[Air-L] New forms of humor and play in digital discourse: Call for proposals

[susan herring]

*Call for Chapter Proposals*



*New forms of humor and play in digital discourse*

edited by Susan Herring & Salvatore Attardo



*Description of the volume:*

Since the earliest days of the Internet, online communication has inspired
ludic behaviors, as documented for example by Brenda Danet and her
collaborators for Internet Relay Chat in the 1990s (e.g. Danet, 1998, 2001;
Danet, Ruedenberg-Wright, et al., 1997). While these behaviors sometimes
included graphical components, such as emoticon simulations of smoking pot
or ASCII art, the multimodal capacities of digital discourse have exploded
in recent years, providing myriad new resources for humor and play. New
forms draw on graphical, video, and auditory resources, often in
combination, for example in humorous TikTok videos, or together with text,
as in image memes (Attardo, 2023). Clever uses of text, including creative
play with syntax (“Because internet,” “I can’t even,” etc.), have also
flourished (McCulloch, 2020).



This volume brings together research on cutting edge phenomena in
interactive computer-mediated communication that are (intended to be)
witty, humorous, or playful. In keeping with the multimodal nature of
digital discourse, chapter proposals are invited that employ linguistic or
semiotic methods of analysis. We expect that most chapters will use
qualitative methods and draw in their interpretations on paradigms from
pragmatics, humor studies, performance studies, and ludology. Empirical
studies that make use of computational methods of data collection or
analysis, corpus-assisted studies, and quantitative analyses of large
datasets are also welcome.



*Other possible topics include:*


   - Playful self-representation in video-mediated communication, e.g.,
   through filters, avatars, Animojis, Memojis, Bitmojis, etc.
   - Platform-specific humor on Twitch; TikTok; 4chan; etc.
   - Humor in interactions in satirical (Yi, 2020) and non-satirical video
   games, both in-game and in social networking (e.g., Steam)
   - Comparisons across different microblogging and social networks
   - Creative uses of graphicons
   - Ironic uses of graphicons, fonts, syntax, etc.
   - Humorous (re)uses/hijackign of hashtags and “slogans
   - Humorous commentary tagging (cf. Kennedy, 2024)
   - Elaborate textual play
   - Smiling and laughter (e.g., “laughables”) – their representations,
   pragmatic functions, and what they respond to
   - Performing humor; keying conventions
   - Emergent playful/humorous genres
   - Diachronic perspectives on all of the above topics, e.g., changes in
   playful visual self representations



*Submission Guidelines and Important Dates:*

Prepare a 700-750 word proposal (you may include an extra page of
references) in MS Word format that explains the phenomenon, data, methods
of analysis, and anticipated findings. Include a tentative title.


   - Email proposals to: herring at indiana.edu
   - Deadline for receipt of proposals: October 20, 2024
   - Invitations to submit full papers sent by: November 10, 2024
   - First draft of chapters due: March 30, 2025

The volume will be published by Routledge as part of the series: *Routledge
Advances in Language and Humor*, Salvatore Attardo, series editor.



Address inquiries to herring at indiana.edu or sattardo at gmail.com.


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References Cited

Attardo, S. (2023). *Humor 2.0: How the internet changed humor*. Anthem
Press.

Danet, B. (1998). Text as mask: Gender, play, and performance on the
Internet. In S. G. Jones (Ed.), *Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting
computer-mediated communication and community* (pp. 129–158). Sage.
https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243689.n5
<https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.4135/9781452243689.n5>

Danet, B. (2001). *Cyberpl at y: Communicating online*. Routledge.

Danet, B., Ruedenberg-Wright, L., & Rosenbaum-Tamari, Y. (1997). “Hmmm…where's
that smoke coming from?” *Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication*, *2*
(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00195.x

Kennedy, K. (2024). " It's not your tumblr": Commentary-style tagging
practices in fandom communities. *Transformative Works and Cultures, 42.*
https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/download/2475/3157?inline=1

McCulloch, G. (2020). Because internet: Understanding the new rules of
language. Penguin.

Yi, S. (2020). ‘Is this a joke?’: The delivery of serious content through
satirical digital games. Acta Ludologica, 3(1), 18-30.


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