The Playful Spirit: Italian Humor

Book excerpt: In this witty, scholarly book edited by his two sons, Professor Rudolph Altrocchi introduces some of the worlds most skillful and humorous authors whose purpose was to enrich our lives through smiles and laughter, guided by a playful spirit, the key ingredient of high quality humor. Altrocchi, an American citizen born and brought up in Italy, graduated from Harvard, earned his Ph.D. at Harvard and taught at Harvard, Columbia, Chicago and Brown before becoming Chairman of the Dept. of Italian at Berkeley from 1928 to 1949, creating the largest and best Italian Department in the country. Professor Altrocchis captivatingly humorous analysis focuses not only on humor in Italian culture and literature but also on basic elements of humor in the human species.