num_pages: 142
description: This first book-length study on the black humor in Raymond Carver’s work includes valuable interpretations of Carver’s aesthetics as well as the psycho-social implications of his short fiction. The presence of an indeterminate «menace» in the oppressive situations of black humor in Carver – as compared to a European tradition of existentialist writing and his American predecessors including Twain, Heller, Barth and others – is mitigated through humor so it is not dominant. As a result, a subtle promise emerges in the characters’ lives.
language: English
title: Raymond Carver’s Short Fiction in the History of Black Humor
titlecomplete: Raymond Carver’s Short Fiction in the History of Black Humor
publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers