The Outsider, Art and Humour

By Paul Clements

This cross-disciplinary book, situated on the periphery of culture, employs humour to better comprehend the arts, the outsider and exclusion, illuminating the ever-changing social landscape, the vagaries of taste and limits of political correctness.

Each chapter deals with specific themes and approaches - from the construct of outsider and complexity of humour, to Outsider Art and spaces - using various theoretical and analytical methods. Paul Clements draws on humour, especially from visual arts and culture (and to a lesser extent literature, film, music and performance), as a tool of ridicule, amongst other discourses, employed by the powerful but also as a weapon to satirize them. These ambiguous representations vary depending on context, often assimilated then reinterpreted in a game of authenticity that is poignant in a world of facsimile and 'fake news'. The humour styles of a range of artists are highlighted to reveal the fluidity and diversity of meaning which challenges expectations and at its best offers resistance and, crucially, a voice for the marginal.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars in art history, cultural studies, fine art, humour studies and visual culture.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0367468220
• ISBN13: 9780367468224
• Release Date: May 2020
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 10.1"