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A jeu d'esprit is a lighthearted literary construct, focusing on clever wittiness rather than moral seriousness,[1] playful charm rather than thematic significance.[2]
The term can also apply to the playing with ideas in general: thus Arthur Koestler considered that there is "a continuous stretch from the pun through the play on words (jeu de mots) to the play of ideas (jeu d'esprit)".[3]
Examples
edit- The Hobbit, written by J. R. R. Tolkien for his children's amusement,[5] has been considered a jeu d'esprit.[6]
- Anthony Burgess called his most famous novel A Clockwork Orange a "jeu d'esprit knocked off for money in three weeks".[7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Jeu d'esprit
- ^ R. G. Hogan, Eimar O'Duffy (1972) p. 36-7
- ^ Quoted in A. Partington, Linguistics of Laughter (2013) p. 110
- ^ Linda Schug, Modernism in 'The Day of the Locust'(1939) (2009) p. 13
- ^ H. Carpenter, J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (2002) p. 235-6
- ^ R. G. Hogan, Eimar O'Duffy (1972) p. 37
- ^ Quoted in J. D. Keehn, Creativity and Madness (1987) p. 65
Further Reading
editSigmund Freud, Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (PFL 6)
External links
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