes materials from native American comedies and tales of humor, employs traditional American narrative patterns and parodies traditional characters and on the basis of which Poe’s unique writing style is formed. 1) his subjects: For Allan Poe, he is not only very familiar with those folk tales and mysteries, but also applies some of them to the creation of his novels exquisitely with his special artistic talents. Through reading his tales of humor, the trace of folk tales can be discovered. But Poe has a preference for combining the local American humorous subjects with some terrifying and absurd details so as to create a terrible and ironic effect. “The overall tone of Poe’s works originates from west in America, and his stories explores horrible, crazy and conceivedly comic elements.” (Clarke, 1991: 60) Many tales of frontier humor are developed around boxing battele, horse racing, politics and religion. In Poe’s humorous tales, one can appreciate his humor combined with horror and ridicule. King Pest is one of his typical examples. The story is set in rampant pestilence in a dark night, leaving readers an impression of horror, but as regards language itself, it’s very amusing and comic. Therefore, Poe attempts to convey his thoughts and exploration of humanity and society via the employment of both native materials and his own elements. 2) his narrative patterns: most parts of Poe’s tales of humor are narrated through the first person“I”，which is beneficial to “giving vent to pressure and impulse”. (Zhang Chong, 2004: 257) However, what is different from traditional American narrative patterns is that he doesn’t change the point of view randomly, instead, he places the narrator in the story itself so that he can create a direct and vivid effect as well as attract readers’ attention to backgrounds he sets. For instance, in Loss of Breath, the narrator is not only involved in but also describing those weird things he experiences. Readers can both perceive the progress of things and understand narrator’s feelings. When “I” am terrified because of loss of breath and deserts his wife and escapes hurriedly, readers can almost see funny behaviors of the narrator. 3）his ways of characterization: the persons Edgar Allan Poe creates are also the comic parody of the real people in his life. And in the course of parody, he favors irony and pun so as to make sarcasm about their behaviors. But on account of his writing principle “arts for arts’ sake”, he concentrates more on the effect of appealing to readers than social functions. Never Bet the Devil Your Head is one of Poe’s humorous novels, describing that the protagonist Toby Dummett, a frivolous figure, unfortunately losses his head to the devil due to his stubborn and bohemian character. In this story, Poe is aimed at sneering at those literary critics who are unrealistic, and the spearhead directly targets at transcendentalists and the various strange proclivities Toby Dummett has are just exaggeration of transcendentalism. He also uses allegory to criticize social corrupt customs and despicable behaviors. 埃德加•爱伦•坡《同木乃伊的对话》幽默性(3):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_7620.html